Recording Studios Mythbuster – Erasing Tapes On The Underground
- Place – Tangerine Studios, North London
- Time – The 70s
- Artist – The Child Prince
North London Studio, Tangerine had a child prince from the Middle East booked into the studio to read a religious document. All seemed to be fine, the young prince and his entourage left very happily with the recording.
The original master tape was to be topped and tailed, a safety copy made and sent on to an address in central London. The next day it was discovered that the that the quarter inch master tape was totally blank.
The tape had been mistakenly recorded over the night before; someone had used it as an echo reel tape. This meant the tape was set in record and the echo plate signal was sent to the tape to act as a delay, a very common practice in studios at this time.
Dave Meyers, who co-ran Tangerine Studios, realised this was an absolute catastrophe and so decided to send the young tea boy to the address in London with a blank reel of tape, where the client was awaiting delivery. Meyers then waited for the call.
Once it had been discovered, a very irate client phoned the studio to complain that the tape was completely blank;
Dave said, “I’ll look into it and call you back”
Sometime later he called and explained that he had fired the young lad after finding out that instead of taking a taxi, he had travelled on an underground train. Obviously, he did this so he could keep the cab money he had been given him to deliver the tape. Now, sadly, the tape was erased due to the strong magnetic forces of the underground train engines.
From then on and for many, many years no one ever risked travelling with magnetic recording tapes on the underground, unless the tapes were completely wrapped in tin foil.
Knowing the real story, I have never worried about taking tapes on the tube and never once had a problem.
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