The Cassette Box

We remain outside the box for this week’s entry, and we also continue with the Australian theme from last year. What we have is another tape from Kathy, this one sent to me in late 2001. It consists of three live sets recorded from Triple J over the course of the summer (well summer in the UK, winter in Oz) of 2001, so let’s get to it!   Artist: Various Album: Something for Kate, Alex Lloyd, Coldplay UK Record Label: N/A UK Release Date: 2001 UK Single Releases from Album: N/A   Something for Kate – Live at the Wireless: First up we have a set recorded by Something for Kate for Live at the Wireless (recorded on the 16 th of July and first broadcast on the 30 th of the same month). Something for Kate were actually a pretty big deal in Australia at the time, having just released their third album Echolalia a few weeks previously, which reached number two on the ARIA Albums chart. I don’t think I’d really heard anything by them before receiving this tape, but I do remembe...

We stay outside the box for this week’s entry, and it’s another compilation tape of Australian music, this time courtesy of my friend Roz. I recounted here how I became a fan of the Whitlams, and when the band announced their first ever show on these shores, several UK based fans (mostly ex-pat Aussies) on the mailing list decided to arrange a meet up prior to the show. Roz was instrumental in the organising of this, and a great time was had by all. We became friends and over the course of the next few years attended a number of gigs together, and at some point, she made me this tape of 80s and 90s Australian indie music. As with most of these tapes it’s a long time since I’ve listened to this, so I’m looking forward to revisiting it. There are a fair few connections to both the Whitlams and Candle Records on this one, so for no real reason, I think I’ll point these out as I go.   Artist: Various Album: Roz’s Oz Mix for Jodie UK Record Label: N/A UK Release Date: 2002 UK Single Re...

Another excursion outside the box this week, and it’s a definite curio in the collection. Remember when I mentioned here that whilst packing to move house in 2014, I found two cassettes that I had no recollection of acquiring? Well, as mentioned in that post, one was Programmed for Fitness with the Green Goddess, the other was today’s entry. I think I may have bought this cheaply in a charity shop intending to gift it to David as a joke, but I obviously never got around to doing that. What we have here is Memories are made of this (18 Golden Love Songs) by Val Doonican. I can’t say the Big Valbowski is particularly my cup of tea, but I did like his, erm, “cameo” in ‘The Intro & The Outro’ by the Bonzo Dog Band. Anyway, unsurprisingly I’ve never listened to this before, and I’m not sure how much I’ll find to say about most of it, but the (arbitrary) rules I’ve set myself are that I have to listen to every tape, so here we go.   Artist: Val Doonican Album: Memories are made of...

  This week we delve back into the box once again, and it’s another tape that David copied for me in the summer of 2001. What we have here is a twofer, with Daisies of the Galaxy by Eels on side 1 and Knock Knock by Smog on side 2, so without further ado let’s get to it! Artist: Eels Album: Daisies of the Galaxy UK Record Label: DreamWorks UK Release Date: 28th February 2000 UK Single Releases from Album: 'Mr. E's Beautiful Blues' and 'Flyswatter' Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) has been making music since the mid-1980s, he signed with Polydor in the early-1990s and released two solo albums A Man Called E (1992) and Broken Toy Shop (1993). Whilst touring in support of the latter he began working with drummer Jonathan “Butch” Norton, and in 1995 the two of them teamed up with bassist Tommy Walter to form Eels. Shortly thereafter they signed with the fledgling DreamWorks label and like most people in the UK, I’m fairly sure I first heard Eels when Radio 1 started...