Following the 30 December 1974 seminal reference to Paul Deacon in my diary:
Breaking The World Record For Coin Catching With Paul Deacon, Woodfield Avenue, 30 December 1974
…I have a few more references to Paul Deacon in my early 1975 diary, at least one of which for sure was a recording session.
The relevant passage reads:
19 February 1975: went to Paul Deacon’s house. Played all day. “One sir, humanoid or similar”.
I do remember making that recording. The phrase came from Star Trek and for some reason we latched on to it. I even remember the second section of the phrase: “low level of activity”.
We derived a little tune from these phrases and made silly recordings, long since lost. I can even remember the tune, but I feel loathe to attempt a retrospective recording.
Paul might remember it all himself or use various methods of bribery, intoxication or both to get me to give a rendition.
Postscript/Update: Overnight, after sending Paul this piece, not only did Paul submit a comment (below), he also sent me an audio file. Clearly this rendition is an octave or two lower than the pre-teen original, but needless to say, the tune is note perfect. The recording is, it is, in its own way, authentic:
Thank you, Paul. Of course, that 2018 rendition will have been recorded, with ease, using whatever simple recording gadgetary comes as an essential, basic component in Paul’s computer.
Back then, in February 1975, I think Paul was using a cassette deck for his recordings, but perhaps he was already using reel-to-reel – he was certainly well into the latter eventually.
But, by then, we the Harris family had no ordinary reel-to-reel – we had a brand new Sony TC377…
…which looked like the above image and had, amongst its many features, a wonderful feedback/echo chamber facility. With that facility, Paul and I recorded a sort-of psychedelic version of Some Enchanted Evening on one occasion. It might have been the occasion registered in the following diary entry:
Wednesday 9 April 1975. Paul Deacon came for day. Nice time.
The details are lost in the mists of time, but for sure I was enjoying those school holiday muck around with tape recorders days.
Such a shame the tapes seem to have been lost forever.
