Yehudi Menuhin – Bruch/Mendelssohn Violin Concertos

As pre-recorded audio cassette tapes go, this one’s a real ‘looker’. It packages two violin concertos, the lead of which is performed in both cases by the legendary Yehudi Menuhin. On Side 1, there’s Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64. On Side 2, Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op.26. For Side 1, the Philharmonia Orchestra was conducted by Efrem Kurtz, and for Side 2, Walter Susskind conducted the same orchestra. The Mendelssohn concerto is 26 minutes 35 seconds long, and the Bruch is 23 minutes 58. Both seem to pass more quickly – particularly the Bruch.

Gary Moore – After Hours Audio Cassette (1992)

I thought I’d do something a bit different with the illustration for this post. The eventual composition wasn’t really so much an idea as an inevitability. What with the late Gary Moore being so well known for using ‘flametop’ Gibson Les Paul guitars, I opted to use the front face of my own Les Paul ‘flametop’ as a makeshift ‘table’ for the tape, then open up the cassette cover for use as a backdrop. It’s made for quite a colourful and eyecatching image.

The (English) Beat Live at Bradford 1982 Audio Cassette

This is a real nostalgic treat. It’s a bootleg tape of The (English) Beat, playing a blistering live set in Bradford on 9th October 1982. Recording quality is poor, but the performance easily makes up for that, and it would have been a crime to let the less-than-professional recording prevent that fantastic performance from being preserved. I bought the tape – dubbed onto a Sony CHF-90 (how typical of the time) – from one of the record fairs held in Birmingham and the West Midlands either in late 1982 or early 1983. The inlay is in most ways typical of those on early ‘80s bootlegs – typed and photocopied onto matt-finish paper in an eyecatching solid colour. However, in this case the paper is thick and stiff enough to be described as card, which was quite a luxury at the time.