The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (Cassette)

Dexys Midnight Runners emerged in 1979 as a British band from the Birmingham area, timing their arrival perfectly to coincide with a mod revival, and the rise of Two-Tone. True, Dexys were not a ska band, or for that matter specifically a ‘mod’ band, but their sound and style appealed to both camps. Add to that the fact they they had some remarkable songwriting skills, and you had a recipe for major public attention.

The Damned – Final Damnation Audio Cassette (1989)

The Damned were one of the ‘big three’ original British punk bands, alongside the Sex Pistols and The Clash. They released the first ever single to be acknowledged as British punk rock, in autumn 1976, and whilst their path was far from smooth and continuous, they remained active and high up in alternative public consciousness right through the early and mid 1980s.

Through the one decade plus from ’76 into the late ‘eighties, the band’s musical style morphed, and I suppose you could say ‘matured’ – although that would imply that original format punk was immature, which I don’t believe was the case.

BASF LH Extra I Audio Cassette (1984)

BASF were very well known for their high bias chrome formulation cassettes (see the Blank Tapes category for numerous posts relating to those), but they also made some very nice normal bias Type I tapes. A case in point was this, the LH Extra I, probably made in 1984.