Mmmmmmm, Video Tapes.
Video Home System Cassettes.
These were the days when if you wanted to record something, you either relied on the
crappy timer function in your VCR or waited until the program began and finished, poised
with the record and stop buttons.
If you were fancy, you might have had VideoPlus, but WHO EVEN HAD TIME TO LOOK UP THOSE NUMBERS
IN THE RADIO TIMES?!
Anyway, the premise of this video is a simple one.
Earlier today I popped into my garage and retrieved a bag of video tapes I've possessed
since at least the early 90s.
The content of these tapes is somewhat unknown, but my hopes were to go through each one and
perhaps find some gold standard lost footage.
Perhaps of Craig Charles Awoogering through Cyber Zone, or some dodgy late night film
I'd felt the need to record as a wretched 13 year old.
So, I'll be using my trusty Samsung SV-633B VCR for this foray into 90s eroded tape.
It's a well specified machine, with remote, video plus, Nicam stereo sound and even the
ability to playback NTSC tapes, and it seems like quite an abundant model, with various
listings available at eBay.
As you can see, there's a wide variety of tape brands, lengths and indeed labels here.
Some clearly hold films - or did at one point - such as Apollo 13 or Alien 3, whilst others
are more ambiguous.
In any case there's still opportunity for content after the labelled main event.
So hold on to your waste packets, as we begin proceedings with the first tape.
These cardboard sleeves have clearly been shuffled about over the years, but we have
a Bush HQ E180 case holding a Mitsubishi labelled "Super High Quality ENX Grade" E-120 cassette,
scribed with the film title "Nothing to Lose" recorded on Single Play...
You can't fault my teenage tape administration skills.
Playing the cassette reveals I've recorded this one over a copy of of the film Tombstone,
apparently starting a good few minutes in, and I've nabbed it directly from the old analogue
Sky Box Office, which alone induces some forgotten nostalgic feelings.
So this must have been sometime around the year 2000.
The rest of the tape just appears to be a recording of MTV, including some footage of
Cat Deeley presenting Hitlist UK.
Next up in this charming Maxell MEGA POWER TAPE box, we have another Mitsubishi label,
informing us of the Alien movie within.
Although the top label reads a rather ambiguous P'S Tape, which I apparently recorded on Long
Play....
Given the picture quality of Alien, it certainly looks like it's a long play recording, which
again seems to be followed by more MTV dross.
Thankfully this VCR has auto tracking, otherwise I could have spent an entire day on this project.
Wahey, here's one of the Mitsubishi cases, containing a Lloyds VHS with a half size Amstrad
label, devoid of content information.
This lack of content gave me high hopes of a tape jam packed with a mish mash of 90s
television...
anddd, well, it's half way there.
We kick off with some Who Wants to be a Millionaire, move onto a Tommy Cooper documentary, a somewhat
disturbing scene with Ainsley Harriot... although most scenes with Ainsley Harriot are quite
disturbing, and we end up a few episodes of Red Dwarf, season 8.
Dating these recordings to most likely 1999.
So we know by this point that I've recorded a lot of sh*t.
A lot of utterly pointless sh*t.
Hopefully some of it at least by accident.
Which brings us onto this tape, completely devoid of labels, but with what appears to
be some mild mould on the tape reels.
Now, this is a mixed capsule.
We begin with some WWF footage, which given I stopped watching WWF just after Wrestlemania
VII, frankly baffles me.
I don't even know who these people are.
We then move onto The Priory, which was a celebrity chat show type thing from 1992 to
2002.
Presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston, it's safe to say that this was utter garbage.
But I appear to have let the recorder run into the night, capturing this Channel Phwoar
animation.....
there's Jeremy Beadle, and there's the program shining from this lady's fanny...
What in the name of all that is good, even is this?
But all is not lost, we've got a schedule screen telling us this was recorded on Sunday
11th June 2000, and coming up is BITS!
Maybe this is what I was hoping to record at 2:30 in the morning?!
I can't actually remember watching Bits at that period in time, but for those unaware,
it's a gaming show, featuring an all female presenting team, airing from 4th June 1999
to 6th April 2001 on Channel 4.
It appeared in both this late night format and edited morning editions.
Next!
This Super Video E-180 with what appears to be the corresponding tape!
Wahey, containing the film Apollo 13.
Apollo 13 is followed by MORE god damn Music Television, and urggh, that's enough of that.
At this point my hopes were waning for some lost classic television.
I mean Bits was a good find, but you can find all the episodes online easily.
Now, this BASF chromdioxid extra Quality case filled me with hope.
You can see I've scrawled 1/2 of Jaws Revenge... wait?!
What?
HALF of Jaws Revenge?
Who the hell records half a film?!
Man, the 90s.
What a desperate time it was for obtaining feature length movies.
There's also apparently a copy of Turtles I and "SEGA"...
YES.
I have no idea what SEGA content this is referring to, but it sounded promising.
BUT THE TAPE.
THE TAPE, turned out to be "Mum's Tape"...
"Hands Off", and yes.
It appears to contain some bizarre dramatisations which my mother had possibly decided to record
at some point in the unknown past.
Any of this ring a bell to you?
I have no idea.
I presume the tape the sleeve referred to has either been recorded over, or lost.
NEXT!
The labels on this next tape look like they've been through a deep fat fryer.
There's all these cryptic annotations on various tapes as well.
"TAPE: 2", a sticker of the number 2.
Clearly these meant something to me at the time, but now, I have absolutely zero idea.
This VHS has Richard Ashcroft singing "I know I'll see your face again" through a plethora
of tape deterioration and tracking lines.
OH THE IRONY.
Followed by yet more MTV....
I really have no idea why I recorded some much damn Music Television.
Over what was probably gold dust beforehand.
I bet a couple of slivers of Craig Charles shouting Awooga remain on these tapes, somewhere,
recorded over multiple times... along with that half copy of Jaws 2.
Such a waste.
GoldStar case next, containing another Lloyds E180 tape.
The E, by the way denotes this is the running time under the PAL/SECAM system, hence I guess
it stands for Europe.
For NTSC, you'll notice tapes would be labelled T180, as the minutes of video they can hold
who vary dependent on the system in use.
Anyway, this tape holds Alien 3, as stated on the label, along with an alien abduction
documentary and footage of the National Lottery in 1997.
If you had those numbers, you're 20 years too late mate, sorry.
There's also THE SPICE GIRLS.
Yeah boiiiii.
Alright, last tape.
What does it hold, other than Alien Resurrection.
Well, actually, it contains a Spitting Image episode, I think from 1984.
Although I also think this was a repeat which aired sometime during the 90s.
And that's about it.
We've witnessed some reasonably classic TV.
Nothing ground breaking.
Nothing that made me stand up and shout, I remember that!
Well, apart from this Stephen Hawkin advert.
Not that it's an advert FOR Stephen Hawkin.... you get what I'm saying.
So, possibly nothing to write home about, and towards the end of the 90s, In a final
hurrah, I clearly decided that anything interesting I'd recording should be covered with a nice
stream of MTV footage, almost as a big "f*ck you" to my future self.
But still, it's been a treasure hunt of adequate discovery.
and this hunt in particular has also reminded me of the tactile beauty of the VHS cassette.
They may be slow, clunky and noisy to use, but that is all part of the charm.
As is the multitude of makes, lengths, labels, quality and deterioration of each tape.
I think, just like old tape games and floppy disks, the volatility of this medium is one
of the main things which makes them compelling.
It's almost like they continue to live, breath and erode over time.
Just like we do, and it's those qualities which make these mechanical wonders feel closer
to our hearts, than perhaps an SD card would 20 years down the line.