This friday started the International Disco Fair at Barcelona, like every year, and I went to see which vinyls and cassettes I could find. It's a nice fair, though expensive as you have to pay 6€ to enter, no matter if you buy or not. After some searching I found some, though it wasn't easy: Finally I bought these ones for less than 3€ each: There are two with ‘dbx system’ which is something I've never seen before: To my surprise I quickly realized after a few seconds of playing that they aren’t dbx-encoded! They are just normal tapes. So fake dbx. Another tape comes in a self made paper bag in one that makes it look like a album mockup by ‘killers’: It sounds well but I cannot figure out more about it. If you have any information about this tape or this band, please contact me. Another curious thing is that one of the Beatles tapes appears to be Dolby C-encoded! I’ve never seen such thing. After playing it I can say it sounds well with Dolby C and seems to be real. But the most exciting one, by far, is this one: Not just because it was made on '61 (not the cassette but the recording): but because when I opened I found this signature in the J-card, which left me almoss breathless... is this a Beatle's one? A search for signatures in Google show me that it's not from a Beatle, so whom then? It should be someone involved in this recording. After some careful looking to the J-card inside, I found this outside: Tony Sheridan! Who is that guy? A search in the Wikipedia and I quickly learnt that he was an important person to the band. Then I searched for his signature and... voilà! This is his signature: Now compare both. Match, huh? Yeah, not a straight match but it's definitely him. So, yes, I got a very early cassette signed from a man who inspired the Beatles! As you can imagine, I am so happy for that. I've never found such thing. Bonus: the cassette sounds pretty well!
Killers is a band by Paul Andrews, also known as Paul Di'Anno. If I recall correctly he was Iron Maiden's first vocalist for I believe two albums before the current and well-known one took over. The tape you found is from 1994 and their second album according to my quick research. Looks like you found a hometaped version, certainly not an official release at least. And congratulations on the great finds!
Congratulations on the Beatles tape. I do wonder when he signed it though. It could have been 2004 like the Wikipedia photo. I have been to both Hazel O Connor and Toyah concerts (at small venues) where they have gone to the concert hall entrance at the end of the concert to sign any memorabilia fans bring along. A very nice gesture that makes their fans day.
Those are interesting finds, DBX, Dolby C and the rest. I found a Scorpions CD that was signed once but they had it made out to a female, kind of a bummer.
@Longman Looking at the differences between the writing style (very likely still the same person), I guess there was some time between these. His V and S changed. But I don't do graphoanalysis so don't take my word for it. It's just the impression I get that something's "too different" for it to be from the same time and naturally handwriting does change over time. We're no static beings and improve and modify our writing technique after all.
There appears to have been three distinct releases of the Album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles'_First 1964, 1967, and 2004. I wonder if you can work out which one yours is. Reminds me of a CD I bought by Patrick Hermadez. Naturally his backing singer Madonna Louise Ciccone got a big mention on the cover.
The 1st "dbx system" cassette looks very much like a typical Indonesian release from the 70's to 80's. Not familiar with the label though (Supreme). This quite confirms my suspicion on the local releases. There are a lot of these "dbx system" cassette around and they all sound just fine in any player. I also finding it odd that there were so many, considering that dbx-equipped decks are relatively rare. Putting good faith on the pirate labels, I'm guessing perhaps they meant system as in it's produced using a dbx system higher up the production process. They way most local labels work back then, was that they'll record original vinyl into a "master" reel tapes which is then copied into several reel copies which will then be rerecorded onto blank tapes using individual decks. Could some dbx equipment perhaps be inserted into that production flow?
Thanks for the info Sly. I've searched in the wikipedia and you're right. The album is from 2003, though. Hmm, that makes sense. Ahh, that's what I was thinking of, but could not find the right word for it. Makes sense as the labelling seems not home made. I've digged once more and found that it was added to the artists register in Spain in '88. So it's from '88 or maybe '89. It was likely signed in a concert in those years here in Spain. From @Ken80s I see that they were common there. Very curious.
Ok, I think I found it. Tony sheridan came to Barcelona for a concert in december '89, so it's very likely to be signed then.
I bought a 1999 remaster of the classic 1969 King Crimson album In The Court of the Crimson King. When I opened it I found the CD had been signed by all of the band members including Robert Fripp! How this CD ended up in retail is a mystery but I am happy to have it. Might put it on eBay
There is a connection in this thread you might not be aware of. Since 1986 Robert Fripp has been married to Toyah. The only standalone Toyah concert I have been to was in Robert's home town of Wimborne (not far from here). She certainly put on a good show maybe because Robert and his sister (who had come over from the USA) were in the audience. At one of the more usual Best of the Eighties concerts that Toyah was performing at I bought a DVD of one of her previous concerts. Although she was presumably getting ready for the concert she had signed every copy that was on the merchandise stand. Maybe they have a competition as to who can sign the most items. If not they both have a similar philosophy regarding signing stuff. Toyah in concert and, getting ready to sign some merchandise after her Wimborne concert. Having enjoyed the concert I took a couple of photos and went home
Well. There was more I didn't post in my original thread. Robert's sister who was on my LinkedIn contact list suggested I email him about the CD. I did and got a reply from Middle England from Robert but unfortunately he had no idea how my CD ended up being in the retail stock. My guess is they sign so many CD's they lose track of even the milestones like the 30th anniversary remaster. Anyway the CD is genuine and one of signatures has bled through the CD label print to the reading side and it skips as a result. You can't have everything I guess
My other observation is that Killers cassette is definitely a BASF Chrome II retail cassette. Wouldn't it be nice if all prerecorded tapes came on something like this instead of bulk loaded and high speed dubbed type 1 tape. What I have experimented with recently is blocking the erase holes on some pre-recorded cassettes and recording the original vinyl over what was there before. The tape in most cases is still good to go and you get a way better analog result with your own equipment and of course everything else, the j-card, art work and track labeling is still as it should be.
You can use another one to play and this one only to show... Some are of so bad quality that are closer to sandpaper than magnetic tape, and I won't put them into a good deck. But others are pretty good. I've re-recorded some of my old mixtapes that I made in the 80s and 90s with my boombox then (it was an Hitachi 3d until '91) using vinyl and one of my 3-head decks, so the music is exactly the same, but the quality is much higher. It's fun.
