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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 29th May 2020, 4:27 pm   #21
Top Cap
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I bought a job lot of 7" tapes which I suspect belonged to the late Don Durbridge. His interviews are recorded on these tapes and contain among others, Perry Como, Todd Carty, Rod Hull, Nicolas Parsons. Max Wall, Margaret Thatcher, Brian Clough, Lulu and James Hunt. The tapes were assorted Scotch,BSF and BBC Green coloured, mono and mostly 2 track.
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Old 29th May 2020, 5:12 pm   #22
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

This is probably off topic but I have three 12 inch records that are one-off recordings.
I bought these as part of a complete collection from a charity shop in Burgess Hill.

Two are of the "Mel Gray" orchestra, on what I think must be acetate, it is a thin black coating on an aluminium substrate, these are in poor condition with the coating coming off at the edge, these I have not played.

The third one is fascinating, it has a plain white label, hand written "The girl next door" and "Ditchling Sussex c 1958"
This is in good condition and I have played it once to digitise it.
It seems to be a private recording of a house party with guests taking turns to sing to Piano.

And yes, I do know who lives (and lived then) in Ditchling and that she was also known as the "girl next door".

I have tried contacting the Vera Lynn fan club but have had no response.

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Old 29th May 2020, 6:29 pm   #23
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Interestng. I also must upload some of those 'Auto recordings' from those booths in the 60s!
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Old 29th May 2020, 7:06 pm   #24
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Not tapes that came in a machine, but I do have some commercial RtR tapes that I bought thinking they were 8mm films. Still not sure what to do with them as my RtR machine was stolen many many years ago, and they won't play on the 8mm Eumig P8 I bought them for.
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Old 29th May 2020, 7:40 pm   #25
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

In times-past I had to dispose of a few thousand reels of "RACAL-Zonal" magtape that had been part of the slow-slow-slow communications-quality-but-with-seriously-traceable-timestamps audio recordings of interactions between civilian and military ATC.

Part of me wanted to save a reel from the furnace in the hope it might have held some globally-historically-significant conversations; reality, contracts and the Official Secrets Act stopped me from doing so.
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Old 29th May 2020, 8:46 pm   #26
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I sometimes used to fill the ends of my RTR tapes with parts of radio programmes, often stations I had found on short wave. Mostly gone now but I think I still have part of a typical early 1960's Radio Pekin news programme: a piece about a visit by Chairman Mao to a tractor factory and a children's choir singing patriotic songs like "Chairman Mao is dearer to us than our parents", and a station announcement from Radio New York Worldwide. No working recorder to play them at present. For complete programmes I do have 2 1/2 hours on cassette of Capitol Radio's "Six of the best" from the late 1970's that I recorded when doing a soak test of my then-new cassette recorder and never got round to recording over it, and a couple of 1980's Radio 4 plays.

Last edited by emeritus; 29th May 2020 at 8:59 pm. Reason: Typos
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Old 29th May 2020, 9:32 pm   #27
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Quote:
Originally Posted by saxmaniac View Post
Old radio 4 Week Ending shows from the early 70s. (Really good satire, it used to be a Friday night treat!) Some unidentified American comic, again satirical from the Trueman era
I wonder if anyone collects and preserves such stuff? It would be a shame to lose it
It would be interesting to hear the American satirical comic. It might be Henry Morgan. In which case, it's gold dust.
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Old 29th May 2020, 10:19 pm   #28
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I've got all kinds of stuff here - from the early weeks of Radio 1 through the typical Sunday night chart programmes that everyone used to record in the 70's and then cassettes of Roger Scott presenting Capital's Hitline where listeners used to phone in their favourite current songs which seemed to be ahead of the main top 40. I also acquired a few reels from whoever recorded the location sound for Tomorrows World and other mid 70's TV programs with the audio still on them. I re-used some of them but there are still a few with the original sound intact.

I know I've got a few episodes of Week Ending from the late 70's.

One of these days I'll get around to digitising some of them but there are hundreds (and maybe thousands) of hours of material here.
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Old 29th May 2020, 10:19 pm   #29
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When I was a teen I bought a Philips EL3549 reel to reel machine from a sunday market. Cost me a fiver, and it worked straight away. The tape threaded on it contained the soundtrack of a TV show, obviously recorded in the time-honoured way of holding the mic next to the tv speaker, because I could hear 405 line whistle. It was a show featuring Tom Jones singing Delilah, Sandie Shaw Puppet on a String and I can't remember who else. (edit: I think russ conway was on there too).

A few years later I was given an old tin stamped 'WILLOW' full of tapes and they were of a young boy being taught German by a lady with a very pleasant voice. I learned my first few words of german from that, starting with APFELSCHNITTE.

PS, I knew I'd mentioned this before, here's the thread

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=104148
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Old 29th May 2020, 10:29 pm   #30
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Originally Posted by Duke_Nukem View Post
May be worth contacting the beeb regarding Week Ending as even in the 70's/80's they weren't keeping stuff.
In a slightly different field - we only have the John Peel sessions available now because John Peel himself insisted on keeping the reels. Other sessions from that era have disappeared - for one album I worked on we had to use a cassette recorded from Radio 1's AM service because that was the only exisiting copy that the artist could find (this was done with permission from the BBC).
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Old 29th May 2020, 10:41 pm   #31
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I like collecting odd or special recordings.

Going back as far as wire, I have a box of wire spools that were obviously recorded by someone who was trying to sell wire recorders to various acquaintances, as that is the subject discussed on the recordings, often interspersed with someone singing a tune or telling a story.

One tape I have is titled 'exercises for abacus', and contains someone in a rather boring voice saying "five plus three", "thirteen plus twentytwo", etc etc.

I have a language teaching tape in Dutch, which is cleverly done, it's basically a monologue, with the teacher starting out with very simple sentences and slowly building up a vocabulary as he goes along. Have only listened to a ten or fifteen minutes, but it's fascinating to listen to.

In general I like to listen to language tapes. Here in Sweden we study English at quite an early age in school, so there were lots of tapes around back in the day.

Finally, one recording I have is a promotional recording for the Philips EL3541, obviously intended to be listened to by a store manager, describing selling points, other available promotional material, etc. Probably rather rare as I suspect most would have been thrown away or used for other purposes in time. I thought I'd put it on Youtube one day - played, of course, on an EL3541.

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Old 29th May 2020, 11:47 pm   #32
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I've got a few Radio 1 chart tapes from 1986 - 87. Unlike many chart tapers I kept the tape running & kept the DJ links intact. I digitised them a few years ago.

I doubt the BBC bothered to keep copies of these shows, though the interest is less than a wiped comedy show.
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Old 30th May 2020, 2:15 am   #33
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Maurice View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by martin.m View Post
I bought a Grundig TK18 a few days ago and the reel of tape that came with it contained a complete "Pick of the Pops" top 20 programme from 1969 featuring the late Alan Freeman, in good quality sound too.



Is there any way of you either digitising that recording or letting me have the recording to do it for you or better still, would you sell me the tape?
Michael, I have just seen your post #4. I don't want to part with the tape but I can digitise and send you it on a CD at no cost. However, being retired, there aren't enough hours in the day for me and it may take a week or so to get a Round Tuit. Will PM you when sorted.
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Old 30th May 2020, 7:51 am   #34
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Ive now got Audacity working on laptop so I'll digitise all the interesting stuff and possibly get it on to YouTube and supply a link to this forum. I did have a quick look for some way to contact the BBC but they don't make it easy to be contacted, possibly because they would be snowed under by millions of complaints! Does anyone know how to inform them about historical recording?
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Old 30th May 2020, 7:55 am   #35
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Btw if anyone here who's interested in collecting this stuff gives me their email address I might make them available via dropbox or similar. Don't hold your breath as I've got to rifle through a load of old tapes for the nuggets
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Old 30th May 2020, 5:00 pm   #36
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Interesting comment on the BBC not keeping the John Peel sessions. Reminds me that I have most of a session from 1969 of Joni Mitchell in concert with James Taylor. I did initially cut out the talking between sets, but then let the tape run. An LP and CD, which seems to be of a heavily edited American Radio version of this programme, were produced commercially and can be heard on the internet, but the American programme seems to be a combination of tracks from the JM session and a subsequent one featuring just James Taylor. The internet version includes several "bonus" songs that are said to be non-broadcast outtakes, but they are all present on my recording.

Possibly the original BBC Peel Session tapes were not kept for contractural reasons.

Last edited by emeritus; 30th May 2020 at 5:13 pm. Reason: Typos
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Old 30th May 2020, 6:36 pm   #37
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I used to have a very large number of John Peel recordings taken from his Top Gear and Perfumed Garden radio shows. I gave all the tapes away on Freecycle many years ago, due to at the time having lost interest in Reel to Reel, my only (then) tape recorder having died and some of the tapes not in the best of condition.

I seriously regret having done this now !!
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Old 30th May 2020, 11:02 pm   #38
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I'm fairly sure that the John Peel session tapes are still around as I've been involved in remastering one or two for commercial release. There were also some sessions released in the 80's on Clive Selwood's Strange Fruit label and Clive is still around (although not in the best of health). However I don't know how many of his programmes would have survived.
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Old 30th May 2020, 11:27 pm   #39
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Queen's Peel sessions & other early radio performances have been released on CD by Strange Fruit.
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Old 31st May 2020, 7:50 am   #40
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

peel sessions here

https://davestrickson.blogspot.com/2...-sessions.html
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