Most of the fun of doing this is the little discoveries.
And here is one, a complete 30 minute conversation courtesy of Jason Cohen’s microcassette recorder, talking to Paddy in about 2001, prior to the release of the Gunman.
Some of the interview made it out in the form of a piece for Stereophile Magazine which I already published. Nearly a year ago, which was when I tracked Jason down and asked about the original tape.
And there’s the thing, there is often a long time between the “discovery”, and actually getting your hands on the goods. It was a real roller coaster actually, looked like Jason’s stash of microcassettes had gone missing, then it finally turned up in a box, I think during a house move. During this time Jason, who is a lovely bloke, even if it does take him MONTHS to find a SODDING CARDBOARD BOX, SHEESH, patiently endured a lot of nagging and pokes.
Meanwhile I’d picked up a lovely little Sanyo hifi microcassette player from the 1980s for the best possible transcription quality. Which is great, except it’s not exactly the most reliable of beasts, and there’s always the worry when you do this that you’ll hear a screeching sound as the tape shreds or the whole bloody thing will just catch fire.
But with a little bit of careful fast forwarding and rewinding, the transcription was done safely, and I’m now well on my way to digitising the rest of his stash and getting on with nagging the remaining four people on the discovery list. You know who you are.
And that’s the offer always – if you have something interesting Sproutwise, an interview, VHS tape, bootleg cassette, I’ll gladly digitise it to high standards, and sort out safe courier pick up and return where needed. And while I’m doing that, always happy to digitise other things too.
But back to the subject in hand – here is a great 30 minute interview from Paddy’s New York period. There’s a podcast link here, or you can play it back below.