Debbie Johnson visits a music lover’s apartment in Sefton Park

WALKING into the lounge of Jamie Bowman’s quirky one-bedroomed apartment, you could be forgiven for assuming you’d entered a record shop by mistake.

The 29-year-old has a huge collection of music – mainly good old-fashioned vinyl, but also CDs – which totally dominates the room.

The collection has been growing since Jamie was a teenager, and discovered bands like The La’s, the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, encouraging not only a lifelong obsession with music but also an eventual move up North from his home town of Windsor.

He now shares a home with his girlfriend, Becky, who luckily not only tolerates his enthusiasms, but also shares them.

Jamie says: “I try to keep the two collections separate. I mean, I’d be really embarrassed if someone thought the Madonna stuff was mine!”

The couple live in an apartment in a former mansion house in South Albert Road, in Sefton Park.

They have lived there for the last five years, and love the combination of the Bohemian charm and character of Lark Lane and its surrounds, and the fact that Liverpool city centre is just minutes away.

Being able to get into town easily is a real bonus for Jamie, who works as a press officer at the Beatles Story attraction at the Albert Dock.

He previously worked in similar roles for the Summer Pops and the Royal Court, as well as writing reviews for a music magazine.

He says: “I love living here – it is a place with real character, lots of good bars and restaurants and, of course, the park.

“It’s leafy and full of individuality. But it also doesn’t take long to get in to the city, which is a fantastic place to be at the moment.

“The Beatles Story is undergoing a huge expansion, doubling in size, and it is a wonderful place to be – I never realised just how many people visit here, from all over the world, and love The Beatles.” There is, naturally, a considerable Beatles section in Jamie’s record collection, which he can sit and listen to in his leather La-Z-Boy chair.

He says: “It’s brilliant – just like the one Joey has in Friends. I actually won it on a TV quiz show and I am very proud of it!”

Perhaps continuing the Joey from Friends theme, Jamie also has a table football set in the room.

His luck certainly held when it came to the soft furnishings in the flat, as his mum is a curtain maker and interior designer.

He says: “The building we live in is gorgeous, old and beautiful, and the living room especially has very high ceilings and absolutely huge windows that flood the place with light.

“ My mum came round and did all that measuring up stuff and hand-made all the curtains. The ones in the living room are white and blue, and in the bedroom there is a really nice orange and red theme with the curtains and bed linens.”

The bathroom is another place where colour comes into play – and, in there, it is red and white.

He says: “The tiles are red and white and the shower curtain, and there are red and white posters on the walls and we have decorated it with red and white items, like old fashioned Coke bottles.

“There is also a huge bookcase in there with hundreds of books because . . . well, it’s nice to have a choice!”

The couple’s individual sense of style comes across throughout the apartment.

Jamie says: “I like odd things, strange bits of furniture and bric-a-brac I’ve picked up in second- hand shops and the like.”

The apartment is one where Jamie is happy – he has no plans to leave it or the city.

He says: “I did an MA in popular music at Liverpool University and I’m lucky to have a career that justifies my education to my parents! But seriously, to live in a building like this, in a city like this, makes me feel extremely lucky.”