"The Girls' Tapes" ... Part 2

Hello folks,

and yes, here comes the second part of this highly entertaining series: I'm sure you all thought to yourselves that I wouldn't at all get this far, and rightly so perhaps!


I really was overwhelmed by the amount of comments I got for the first part: thank you so much!! And if I made anyone jealous, this of course was not intended by any means. Nevertheless I'm swollen with pride ... and can't stop laughing though!! Then again: what you don't know is that I must have made hundreds of tapes for various girls in my younger days, so the fact that I received a handful back in return has to be seen at the appropriate rate!

I forgot to mention in the first part that most of the songs are in fact transferred from the actual tapes, so if you've been wondering why the sound quality is even more dodgy than usual: that's the reason behind it! Okay, not all the songs, the first two the first part come from a different source, because the tape is barely listenable by now - it must have had rather a hard life in the past 29 years - and the same is true for the first two of the below. As fas ar these are concerned, it is a real shame that the sound quality is as bad as it is, because on the tape there was a live version of 'Girlfriend', source unknown to me, but simply fantastic! I do wish I could present it here, it really is awesome! Instead you'll get the album version, but, shouldn't you know it already, it is a stormer as well! Perhaps the live version comes from the 'Hamburg' - album which the band recorded under the moniker of 'The Jazz Butcher And His Sikkorskis From Hell' ... it's available for fair prices over at discogs, so perhaps I should get hold of a copy, just in case it is the case ....

Iris went to school with me and she lived in the next village. Although she has the same last name as me, we are no relatives, at least as far as I know. Then again I grew up in a very rural area indeed, so with 300 years of inbreeding there, one can never be fully sure ... but less said about that the better! A street away from her place there was a village "discotheque" which we frequently visited when I was 19 and 20, the nights always ended up with us being the last guests in the venue, draining the bar with the waitresses. I couldn't drive any longer, of course, that's why Iris often took me home with her, so that I could sleep at her place. Nothing ever happened though, because a) we were too drunk and b) the inbred-theory always hung over us like a sword of Damocles!

If memory serves correctly she got this tape in 1987 from a DJ who worked in one of the finest Aachen clubs at the time, the Rotation, so basically it represents the stuff which was played there at night. And there are so many fine tunes on it, you wouldn't believe it! Some danceable stuff, tons of great alternative and indie tunes, old New Wave, a perfect mix which brings back memories of the wonderful nights we had in this place:

mp3: Iris H.: Colin Newman - 'Their Terrain' ('86)

mp3: Iris H.: Jazz Butcher - 'Girlfriend' ('86)

Iris used a BASF Chrome Super II 90. After school she got a job in sweets factory in town, I have no idea whether she is still there. Contact: no, although if my nephew manages to convince me to join him for heavy drinking in the village pub after the annual Christmas dinner at my sister's place, I might see her again. I was way too tired last year, but perhaps this year, who possibly can tell?

Lydia went with by best mate's little brother in 1994. She didn't come from our area, so I never knew her very well before the whole gang went to an open air gig in Bonn in the summer of '94. Swell played there, so did NOFX and Sick Of It All, but also Dead Moon. It was them who impressed us mightily, so there was quite a lot by Dead Moon on said tape:

mp3: Lydia T.: Dead Moon - 'It's O.K.' ('94)

mp3: Lydia T.: Dinosaur Jr. - 'Start Choppin' ('92)

Lydia used a TDK SA 90, she and my mate's brother married one or two years later. Whether they are still together or not I don't know, I'm willing to have a small bet though that this is not the case ...


More family entertainment next week, friends, stay tuned and leave comments, okay?


Take care,


Dirk