Jools Holland – A to Z Geographers’ Guide (1992)

With its cover modelled on an A to Z street guide (maps) book, this is Jools Holland‘s A-Z Geographers’ Guide to the Piano album, from 1992.

John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom (1992)

It’s now getting on for a hundred years since John Lee Hooker was born. Regrettably, he died in 2001, but he surely must remain as one of the most memorable genuine and fully authentic blues artists of all time.

It’s widely felt that in the business of popular music, once an artist hits his/her forties (if not before), his/her appeal to the main sector of the commercial market will diminish to a critical low. There are exceptions, but very few artists aged well over 70(!) could have reached out to the mass market, from college kids right through to pensioners, the way John Lee Hooker did in the early 1990s.

1992 Scotch BX 60 Audio Cassette

This is a Scotch BX/60, from 1992. It’s not a good tape. It’s very hissy and pretty much personifies low-end sound quality. I suppose that’s fair enough, given that it sat at the bottom of Scotch’s range at the time, but it’s not a great advert for what was once a very well respected brand.