TAPED – PANEL REVEAL PERSONAL PLAYLISTS
ACTOR Before Spotify recorders and Apple Music allowed – there was us to make up tape. Cassette personal pleasure. our own playlists Here’s a selection for from our juke box jury AUTHOR AUTHOR
U2 – The
PUBLIC ENEMY – Lost at Birth
THE AMAZING SNAKEHEADS – Here it comes ELBOW – again One Day Like This DJ ZINC FEAT MS DYNAMITE - Wile BOOKER Out Onions T AND THE MGs - Green
JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Some Candy Talking
WHEN Stella Wedell was 12, she made a tape of her favourite songs to play on her Walkman while on holiday in Spain. But she lost the cassette, featuring Shaggy, Bob Marley and the Pet Shop Boys, 25 years ago. Recently she found it again, at an exhibition by Mandy Barker, who makes art out of rubbish she finds on the beach. Before Spotify and Apple Music allowed everyone to be their own DJ, music fans made their own compilations on blank tapes. It’s hard, when a mobile phone comes with access to just about everything ever recorded, to remember the effort required to put your top tunes of the day on to a C90. Capturing favourite tracks from John Peel’s show involved staying awake and alert from
BY ANNA BURNSIDE 10pm to midnight. They were also a great way of discovering new music – as a straw poll of compilers of a certain age testify... Jan Patience recalls opening up whole new worlds at Aberdeen University. She said: “Astrud Gilberto, Nina Simone, Soft Cell, I played them to death.” Carol Yates had strict rules about what went on different types of tape. “Break ups were Leonard Cohen and the Doors. Student angst called for the Cocteau Twins and Everything But the Girl. Lovers-to-be got Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and Nick Cave. If I was trying to impress it was the Trash Can Sinatras and the Blue Nile.” Karen Jones added: “I had one in the 80s that had a song then an Ivor Cutler spoken word piece interspersed all the way through. A ‘friend’ borrowed it and never returned it.”
Susie Rose’s husband made her a special mix when she was having a bad time. She said: “It was compiled when I needed an audio hug circa 1997. There is some music plus selected readings from Jeeves and Wooster and a vox pop with my husband’s colleagues.”
Colin Mearns said: “Love my mix tapes. Was listening to one gem today that was lovingly created in 1992. It’s the main reason I have held on to my 18-year-old VW – it has a phenomenal tape player.”