Craic On

David Bowie

Many years ago, in the dim and distant past, I was listening to the radio.

There was a live concert on and I didn’t know the artist.

After a couple of songs I had to tape the concert so I got out my tape recorder with the reels and taped it.

I used to play the tape over and over again but didn’t know who the artist was.

Found Out the Artist’s Name

Months later, I found out.

It was David Bowie and he was just about to break, as they say.

The songs were a mixture of songs from his Hunky Dory album, e.g. Life on Mars and his upcoming Ziggy Stardust album like Starman.

Hunky Dory, although a great album, didn’t sell till Ziggy Stardust became a big hit.

Any Other Recordings

I wonder if there is any other recording of that concert.

I don’t know which radio station it was, but it was probably BBC Radio One. There wasn’t a great choice in those days.

I would doubt very much that the radio station would have kept the tapes of the concert.

They didn’t do that sort of thing in those days – especially of an unknown artist as he was then.

They reused the tape or the film for something else.

Indeed, an iconic interview between Michael Parkinson and John Lennon no longer exists because they used the film reel again.

Unlikely to be Recorded

Very few people had tape recorders in those days, so it would be unlikely that someone would record a concert by what was then an unknown star.

So, there’s a great possibility that this tape was the only tape of that concert in existence.

Sadly, it is no longer in existence.

I didn’t overwrite it. I kept it for years.

However, our family home in Greenock burnt down while I was living in London and the tape recorder went with it.

I wonder what this iconic tape would be worth now if I still had it – probably millions.

They could have brought out a new, just discovered, live album with the concert on it.

Ah well!

Some you win and some you lose!