popular music

Digitising Low Band U-matic Video Tapes – The resurgence of Philip Jap, pop icon

Front cover of 7" single 'Save Us', Philip Jap making an elegant dance pose

Philip Jap came from a time when mime, dance, slapped bass lines, mascara and techno-dystopic anthems were staple parts of a successful popular music career. Cut from the same new wave goth cloth as Gary Numan, Human League and John Foxx, sporting mesmeric dance moves like a male Kate Bush, Jap lit up the early 1980s with performances on the David Essex Showcase, an audience participation talent show similar to today’s Britain’s Got Talent or Pop Idol. Jap went on to sign for Carlin Music Publishing and A&M Records, release an eponymous solo album and have a top 40 hit with ‘Save Us,’ a dramatic plea for liberation from an increasingly intrusive ‘mechanical world.’

Jap retains a modest yet loyal fanbase (The Philip Jap Army), and his recordings will soon be made available through his twitter site. Although he did not have runaway commercial chart success, Jap went on to have a successful career as a composer and arranger for TV series and commercials and is the co-founder of AUDIOfield, a music production company.

The Greatbear studio has been graced with Jap’s music this week because we have been migrating a collection of low-band U-matic videos that feature a number of TV appearances and promotional videos, including the 30 minute ‘special’ that was recorded for the BBC.  In similar fashion to our recent transfer of Manchester Oi! band State Victims, the tapes were found in an old suitcase in a barn!

Although the tapes were mostly in good condition, some of the tapes were recorded on early SONY brand and were suffering from low Radio Frequency (RF) levels. RF levels are the recorded levels that can be read off the tape itself. To get a good, clear picture it is essential that the RF levels are strong. According to the AV Artifact Atlas, RF deterioration can occur because of a ‘poorly made recording on broken or mis-calibrated machine/record heads, or the use of poor quality video tape stock.’ Low RF levels may also occur if ‘the source media itself has been exposed to a strong magnetic field (unshielded speakers, motors, high-voltage transformers, etc.)’.

When a tape is suffering from low RF levels there are not loads of things you can do to reverse the process. This is because the signal recorded on the tape has essentially faded over time, due to a bad initial recording, unsuitable storage conditions leading to de-magnetisation or sticky shed, or poor quality tape (such as AMPEX or SONY U-matic tapes, although not exclusively). It is possible however to modify the tracking, a calibration adjustment which ensures the spinning playback head is properly aligned with the helical scan signal written onto the video tape. Tracking changes the speed at which the tape moves past the tape heads, which although spinning during playback, remain stationary. It is not the answer of all low RF ills, however, because the signal on the tape itself has become weaker, even if the calibration adjustment helps the machine read the signal more effectively.

Thankfully the tapes play back well, which is pretty amazing given that the tapes are over 30 years old and were never meant to be archive copies in the first place. We have also had a pretty enjoyable time watching and listening to Philip Jap’s amazing music. It is definitely time for a revival!

Posted by debra in video tape, 2 comments

Jack Hollingshead’s lost Apple recordings on reel-to-reel tape

Digital technologies have helped to salvage all manner of ‘lost’ or ‘forgotten’ recordings. Whole record labels, from the recently featured Bristol Archive Records to institutional collections like Smithsonian Folkways, are based on the principle of making ‘hard to access’ recordings available in digital form.

Occasionally we get such rare recordings in the Greatbear studio, and we are happy to turn the signal from analogue to digital so the music can be heard by new audiences. Last week we were sent a particularly interesting collection of tapes: a box of nearly 40 3”-10.5” reel to reel tapes from the songwriter and artist Jack Hollingshead, who sadly passed away in March 2013. The tapes are in good condition, although the spools are pretty dirty, most probably from being stored under the bed or at the back of a cupboard, as these things often are! Jack’s tape came to our attention after a phone call from the writer Stefan Granados, who wanted to arrange for a few songs to be digitised for a research project he is doing focused around the Beatles’ Apple Records company.

The Beatles set up Apple Records in 1968 as an outlet for their own and emerging artists’ recordings. Well known performers who were signed to Apple included Mary Hopkin, Ravi Shankar, James Taylor and many others. But there were also a number of artists who recorded sessions with Apple, but for one reason or another, their music was never released on the label. This is what happened to Jack’s music. Jack’s Apple sessions are psychedelic pop-folk songs with striking melodies, song cousins of drowsy Beatles hits like ‘Across the Universe’. He recorded seven songs in total, which we received on magnetic tape and acetate disc, the test cut of the recording that would have been printed on vinyl. We digitised from the magnetic tape because the disc was in fairly poor condition and we didn’t know how many times the disc had been played.

https://cdn.thegreatbear.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/jack-hollingshead-mono-track-1.mp3?_=1

Listen to ‘Vote for ME’ by Jack Hollingshead

 

It wasn’t the first time that Jack’s work had aroused record company interest. When he was 16 he signed a contract with Aberbach publishers. Like his experience with Apple a few years later, nothing came of the sessions, and because the companies owned the recordings, he was not able to release them independently.

Jack soon became very frustrated by the record industry in the late 1960s and decided he would do it himself. This was ten years before home recording became widely accessible, so it was not easy, either financially or technically.

In the 1970s a series of serious accidents, and a spell in prison, proved to be disruptive for his musical career. Jack’s prison sentence, received for growing marijuana he was using for medical pain relief purposes, was however fairly positive. It gave him time to focus on playing guitar and he wrote his best songs while incarcerated.

The back of a test acetate is grooveless

He continued to write and record music throughout his life, and there is a significant amount of material that Trina Grygiel, who is responsible for managing Jack’s estate, is determined to organise and release in his memory.

Jack was also prodigiously talented artist in other mediums, and turned his hand to puppet making, wax painting, gardening and property restoration. His obituary described him as a ‘perfectionist, in all his artistic, creative and practical endeavours he would settle for nothing less.’

Posted by debra in audio tape, 0 comments

VHS / Hi8 video tapes digitised for The Great Hip Hop Hoax

For a while now we’ve been working with film maker Jeanie Finlay on various projects, digitising archive video footage in varying tape formats and standards.

Her latest project, soon to be premiered in the US:

…is a film about truth, lies and the legacy of faking everything in the desperate pursuit of fame. The American dream, told by people who’d never even been to America.

We digitised a collection of VHS and Hi8 camcorder and full sized tapes and delivered Apple ProRes files for the edit.
See the trailer here:

The Great Hip Hop Hoax from Jeanie Finlay on Vimeo.

www.hiphophoax.com / www.facebook.com/hiphophoax

Posted by greatbear in video tape, 0 comments