“Deck went extremely wrong – fixed it+ cured Rumble & scratchy sound”
Weirdly, I do remember this…
The deck started making every record played on it sound as if it had underlying african rhythms. Which is fine if you’re David Byrne, but no good if you’re a 16-year-old teenager listening to the Edgar Broughton Band or Tonto’s [...]
“Physics revision in morning – Went to Southampton in Afternoon bought Dust Bug”
Another dust bug? I thought I bought one in November 1972?
It really was a weird contraption. A length of plastic with a small brush and furry roller which you moved to sit on the record before it started spinning. The brush moved dust [...]
“Bort 2 cassettes from Comet – Recorded 2Man – Work, out on bike in pitch black darkness (figures!)”
The music piracy and piss-poor grocery delivering continue unabated!
“Bort recording lead + Record Cleaner. Recorded 1Man”
Remember all those albums I recorded by placing the tape recorder’s microphone in front of the speaker of my parent’s portable record player?
Well, now it looks like I have to record them all again, this time using a ‘recording lead’ patched from my new amplifier straight into the [...]
• “half-term – OFF TO LONDON TO GET HI-FI (I hope)”
• “Got a crappy amp – Dad has to take it back”
• “Got a new amp – Sounds BRILLIANT!”
October 29th’s entry was written in advance.
I remember some of this story. Dad & I drove to some non-descript warehouse on an industrial estate somewhere near the Wembley [...]
“Decided to buy Alba HOUS208″
Alba were another of those ‘affordable’ hi-fi brands that littered the marketplace back in the Seventies.
Search as I have, I can find no online reference to – or photos of – this particular amplifier, but I indeed remember it quite well.
It was not of standard design. Not for me the ‘boring’ traditional [...]
“Went to Comet after school – saw the Solarvox TAM1105 – didn’t like it”
Solarvox – or more properly – Solavox appear to still be going, producing remote controls it would seem.
Back in the day, their name was synonymous with budget stereo equipment. It doesn’t appear as if their TAM1005 (amp? tuner? what?) impressed me that much however. [...]
“Went to Hi-Fi exhibition in E’Leigh”
In a run of synaptual successes, I can also remember this exhibition… although – naturally – nothing whatsoever specific about it.
It was held on the badminton courts at Fleming Park Sports Centre, dealers laying their wares out on a series of tables and/or having sizeable marquee-style displays.
I’ve often wondered if this [...]
“Bludy hot. Went to London for the day with Trev. Good larf. Saw Monotone amp – SMART!”
Blimey, England was in the midst of a heatwave! Two “bludy hot” days in a row.
We probably caught the train to London, each buying a simple ‘cheap day return’ ticket for travel from Eastleigh to Waterloo, the only restriction being [...]
“Went up Dicks, back into E.Leigh & got hair done. Sent off radio quiz. After work went got Nigs h.phones for him”
I was thinking about headphones the other day.
Whilst I now spend a proportion of each day (at the gym) wearing the earbuds from my iPod, back in the early seventies I only rarely wore headphones.
About [...]
“Work all day – Nig got his stereo outfit”
I always seemed to have been beaten to the punch in the friendly battle of “getting new stuff”. I remember at the time we were both hankering for new stereo equipment on which to play our growing collection of music.
Nig just always appeared to get there quicker. [...]
“Went up Trevs, Andy V’s & then to Mark’s – saw his new cassette player – quite smart!” / “Dave C gave me Phantas back” / “12 miles”
As both today’s AND yesterday’s diary entries seem to suggest “smart!” was obviously a word I was prone to using a LOT?!!
I cycled 12 miles on this date [...]
“Argument” / “Got 10/- for cleaning car – last time I will do it – ee’s movin” / “Bort hi-fi mag”
On no……… my supplemental source of income was moving away!
Still, ten bob (shillings) – or 50p – was quite the sum for a teenage lad in those days so I doubtless didn’t complain too much.
Especially [...]
“Lost to Sned at table tennis 21-9, 21-10, 21-13″ / “Dun me leg in again” / “Got report – good!!! (Phew)!” / “Got 10p for working 5 mins over Sperrins” / “Bort hi-fi mag!”
I am getting better at table tennis aren’t I? You can visibly see the improvement in my losing streak today!
What exactly did [...]
