Yellow Paper

While racing through a three-hour knitting marathon last night, I tuned in to Jazz 625 and watched the Dave Brubeck Quartet, all suits and seriousness, groove their way through a few jazz toons. What struck me most was the sound quality- the audio tape was slipping in a perfect reproduction of the tapes I used to make from the radio/tape combo I had on the table at home. I used to sit there drawing into the wee small hours, listening first to John Peel (right from the days of Pete Atkin) then to Jazz Club, taping bits of whatever sounded good. Everything had the first bit missing because I only had about three cassettes and so couldn't tape whole shows. I'd wait until a song began and then if I liked it, press 'record'. I had to tape over everything and my tapes got worn out and fuzzy and slipped. The slippy audio track last night took me right back to my wobbly recordings of Peel shows and rare Jazz Club tracks. There was one that I really liked and tried to keep- Michael Garrick's Galilee which had Norma Winstone on vocals. I became a total fan of her voice and got into Ian Carr's Nucleus for a while (RIP Ian). Unforchly, that track was never released and remains buried under numerous other recordings-over, merely a memory in magnetic particles. When I am a scientist I will devise a way to retrieve lost tracks hidden under tapings-over, just as they find lost images under famous paintings!
... and all that led me to remember that McDad's best friend Charles used to work in the X-Ray Department at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne. X-Ray film at that time came wrapped between slices of folded yellowy-orange paper, and Charles used to save it in massive cardboard boxes, bung it in his car ind bring it over every so often on a Sunday afternoon for me to draw on. Imagine that! For a child who likes drawing, that is the equivalent of regularly being given a thousand pounds to spend. I would spread it all on the table and draw deep into the night.. John Peel, Jazz Club, and Radio Luxemburg, or even occasionally, Radio North Sea...

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Ah- the jingles worked!