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.

1982 Maxell UL 90 Audio Cassette

These were a common sight in the latter part of 1982 – particularly around the record fairs, where the live gig bootleggers would sit at stalls behind boxes of Type 1 audio tapes. The tapes would feature performances from popular bands of the day, recorded on the sly at various venues, on a pocket tape recorder – typically a Sony Walkman. Names such as The Jam, Echo and The Bunnymen, UB40, Duran Duran, Madness, Bauhaus, Altered Images and Mari Wilson were among those well known from the UK pop charts at the time.

1983 Sony BHF 90 Audio Cassette

As normal bias tapes went in the early ‘eighties, Sony’s offerings were pretty good. This is a 1983 Sony BHF 90 – the BHF being a step up in quality and definition from the lowly Sony CHF. Visually, these were an upgrade on the BHFs from the previous year, featuring a sort of metallic foil finish on the label rather than plain paper as in 1982. There may possibly also have been a slight improvement in sound, but my recording equipment in the early 1980s was so poor, and of course so much time has now elapsed since these tapes were new, that it’s very difficult to tell. These are good tapes though – with considerable treble response for normal bias ferrics.