Analogue in a digital age

These days all of the music i listen to is in a digital format. I buy mp3s from Bandcamp (mostly), i do not use any of the streaming sites as i regard them as evil. Don't rip off artists, unless it is Gary Glitter or something. However, in the past i used to buy and listen to a lot of music on a variety of physical, and analogue, formats.

This included compact discs of course, i used to have hundreds of them. I still have quite a few though never listen to any of them, and i'm not sure if i still have a player. Going back further, the first music i ever bought was on cassette format, and of course i used to make compilation tapes on TDK90s to play on my Dad's car stereo.

I miss cassette tapes, and i actually have a trio of recent albums released on the format which i haven't got around to listening to yet, because i didn't have a decent player. That has changed with the arrival of this neat little music box which i have just treated myself to. It also has a radio tuner, and can even play mp3s via USB or SD card, though i got it to play tapes and a retro thrill it is. I have the latest album by my current favourite artist Yota on order. I have it as mp3 already of course but getting it on cassette will be fun.

Look-in Television Annual 1974

Look-in was a pop culture magazine aimed at teenagers which ran for many years, this was the 1974 annual. The annual is a fascinating look at what the "youth" were into (or maybe supposed to be into) back then, and also what was considered cool. Yes, there is a photo of Gary Glitter on page 8.

So, what was cool in 1974? Bless This House was a popular sit-com at the time, and gets a comic strip here. The artist only seems to have had a vague notion of what Sid James looked like though. Kung Fu, Doctor At Sea and Black Beauty are among the other TV series featured.

There are a lot of pop stars too, some of whom haven't been cancelled in recent years for their actions in the 1970s plus some quizzes and jokes. A pleasant look into what kids were into back then, in an age way before social media. 

Gary Glitter Annual 1976

Everyone who was everyone had an annual released about them in the 1970s, including disgraced former pop star sex offender Gary Glitter. This book is a glimpse from back when it wasn't weird at all to leave a middle aged man alone with children.

The annual is darkly unintentionally humorous in many ways, and contains a huge amount of cheese. The annual includes the usual features of such a book: profile information, child pics (of him i should add!), his influences et cetera. There are also photo features of Gary in the kitchen, Gary's driving lessons and Gary on stage. It is all the Gary Glitter you could ever want (which is quite likely not a huge amount these days).

The funniest thing in the annual is a comic strip detailing how Glitter nearly gave it all after a low point early in his career (oh if only he knew!) The comic version of Glitter looks nothing like him of course and is curiously low energy. It was probably drawn by someone who had met him.

So, a very odd collection of nonsense indeed about a very awful man.