New technology 1960s style!

A record this morning, took me back to when I was just a young boy and the cassette recorder first came to my attention.

Someone, I can't remember who, came into our arcade at Burnham and was talking to my Dad and he was showing him this new little tape recorder he'd bought.

I was closely looking on in amazement at it.

Apparently, you didn't need a reel to reel tape recorder anymore, as you could now buy these little 'cassettes' with tape already in them.

And you could buy proper albums with music already on them, or you could buy blank 'tapes' and record them yourself.

The man showed my Dad and me the tape. Now, this was odd. I could see the tape through a little window in the middle of the casing but was concerned at how you'd re-thread it as you did with normal reels.

He told me not to worry, as when it got to the end, it didn't come undone as it was attached to the little plastic piece on the inside and that all you did was take the shell out of the player and flip it over to play the other side. Wow!

I loved this idea. And straight away told my Dad I wanted one.

And what was better, was that the player/recorder came with a leather case that you could put it in and take it out with you as the cassette player used batteries or electric.

I'll never forget when I first saw it - my Dad did get me one not long after and it was on that that I started taping the charts off of the radio back then.

Tapes came in 60, 90 and 120-minute 'cassettes'. I found out quickly that the best ones were the 90-minute ones.

I would love to say that I remembered what that first tape I heard on that cassette was. But I do remember the one song on it, Esther & Abi Ofarim's 'Cinderella Rockerfella.' So it would have been 1968 when this event happened.

And that was the start of a love affair with cassettes that lasted until CDs came about.

I kept all my cassettes for years and eventually gave over 800 to my kids' school for the music department to use.

The funny thing is that 5-6 years ago, I bought another one and started playing old cassettes again.

And can you remember that lovely hissing sound they used to have? Good old 'Dolby' reduction almost sorted that!

Happy Days!

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