Tag Archives: music

The #Beatles – trading cards better than the real thing

beatles_cards

The Beatles A & B C Chewing Gum Ltd (second series)

I understand the joys of collecting things like stamps, trading crds etc. there is alway the pleasure of finding, buying that elusive one that will make the set. Chewing gum cards were my thing when I was small – I loved the chance element, the hope of getting what I wanted. I no longer collect things but I still love chance, which is why I now do the lottery.

The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. They acquired the nickname “the Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market.

In 1962 / 63 Douglas Coakley of A & BC Chewing Gum Ltd, approached Brian Epstein, The Beatles manager, and his lawyer David Jacobs, to obtain the rights to produce trading cards featuring photographs and autographs of the Beatles. A set of 60 cards was produced and issued in 1964. The photographs were provided to A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd courtesy of Nems Enterprises Ltd, Brian Epstein’s company, and appear to be mostly taken in 1963 and maybe 1962. A second series quickly followed.

I love Beatles ephemera – I hate their annoying music

As far as I am concerned they are not the massive influence on popular music they are claimed to be – mediocrity comes to mind.

The ‘audio artist’ had to rethink the whole creative process

How do you make something that has two physical sides have no sides at all?

Compact Cassettes, were the way that home recording artists distributed their ART. Cassettes consisted of two miniature spools, between which magnetically coated plastic tape was passed and wound between them. These spools and other mechanical (physical) parts were contained and supported inside a protective plastic shell. Two stereo pairs of tracks (four in total) or two monaural analog audio tracks could be recorded onto this fragile tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second pair when moving in the other direction – thus creating two sides. Cassettes produced a lot of ‘hiss’ and were a very poor method of  archiving and storing audio. The trick was to get as much recorded volume onto the magnetic surface with out making the ‘music’ distort.

With the conception of downloading audio, the ‘audio artist’ had to rethink the whole creative process.

This is probably my most favorite This Window cassette release. http://www.thiswindow.org/ex1.html

Released in 1989 on a Belgian label it was remixed and is available at most retail download stores. It was always meant to be a composition of two halves – side A and side B but neither CDs or mp3s have sides. The remixes have been split into four sections and when played randomly on a player manage to work. The original concept of two halves has now become one of many plausible combinations – how weird is that? – When it was conceived (by four naked people in a bath) this was not an option.

Music Releases

See This Window the pseudonym of Peter Bright.

All my love Marni

My Grandparents

Related articles

This Window – free Microsoft download

This%20WindowIn 2009 A free download of ‘You Have The Power‘ by This Window was made possible by Microsoft. There were 1,000s of other FREE songs were available to download. These free downloads (m4a and mp3) were all from ReverbNation artists and made possible through the Sponsored Songs program. These songs were EXCLUSIVE to the program, which meant you would have to pay to get these downloads from anywhere else.

This was a fantastic success with thousands of copies of the track being downloaded, which helped sell other artworks.

Morgue Studio Demos (CDr)

Label: M4TR Productions
Catalog#: M4tr008
Format: CDr Limited Edition
Country: UK
Released: 20 May 2008
Genre: Rock
Style: Art Rock, Goth Rock
Credits: Bass – Jake Bright
Note The first four tracks on this CD were recorded between March and May 2008 at Morgue Studio and the fifth is a section from This Window’s 30 minute live set which was streamed (via the Internet) to the Plac.Art.X event in Leerer Beutel/ Regensburg Germany on the 18th August 2007. This CD is a limited release of 100.Read review of Morgue Studio Demos  by Mick Mercer

Tracklisting:

1 Where Is My Jesus? (3:30)
2 Is It A Dream? (3:12)
3 You Have The Power (3:02)
4 Avocets (3:45)
5 (live) Salle De Bain (2:21)

Beauty and the Beast

£51.12

Media: Painting and Screen Print on canvas, signed and dated 2011.Size: 400mm x 400mmBuy here…

Cassette Culture an art network

Cassette Culture was an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s, it emerged from the DIY ethic of punk. In the UK cassette culture was born during the post-punk period, 1978–1984, extending through the late ’80s and into the ’90s. It was a postal-based network identical to the mail art scene.

The packaging and designing of the insert sleeve of cassette releases was an important part of the movement, a high degree of creativity and originality was visable in the execution of the overall appearence of the prioduct. Most of the  packaging relied on traditional plastic shells with a photocopied “J-card” insert but some artists broke away from the restrictive dimensions of the audio cassette format, either in a slick graphic  way or by  taking an anti-art stand point  – using a conceptual, DADA methodology .

BWCD released a cassette by Japanese noise artist Aube that came tied to a blue plastic ashtray shaped like a fish. EEtapes of Belgium release of This Window  “Extraction 2” was packaged with an X-ray of a broken limb in 1995. The Barry Douglas Lamb album “Ludi Funebres” had the cassette box buried in some earth contained in a larger outer tin and covered in leaves.

The European scene was very active during this period with exceptional ‘labels’ appearing in Germany and Belgium.

IRRE Tapes (Germany) run by Matthias Lang evolved out of the IRRE Fanzine which he published regularly during the early 1980’s covering New Wave, Post Punk and the German Underground. This European cassette label helped to spread the word around the world, supporting the independent, self financed artist, releasing material by the likes of Brume, Maeror Tri, City Of Worms and This Window. His eclectic taste covered the whole range of the DIY, Independent Underground music scene from Experimental Electronica to Guitar Pop.

Below is an extract from an interview on The Living Archive Of Underground Music, which is an archive dedicated to Cassette culture, home taping, tape trading and mail art from the 1980s to the present. The Living Archive Of Underground Music is written and edited by Don Campau. Read more…

Wie hattest Du das Label bekannt gemacht? Durch Magazine, andere Labels, Radio?

How did you spread the word of the tape label? Magazines, other labels, radio?

Tja ob IRRE Tapes je bekannt war? Wenn dann eher durch das unabhängige Netzwerk in der ganzen Welt, damals konnte man auch noch kostengünstig Tapes in andere Länder schicken… die Mehrzahl der Tapes wurde mit Gleichgesinnten in der ganzen Welt getauscht, so richtig kommerziell verkauft wurden die wenigsten – dafür hab ich heute aber auch noch unzählige Kisten alter Tapes die ich im Tausch damals bekommen hatte. Es gab zwar auch kommerziellere Vertriebe, die aber nie wirklich lange z.B. der tolle 235 Laden ich glaube in Bad Honnef. Die hatten auch mit tolle Mailorder-Kataloge, geniale Ideen z.B. gab es da das Tape des Monats das man per Dauerauftrag bekommen konnte……

Well, if IRRE-tapes were really that popular? If so, the independent network all around the world helped to make the label popular…at that time postage for tapes to be sent to other countries was quite cheap…the majority of tapes was swapped with artists all around the world and only a very few were really commercially sold. I still have many boxes full of old tapes that I received by trade. There were also more commercial distributors that never existed so long, like the 235-shop in Bad Honnef. They had great mailorder-catalogues and it was even possible to get there the „tape of the month“ by periodical payment order.

The Insanely Happy EP – Insane from Belgium

Alain Neffe is probably one of the most influential ‘cassette underground’ people around, his Belgian label Insane released many of the 1980?s heroes of the home taping and mail art scenes. Here is an opportunity to get a collectors edition … Continue reading ?

Alms in the house

We have had the pleasure of ‘Alms’ rehearsing in the living room. Splendid sounds wafting over the rooftops out to sea.

They have packed up their gear and are off to play in the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe – better get ready to go.

This post was an excuse to use the new Wordpeess app for iPhone – it should be more stable. Let’s see…..

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