Monday, October 05, 2020

a tape which i wasn't going to buy, bought

howdy pop pickers


so, a little south (i think) of two weeks ago, or if you will a bit north of a week ago i published some writing on the subject of the reissue of the album Goats Head Soup off of The Rolling Stones. and it was so, look you see, that i spoke of it being very good indeed. 

also, from what i can recall, i gave some mention (if only in passing) of how the album had been re-released in cassette tape format too. maybe that comment came up in the James Dean Bradfield album comments, but no matter. the basics, or gist, was that i was not going to purchase the album in tape form since the asking price was a little high compared to what others were charging for tapes, and no extras were on the record in cassette format. 

indeed, then, and perhaps predictably in a pedestrian way, i am now an owner of Goats Head Soup in its cassette form. 


how, and / or why, has this come to be? mostly due to the people what run all of the internet and marketing stuff for the Rolling Stones sending me an email. 

well, yes, there is a bit more to it than that. in the email they let it be known that, for four days only, a competition was underway. place an order for Goats Head Soup and you stood the chance of winning one of six (6) copies of the sheet music for Angie (what is on the album) signed by Sir Mick Jagger (who is also on the album). 

that lured me in as far as considering purchasing the album on tape. especially as i had played the CD a few times and gone yes, this is an excellent album. visiting the website, seeing that the tape had rather mysteriously dropped in price by at least £1 and the prospect of winning something what Sir Mick had touched was all sufficient to secure my purchase, then. 


unlike other "modern" tape (cassette) releases, it is simply not so that the Rolling Stones have in any way, shape or form f****d around. far from it. as you can see, in the image above and below, they have gone full tilt with a proper cassette release, with a decent inlay and packaging, like how we used to get them in the 80s and 90s. bravo, chaps. 

being fair, the other cassettes what i have bought in the last 2 - 3 years have had a decent quality to them for the sound, which of course is the most important thing. but, alas, the packaging has been very much "this will do", to be honest. especially the cassette variant of Ripples by Ian Brown. 

at the time of writing, no, i have not heard if i am a winner of one of the sheet music things signed by Sir Mick. i didn't note any sort of time frame on when they would select the fortunate six, or how the winners would be named or, in this era of data protection, notified. perhaps one will just turn up in the post, or maybe it will not and after a few weeks of it not turning up that is how i shall know that i did not win it. best of luck to all who entered, by the way. 


is it now my avowed and dedicated intention to purchase every new album released on cassette? honestly i am uncertain. of recent releases, i didn't get the Morrissey one on tape, or either Liam Gallagher's second solo album or his (i had forgotten about it already) MTV Unplugged thing. the main reason for this is that i couldn't work out how, or where, to order Morrissey on tape, and Liam didn't put either of them records out on cassette. 

on a Liam related note, a cassette re-release of (What's The Story) Morning Glory has been announced. yes, i tried to order it. no, i did not. this is because Oasis have the single most sh!t and rubbish web thing ever, and you get blocked from ordering because of a "postcode error". at least three times i tried to give Noel even more money, and on each instance it was declined, which has to be the most unlike Noel Gallagher thing ever to happen. 



so, between James Dean Bradfield and The Rolling Stones that's two (2) tapes what i have bought in the month of September. it's accurate to say that this would be more than i had anticipated purchasing, but a more better way of describing it is probably that, if i asked, i would have had no (zero) intention of buying any. a very good friend of mine had no experience of surprise that i was buying tapes when they were put in front of me, but expressed some incredulity that anyone had thought to make them. 

will any further tapes be bought during the year (2020)? i am not sure. of the releases coming this year i am certain to purchase there is no indication that the lavish, 4CD set of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Flaunt It shall come out on tape. weirdly, the Bowie Estate have not cottoned on to the inexplicable but perfectly understandable revival of cassettes, so it is unlikely that the "re-imagined" issue of The Man Who Sold The World will be in the format. beyond them two, absolutely nothing of any variation of the 20th anniversary (!!) edition of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind looks worth buying. it is rumoured that Duran Duran propose to release (unleash) a new record this year - if it is a proper album then it will get bought, if there is any hint or suggestion of it being "more of the same" or "building on" Paper Gods then clearly i am no longer their target audience. 

anyway, dig what you dig, and if like me you really, really like tapes, hope some of this has been of interest at some stage. 

UPDATE - nothing in the post, so presumably i have not won anything what Sir Mick has signed. hey ho, still have a great album on tape.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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