Article published in 'Music & Musician' magazine

'Mourning the slow demise of the pre-recorded cassette album and the sad loss of the 'Record Shop'

During my lunchhour one day this week I walked round the shops in search of a cassette copy of Carole King's famous 'Tapestry' album, a huge multimillion selling LP that almost no 1970s household was without. My parents' vinyl copy has long since expired and as they don't have a CD player I figured a cassette was my best option. You see, I've been very organised when it comes to Xmas shopping this year (for once) and rather than suffer the last minute mad dash around the shops on Xmas Eve I've been buying a present or two each lunchtime for the past couple of weeks. The end result of this preparation is that I've actually managed to get all my christmas shopping done in November thus freeing up the day (or two) that I would otherwise have spent on this task. Almost… I still have one last present to buy, this cassette...

I must admit, it's a long time since I bought a cassette and I was quite unprepared for the almost total disappearance of these charming little devices. Although the town is not exactly blessed with choice on the High Street (unless you're a 'Poundshop' fan of course), it does hold one or two surprises: an excellent library for one thing, a cheap but good DIY store and amazingly 2 excellent record shops, MVC and HMV. I say record shops, but I suppose I should call them 'CD, DVD and video' stores to be accurate. I don't know where I've been for the last few years but it seems as if the cassette as we know it has gradually been ousted (like the good old vinyl LP) by the CD. In the vast MVC, the tiny selection of cassettes had been relegated to a corner display, grouped by artist A to Z. Judging by the motley selection on offer, these clearly had the air of 'old stock' about them which tells you once these are sold, they won't be restocked. In HMV the situation was worse, with NO display of cassettes at all; only selected chart albums included a cassette option and these, priced almost the same as the CD, make an unattractive choice - makes you wonder if there is a master plan at work to discontinue the tape format altogether. Let me make one thing clear before I continue: I don't actually like cassettes myself. They get jammed, they react badly to temperature changes, they're fragile, they lose their quality, they unravel when they get stuck in your tape player… they're horrible things really. And don't misunderstand - I'm a big fan of the CD; I love their compactness, their sturdiness, the fact that you don't have to turn them over. But I also love and cherish my wonderful collection of vinyl LPs collected over the years and although I've reluctantly accepted the demise of vinyl, somehow those fiddly little cassette tapes are the last link to the days of 'proper' record shops where you had 2 choices: vinyl LP or cassette.

I can remember as a young teenager whiling away some magical memorable hours in the record shops in my locale. The 'King' of all record shops was (and still is) HMV in Oxford Street and I can remember the excitement and anticipation that preceded a trip up to London to spend some hard-saved cash on reissued 1950s Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry LPs. Next best was the more local Slough Record Centre (still an excellent shop today) which specialised in imported reissues (mainly from France and Italy) of 50s and 60s albums. A visit here on a Saturday morning was an absolute delight. However, despite my particular penchant was for 'old' music, you didn't necessarily need to head to one of these more specialised shops to pick up these kind of records. 'Our Price' (which endured a long and undignified demise after the more clued-up HMV opened up next door to it) always stocked a huge selection of old and new albums back in the vinyl days. In Slough I picked up some imported 1960s LPs long deleted from the UK catalogue; in Windsor I picked up reissues of the first few Shadows LPs. The whole 'upstairs' section of Our Price in Windsor was devoted to non-chart albums and they always stocked for example, all of the original Jimi Hendrix LPs, old Rolling Stones albums from the early 60s, various Jerry Lee Lewis and Eddie Cochran reissues with their original covers. It was an absolute haven for anyone interested in music.

Furthermore, there were loads of small independent record shops around too - Revolution Records in Windsor, some place in Peascod Street I can't remember the name of (Omni ?), a place in Staines near the railway bridge, a place just over Eton bridge. When was the last time you saw a 'record shop' that wasn't part of a faceless chain?

Even WHSmith, John Menzies and Woolworths had excellent record departments in those days and again, they stocked a good selection of albums right across the board and not just the current chart stuff. Which brings me back to my shopping story…

Finally, and almost ready to admit defeat, I headed for the WHSmith 'record' department. Surely this old favourite wouldn't let me down? But here, all I found was the latest chart CDs (plus an occasional expensive cassette copy) and a pathetic and half-hearted 'selection' of cassettes again giving the impression that they were leftovers shortly destined for the bargain bin. I can remember Smiths used to sell not just records, but all the paraphernalia that goes along with them: record cleaning kits, plastic covers, cassette cases, record cases for LPs or singles - all part and parcel of building up a collection. And as I stood in Smiths I was overcome with despondency when I saw the cheap and nasty looking CD towers and racks they have on their shelves today. A wave of nostalgia swept me over as I realised it's not just the demise of the vinyl record that's to blame for all this, it's the fact that the whole market has changed as the packaging of music has changed. Something has really been lost there. The buzz of excitement from buying a brand new vinyl album and paying an extra 20p for a plastic cover just isn't there when you exchange your £15.00 for a little plastic case containing a CD. Even the CD looks set for eventual obsolescence with the ever-growing market for downloadable music over the internet. And as for cassettes… well I never liked the things anyway but I'll still miss them when they finally disappear. They are a last symbolic link to the wonderful record shops of my youth and all the happy times I spent wandering around them.