Chapter 1: How it all started

First of all, a little synopsis about myself.  My Youtube name is Kelster Von Shredster (more on that later), but my real name is Kelly Coughlin, and I am a male (factoid to avoid confusion).  I was born in Paris, France in 1971.  My father, Donald George Coughlin, was a Canadian diplomat and I spent my first 18 years overseas travelling the world with him and my Mom; her name is Elisabetta LoGiudice.  So, I was born in France and after a few years we moved to Cairo, Egypt in 1974 I believe.  After Cairo, we moved to London England in 1976.  I was 5 years old at the time. This is really where my memory begins, and also my love of music. 

My father was an avid music fan; he listened mainly to old timers like Marty Robins, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, The Eagles and other artists of that genre.  We had a record player in our family room in our house in London and I remember when the Grease soundtrack came out....that album rocked my world.  I loved every song on it, I had a crush on Olivia Newton John, and Greased Lightning just turned my world upside down. There was something about that entire album, the edgy lyrics in "Greased Lightning" that were just bad ass and naughty.  Keep in mind I was 5 or 6 years old at the time; so lines like "You know that ain't no shit, we'll be getting lots of tit" and "You know that I ain't bragging, she's a real pussy wagon" were really not terms I was used to hearing and I felt pulled into this rock'n'roll bad ass world of sex and rock'n'roll; I really wanted a part of that. I remember doing the Greased Lighting dance numerous times a day and listened to that album until it was all scratched up.  

Then Abba came into my life.  They were on top of the music charts and every song was catchy and "feel good" and I just loved that band.  I also had a huge crush on Agnetha Fältskog.  From there, I pretty much loved everything I was hearing on the radio in London at that time; Pink Floyd's The Wall had just dropped, as well as iconic albums like Police's "Ghost in the machine"; I absolutely LOVED "Every little thing she does is magic".  Pink Floyd also turned my world upside down. The video to "Another Brick in the Wall Part: 2" just blew my mind.  Duran Duran had just come out, this was before they were world famous.  A little cool story about Duran Duran: my Dad's best friend Charlie (who used to be my Dad's taxi man and confidant) was friends of the LeBon family.  One day he offered to take me to Simon LeBon's house to meet him; of course I said "yes!".  Sadly, when we went over, Simon was not there; apparently he was out buying a fancy sports car as the money was pouring in after Duran Duran's appearance on "Top of the Pops".  I did meet Simon's mother though, we had a little chat and that was that. I never did get the chance to meet Simon.  Other songs that come to mind from that era were "Funkytown" and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. My love of music had not only begun, but was in full swing.  Then we moved to Tunis, Tunisia in 1980.  This is where my guitar life begins :-)