|
The sting
Well Tony used to
let me and Andy cut an emidisc or two while we were there with him but
usually only ones that he had, they were about £2.50 each to cut
if I remember rightly which was a lot of money those days, but I could
sell them on for a fiver easily, Which we did but as always I was
never satisfied with that.
Well this was the
great thing I discovered at the time and it might be a little
complicated to understand so pay attention. this bloke who cut these
emidiscs used to also cut them for other top DJ's who had rare some one
off copies of the actual record, but as you know some records do
not play so clearly and most emidiscs were cut from other emidiscs
therefore reproducing bad acetates, clear so far? well remember I
mentioned the reel to reel ? So because of this recording from emi to
emi producing bad copies, Derek [I think that was his name?] used to
record the original records onto the reel to reel tapes when he got the
chance without the DJ's that had the disc even knowing he was doing it,
he said he did it for the sake of clear recordings so people didn't
think he produced bad copies thus giving himself potentially a bad
name. He said he would only use these reel to reel recordings to
cut us an emi if we had a copy of the record or on an emi of it
already, This was only to be fair to the original owners of the
disc. well I believed him and loved him for it because it gave me
a great idea!
The first thing
I did when he wasn't looking was to nick a hand full of labels, these
were to be taken home, stuck to old existing emidiscs that were useless
or copies of records that were released on singles already. After
taking note of the tracks he had on the reel to reel and also knowing
that certain top DJ's had just visited him, I then would proceed
to write the names of the tracks I wanted on the labels which of course
were not actually on the disc. then I rang Derek up one weekday
and asked him if he remembered me from the previous week when I was
there with Tony and he did, I then cheekily asked him if I could come
along that next Saturday to cut some emidiscs on my own, well
surprisingly enough he agreed.
We arrived at the little
shop and he welcomed us in and we went in to the back room as
before, I started by asking him to cut an emi of a record that was quite
easy to get hold of anywhere on acetate and he told me he had a reel to
reel copy of it, I can't remember which one it was. It then came to one
of the discs I didn't have really but desperately wanted at the
time, "Being without you - Maurice Williams" Well those
of you who know who was the only bloke to have a copy of it at that time
will know who it was that visited him recently and hopefully he had
recorded it [secretly] reel to reel as "the DJ" was cutting
emidiscs of it for other DJ's only; not for any old Soulies like
me. I told Derek I had it and wanted a couple of copies
of it, I watched him look at the label and nervously asked
him if he had it on reel to reel as my recording was not too good. I was
frightened to death he would say no but he did record it and I'm sure I
was about to fall over as my legs were jelly.
Well watching
him put that onto an emidisc for me was an awesome sight, not many
ordinary people like me had a copy of that to play at home and I had
two. I had cracked it; and from then on I managed to get hold of
some top stuff like "J D Martin - By yourself" "
Ellingtons - Destined to become a loser" and of course my beloved
"Twans - I can't see him again" and even eventually got
hold of EP's [records with 4 tracks on, 2 each side] and LP's even of
which I used to sell and make a tidy old sum. When the
people concerned read this I am going to get some stick, but
all I can say is.........................................."It was
25 years ago fella's"
|
