2013.06.30 [mark vernon]

this edition of framework:afield has been produced by mark vernon, in honour of his new work, location recordings by east midlands tape recording clubs (1959-1978), which is being released as issue #5 of our framework:seasonalseries, summer 2013 edition. if you don’t know, mark has spent many years documenting and communicating with the original members of the tape recording clubs that existed in that area at that time, and has produced a number of radio shows featuring sounds from their archives. this will be his first actual release on the topic, though, and we’re very excited to be able to present it as part of our ongoing series.

we’ll be sending out more details on the release soon, but it is available for preorder now, as usual in exchange for your donation of 20€ or more to framework radio. show your support!

this show, focusing specifically on the leicester tape recording club, features different material to what is found on the framework:seasonal release. a few words from mark on the subject:

This programme is dedicated to all those who venture out into the world clutching cables, spools and microphones, leaving the solid comforts of bingo, the telly and the wife. Lost in their endless quest for the elusive, the enchanting, the all satisfying object they seek – the right sound, with a good signal to noise ratio…

The past is often said to be a foreign country. This programme features audio postcards from some of the inhabitants. Active in the 60s and 70s, the Leicester Tape Recording Club was a club for tape recording enthusiasts united in their dedication to the art of recording sound. Like a latter day Mass Observation these amateur sound recordists sometimes unintentionally captured the minutiae of a now surreal suburbia. A forgotten world of bri-nylon, briar pipes and tank-tops met an arcane society who spoke of tape-speeds and soldering irons. We take a nostalgic (and occasionally humorous) look at the club and its members as their memories wow and flutter like their disintegrating reel-to-reel recordings. This is a story not just of a club but a community, a community of hobbyists, amateurs and charming personalities who captured otherwise long extinct phenomena like ‘The Golden Wonder Boy’. Memories are made of hiss…