This is the old, paper (as opposed to foil-type) label version of the Sony BHF 90, from 1981. I know that I was buying these paper label jobs through 1982 as well as in latter ‘81, but by spring 1983 I was getting the shiny label versions.
The Sony BHF was a good normal bias tape, ranking higher than the base-level CHF in the range – costing more, but providing very obviously better quality. The BHF resisted drop-outs pretty well too – especially for a relatively bright-sounding Type 1 cassette at the beginning of the 1980s. For those who wanted ultimate performance from a Type I tape during this period, Sony provided the more expensive AHF cassette.
You can compare the look of this ’81 version of the BHF 90 to the variant with the foil-type label, in the 1983 Sony BHF 90 post. And you can see inside the BHF’s casing in the Sony BHF 90 dismantled post.
As regards the actual content on this cassette, one side has a live Clint Eastwood and General Saint performance on it, which was recorded from television in 1982. Eastwood and Saint were a really cool reggae act with an up-to-the-minute and forward-moving style. They were like a stepping stone between the dub reggae and ‘toasting’ of the ’70s, and the humourous, sound-system reggae epitomised by Smiley Culture in the mid ’80s. Very influential, and importantly, recognised by quite a significantly-sized white audience, as well as black.
White and racially-diverse bands in the late ’70s (particularly The Clash, the Two-Tone movement, and from 1980, UB40) had helped a lot of whites to discover and appreciate reggae. But it still took a very clever approach for Eastwood and Saint to gain such universal appeal with a stripped-back, wholly-Jamaican dub style.
Tape Tardis 