I may have found a new source, where do I go next?

[peterfitzpatrick]

I was out having dinner with a musician friend last night who lived in the UK in the 1970s & early 1980s. We were chatting about music TV and I mentioned that I have been collecting old TOTP shows that appear online. He didn't realise that BBC, ITV etc didn't keep a lot of TV.

I mentioned this site and that some material has turned up via pre-betamax/vhs tapes.

So, he says he has a 'lot' of tapes in storage from the 1970s. He has nothing to play them on and described one of the formats as a tape that wound down from the top of a spool to a lower spool (I have no idea what this is).

He is on tour but I might be in a position to contact him at the end of the year and explore this further.

I'm happy to put someone from this site into contact with him to try and take this further. It might prove to be a dead end and of course there might be nothing of interest on the tapes even if they are playable. Also there is the matter of getting the tapes out of storage - they are in the USA - and of course he might just not be interested in digging out the tapes in the first place.

[Gary Critcher]

'He has nothing to play them on and described one of the formats as a tape that wound down from the top of a spool to a lower spool'
Easy, that's a Philips 1500 cassette.

If he's a musician, then he could well have recorded some really interesting stuff! This defintely needs to be followed up. I'm sure Chris Perry from Kal will immediately be interested!!

[peterfitzpatrick]

ok. I guess Chris will see this. I'm happy to facilitate the introduction and then let the video-professional take over from there.

He is a musician and has worked with the likes of Lennon, Harrison, Clapton etc and his own group is quite well known. No ideas what could be on the tapes, certainly music tv would be there but probably some comedy too as he was a friend of some of the Pythons.

[cperry]

Hi Peter

It sounds very interesting, we'd be happy to help if we can. You can email me via either of our websites or PM me on here.

c

[RWels]

Nov 28, 2009 17:37:27 GMT Gary Critcher said:

'He has nothing to play them on and described one of the formats as a tape that wound down from the top of a spool to a lower spool'
Easy, that's a Philips 1500 cassette.

But you normally can't see that, right? Not unless you take a cassette apart and look inside?

[Gary Critcher]

You open the flap and can see the tape running from the top spool to the bottom (or vice versa)- easy!

[RWels]

Nov 28, 2009 22:34:09 GMT Gary Critcher said:

You open the flap and can see the tape running from the top spool to the bottom (or vice versa)- easy!

Suppose so - I haven't seen that kind of tape up close for a really long time.

But back to the OP, yes, who knows? Could be anything, could be nothing, but it's worth checking out.

[Deleted]

Nov 28, 2009 19:59:43 GMT peterfitzpatrick said:

ok. I guess Chris will see this. I'm happy to facilitate the introduction and then let the video-professional take over from there.

He is a musician and has worked with the likes of Lennon, Harrison, Clapton etc and his own group is quite well known. No ideas what could be on the tapes, certainly music tv would be there but probably some comedy too as he was a friend of some of the Pythons.

Peter, thanks for taking the time to post and tell us about this potentially interesting collection. Chris Perry and Kaleidoscope are the people to look into this one. Speaking from experience, they have the know-how to safely transfer the material. You can contact Chris on the forum here via personal message. Keep us posted on how this develops.