Tape Mates International
The closure of this week reminded me of the music paper I used to buy as a teenager. Superpop. I know, I know...so uncool. I was never one of the cool kids. Let's face it; I played baritone horn in the school brass band and I can't recall being at a party where girls said "Hey, Jeff, get out your baritone and give us some of that crazy oompah music!" No, it just didn't happen.
But Superpop attracted me for one good reason; if offered free classified advertising on the inside back page. Mainly it was readers selling guitars and record collections and others looking for pen-pals. That's what gave me my first ever get-rich-quick idea - Tape Mates.
I can even recall the ad I wrote:
Pen Pals are dead! Why not join my Tape Mates club and exchange cassettes with friends all over the world. Why write when you can speak? Send £1 to...
In a matter of days I was receiving cassettes from people all over the U.K, some with postal orders and others with loose change. I was so convinced I was on to something big I registered the name Tapes Mates International (sole trader) with the Registry of Companies in Edinburgh. Not bad for a 13 year old.
Just one problem; I had to match all these would-be tape-mates and that meant listening to hours of badly-recorded monologues from squeaky-voiced teenagers. I have a vivid memory of one recording in which a nice young chap explained how he hoped the Tape Mates club would help improve his voice technique so he could realise his ambition to become a bingo-caller. Fair enough, but most of the subscribers came from boys seeking girls and that was the snag. How many teenage girls do you know who would be daft enough join such a scheme. Let me tell you; one. One girl...and she wanted another girl as her tape-mate.
Pretty soon I was putting the cassettes back into envelopes and refunding the money. I finally lost £20 on the scheme.
This story came back to me when I was sitting in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ canteen on Wednesday with Andy Simpson from Elgin High School. We were joined by Doreen Wood, our programme Editor in Aberdeen who told us she was developing some ideas using archive recording from listeners' attics. Andy was enthusiastic about this because he knew so many people who had exchanged cassette recordings from overseas, in the days when long-distance phone calls were so expensive.
So the hunt is on for those Tapes Mates of the seventies and eighties. Do let us us know if you have any recordings hiding away at home. New technology will allow us to clean up the sound and it should make for a great programme.
Meanwhile, some oompah sounds anyone?
