"Never let it be said that contempt is blind to status."
Remember audio cassettes? They seem beyond harmless today, but forty years ago they were considered by some to be a global catastophe waiting to happen. Yes, back in 1981, the British Phonographic Industry believed that these inert-looking and actually rather pretty bits of plastic and tape had the power to destroy the music business…
"If you see a supposed 1977 pre-recorded cassette with any sort of reference to Dolby on it, you should be suspicious at the very least."
If you sneak a glance at the above photo, you'll see four audio cassettes, all of which purport to be from the 1970s. Three of them actually were produced in the 1970s, but one wasn't. Can you spot the later reproduction?…
"It's likely that had Moore and Virgin known how successful the subsequent shift into the field of blues would prove, this album, After the War, would never have surfaced."
Life is full of mystery. How did the Universe form, and what was there before the Universe?… Is there intelligent life out on some distant planet?… Why did heavy metal's life not expire on the day This is Spinal Tap was released?
By the standards of all reason and logic, the hapless spoof metal band Spinal Tap, and their pant-wettingly hilarious mockery of the genre, should have consigned '80s metal to history's great waste basket in early 1984. I mean, how much more embarrassing could one movie be for a genre of music?… And the answer is: none. None more embarrassing. If that reference doesn't make any sense to you, by the way, you need to watch the movie.
"Anyone who's ever questioned the suitability of a Squier Strat for the upper echelons of guitar goddery, needs to listen to this attacking riot of tonal colour."
When Gary Moore dumped heavy metal at the end of the 1980s, and ripped into a blistering, firebrand explosion of blues, there were two camps of observer. In camp one, those who said: "Whoa! Where the Hell did that come from???!"… And in camp two, those who said: "Jeff Healey."
If you listen to Confidence Man on Healey's 1988 debut album - See The Light - you hear an almost perfectly mapped template for what became Moore's trademark blues repertoire a short time later. Not to detract in any way from Gary Moore. But would he have found that exciting new territory without the groundwork of Jeff Healey? Play the whole of See The Light, and you'll find it very hard to imagine that Moore's seismic shift in style wasn't pretty singularly inspired by this amazing album - especially given the timing of the events.
See The Light is not only a scorching document of the late 'eighties rebirth of blues - it's also a really interesting mine of trivia. For starters, there are some highly notable additions to Healey's own bass/drums backing duo of Joe Rockman and Tom Stephen. Original Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench appears on several songs. I can sense your eyebrows raising already. Also featured are the eminent percussionist Bobbye Hall, and a decidely luminous backing vocal duo of Separate Lives chart-topper Marilyn Martin and former Eagle Timothy B Schmit… And assisting on guitar, early 'eighties Robert Plant associate Robbie Blunt. For a group that had only formed in December 1985, that was some guest list by 1988.
"Hendrix amusingly introduces it in a posh English accent as "a blarst from the parst"
Artists who have the power to make you wish you'd been born into a different era are very few and far between. But I find it almost impossible to listen to a really well-mastered Hendrix live recording without wishing I'd been among the flare-clad, flyaway-collared assemblage flicking a peace sign in the general direction of the stage.
And the audio cassette version of The Jimi Hendrix Concerts is as well-mastered as they come. As the title suggests, the programme is not a single gig. The tape compiles highlights from performances in New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Berkeley and good old Londinium.
"One minute she's on a disorganised youth show, sharing the bill with Johnny Rotten and Public Image, and the next she's fronting new-level supergroups."
Supergroups had come and gone before. But when Elton John was "just the keyboard player", Phil Collins was "just the drummer", and Mark Knopfler was "just the rhythm guitarist", you were dealing with a new definition of huge.
Imagine the status and presence a vocalist would need in order to front a band in which the world's biggest stars were queuing up just for a place at the back of the stage playing a tambourine… That was the status and presence Tina Turner built in the mid 1980s, and this Grammy-winning double live album is a fantastic document of the period.
"The overbright treble was then cut back at the mixing stage, taking the worst of the high frequency hiss with it."
Most people with a major interest in tape recording will probably know a fair bit about Portastudios. But whatever your experience in this field, I bet there’s at least one thing in this collection of obscure facts that you didn’t know about the world of Tascam four-track tape machines…