The Damned – ‘The Light at the End of the Tunnel’ cassette

Whether or not they were guilty of a music business sell-out, by the mid 1980s The Damned were the sole surviving remnant from 1976’s original UK punk rock scene.

Immensely important historically, but until this point scantly recognised commercially, the band must surely have felt it was time they got a break. Equally, however, they must have known that any commercial success they did get could damage their cred with longtime fans – such was the inverted snobbery of punk…

How to Make Your Cassette Photos Stand Out in a Crowd

For a small blog covering a very niche subject, Tape Tardis has done well for search referral traffic. Although it does now tend to focus on text-first content, Tape Tardis began life as a photo blog, and the presence of some of its most impactive illustrations on Google Images has been one of the key factors in netting labour-free, guaranteed, daily traffic.

I’ve always believed that if you can get a new, original photo fairly high up in the Google Images results, and that photo stands out, the great public of the world will spot it and engage with it. And that should encourage Google to keep the photo visible for you – perhaps even drive it up to a higher position. Impactive images will also likely get you shares on photo-driven sites such as Pinterest, which expand your reach with further links to your main content.

In this post, I’m going to document a few of the ideas I’ve used to make my cassette photos a little different, and thus instantly visible in a crowd…

1984 Pre-Recorded Chrome Cassette: Peter Katin Plays Chopin

I haven’t posted much in the way of pre-recorded cassettery from 1984, so to make amends here’s a classic, Made in England, chromium dioxide product from that very year.

All the hallmarks of the period are there. The proud boast of “CHROME TAPE” on the front of the inlay – essential info in the early to mid eighties when hi-fi credentials lay at the forefront of audio cassette marketing. The “CHROME – FOR QUALTY” C-logo appears on the cream paper label, as does the “DOLBY SYSTEM”-accompanied Dolby logo, which prevailed on casings before the text was phased out to leave only the double-D symbol.