Forgotten Public Panics

[Lencoboy]

There was also the Alcopops panic back in the mid-late 90s (a la Hooch).

[NoraB]

Back in the early 80s it was blank cassette tapes and the 'Home Taping Is Killing Music' blurb on the rear sleeve of some LPs.

I used to record the top 40 using a cassette player and a portable radio. You'll do well to find a version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' with the sound of the loo being flushed and my mother bellowing up the stairs that our tea's ready!

Heathcliiiiifffee, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come (OI, YOU PAIR, GET DOWN THESE STAIRS, NOW!) home, I'm so cold, let me in at your window..

Happy days.

[Lencoboy]

I used to record the top 40 using a cassette player and a portable radio. You'll do well to find a version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' with the sound of the loo being flushed and my mother bellowing up the stairs that our tea's ready!

Heathcliiiiifffee, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come (OI, YOU PAIR, GET DOWN THESE STAIRS, NOW!) home, I'm so cold, let me in at your window..

Happy days.

That would have been back in early 1978 when that single was as #1 in the charts. Although it was slightly before my time (I was 1 on my birthday in July that year), I have a copy of that single in the original 7'' vinyl 45 format that was part of a mass cast-off of vinyl singles and LPs back in late 1994 from someone I knew who wanted shut of their old vinyl collection as the format was considered old-fashioned and uncool by then. There were also a few original records thrown in by the likes of 'biggies' such as ABBA and Queen, a real gold mine!

Pretty ironic that those original vinyls that hardly anyone wanted and people even struggling to give away for free back in the 90s, are much sought after and worth an absolute fortune today!

Same for the record player decks themselves, now people can't get enough of them!

[Lolalee1]

I have my Grandads old 78 records and an original 1920 Gramophone

[dorabella]

I have loads of old 33 vinyl punk, new wave and classics - Damned, Specials, Altered Images, Stranglers, Smiths, Echo and Bunnymen etc - Deutsche Grammophon classical box sets from old record library sales completely untouched since no-one ever borrowed them and they were selling them off for a quid! Not going to sell any of mine despite the recent enthusiasm on the markets.

Kept my record player, cassette deck etc - not that many of my old cassettes play well any more having been worn out over the years.

Like NoraB - I used to try and tape the Sunday John Peel top 20 output from the radio onto a tape recorder - pity that most of the tracks I taped were cut short by commentary - but you couldn't fault JP. Still miss him on the airwaves.

What times we had before modern technology and streaming...

[Lencoboy]

I have loads of old 33 vinyl punk, new wave and classics - Damned, Specials, Altered Images, Stranglers, Smiths, Echo and Bunnymen etc - Deutsche Grammophon classical box sets from old record library sales completely untouched since no-one ever borrowed them and they were selling them off for a quid! Not going to sell any of mine despite the recent enthusiasm on the markets.

Kept my record player, cassette deck etc - not that many of my old cassettes play well any more having been worn out over the years.

Like NoraB - I used to try and tape the Sunday John Peel top 20 output from the radio onto a tape recorder - pity that most of the tracks I taped were cut short by commentary - but you couldn't fault JP. Still miss him on the airwaves.

What times we had before modern technology and streaming...

Absolutely. Many of us these days don't seem to know we're born!

And I don't blame you for hanging on to your vinyl record collection and player through the CD era, you just can't beat them!

[Lencoboy]

I used to record the top 40 using a cassette player and a portable radio. You'll do well to find a version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' with the sound of the loo being flushed and my mother bellowing up the stairs that our tea's ready!

Heathcliiiiifffee, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come (OI, YOU PAIR, GET DOWN THESE STAIRS, NOW!) home, I'm so cold, let me in at your window..

Happy days.

Out of interest, do you still have that same cassette tape containing the off-air recording of 'Wuthering Heights', infiltrated by the sound of the toilet flushing and your mom yelling up the stairs for you and your sibling to come down for your dinner?

It would probably make for great comedy!

[NoraB]

Out of interest, do you still have that same cassette tape containing the off-air recording of 'Wuthering Heights', infiltrated by the sound of the toilet flushing and your mom yelling up the stairs for you and your sibling to come down for your dinner?

It would probably make for great comedy!

Alas, no.

In those days it was a case of owning one cassette tape (donated by Mum or Dad) and recording over it time and time again..

I think it was in 1983 when I got my first 5 pack of TDK as a Christmas present and I was over the moon! Can you imagine a teenager getting excited over that these days?

[NoraB]

Like NoraB - I used to try and tape the Sunday John Peel top 20 output from the radio onto a tape recorder - pity that most of the tracks I taped were cut short by commentary - but you couldn't fault JP. Still miss him on the airwaves.

Sundays in the 70s were about the Top 40 and then in the 80s it was the Top 40 and then Annie ('Hi') Nightingale's request show..

I loved John Peel. Great music. Dry sense of humour. He's like Marmite was JP - you either loved or hated him lol

[Lencoboy]

Alas, no.

In those days it was a case of owning one cassette tape (donated by Mum or Dad) and recording over it time and time again..

I think it was in 1983 when I got my first 5 pack of TDK as a Christmas present and I was over the moon! Can you imagine a teenager getting excited over that these days?

Blank cassettes themselves were still fairly expensive back then, so home taping borrowed LPs was technically a false economy, as not only were the background noises and general imperfections typical of the vinyl disc format also transferred to the cassette, but apart from ultra high-end decks with Type IV tape capabilities, Dolby C and ultimately, tape calibration facilities (auto or manual), most common-or-garden domestic cassette machines often produced recordings of sub-standard sound quality, plus an increasing number of decks in all-in-one home audio systems by the mid-80s had auto recording level control, and by the 90s, flip-up permanent magnet devices in lieu of proper electronic erase heads which usually tend to cause a lower-mid frequency background hiss on the tape, similar to white noise.

As for teenagers getting excited over a 5-pack of blank cassettes for Xmas or their birthdays, of course it would have been a bigger deal back then in the mid-80s, because it was all most kids knew at the time, coupled with the fact that the main hi-fi system in living rooms was mainly the preserve of dads, and usually out of bounds to the kids.

Even Walkmans were much derided by older generations at the time and just like video games, then smartphones some years later, were scapegoated for corrupting kids.