Star Zone and the Lost Tape: The Foothills article.

Star Zone and the Lost Tape

June 21, 2013 in 2013, Authors, July August, 

I sent in a heap of photos but this is the only one that they used.

It went missing about ten years ago and I thought that it was gone for good; but there it was: a little dusty and missing half of it’s cover .

But it looked like it would still play.

Back in the 1980s I was lucky enough to interview a legend of the music business, the pianola roll music business. Charles Urqhart was well into his eighties when I tracked him down and sadly he would be long dead by now, so the chances of another interview were slim to say the least.

He was a very friendly man and the interview was a glimpse into a forgotten era.

A long time ago I promised the National Film and Sound Archive that I would send them a copy of the tape if I ever tracked it down. Well, I’d tracked it down but how do I get a copy of an old compact cassette in this day and age?

I needed copies and I needed a digital transfer to keep this recording safe. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. ‘Back ups’, is the mantra of the twenty first century!

How lucky was I that foothills resident Paul has a shop in the Belgrave Arcade. Star Zone does all sorts of sound and music related activities.

I remembered seeing his shop when I was out walking our dogs. I really did not want to go traipsing down to the big smoke just to solve this problem and thanks to Paul and Star Zone, I didn’t have to.

When I got the call to collect my precious tape I was pleasantly surprised to find that Paul had ‘gone the extra mile’ without adding anything to the agreed price. He had downloaded an article and some photos on the history of Pianola Rolls and he made an extra digital copy for me.

He had spent a fair bit of time ‘cleaning up’ the quality of the sound (you can imagine how bad the sound was from a quarter of an inch tape recorded on a cheap recorder in the 1980s!)

Like everyone who lives in the foothills I try to support local business wherever I can so it was great to have my problem solved locally.

If you need any sound recording, video clips produced or records and tapes transferred to CD, Star Zone is the place to go. Belgrave Arcade shop 14.

There is a sign behind the counter at Star Zone which says, “Just Be Famous, you’ll feel better”.

I may not be famous but I certainly feel better.

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This is one of two articles that I wrote for the just published ‘The Foothills Newspaper’ July/August edition.

The newspaper now has an online presence.

I also write a column called “Understanding Your Dog” and the article I wrote for that column can be read here:

Some of the photos that did not make the cut:

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