THE ACID TAPES CATALOGUE 1983 - 1998. THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS

Welcome to the Web of Acid. The insidious influence of Acid Tapes is spreading. After 15 years of producing psychedelic gems for your delight and edification we have finally taken that last step towards complete destruction of bland and souless muzak. Yes, we have a website!

Acid Tapes was started by Alan Duffy sometime during 1983 and with the help of such friends as Colin Hill and Nigel Cross (and magazines like as Bucketful of Brains and High on the Pyg Track), he began to release and promote a series of tapes featuring some of the best unheard psychedelic/pop music around at the time. The label soon gained respect and began to flourish, with a wide variety of music put out on cheap, easy to obtain, lovingly packaged cassettes.

I first encountered the label when I was given a copy of "Everyday Heroes' by Paul Ricketts. It wasn't long before I was a regular customer, buying up the complete back catalogue. I was running a local music magazine in Calne at the time, called Mardenbeat, and inspired by Acid Tapes, I started my own tape label, featuring local bands, and called Mardentapes. Also, with partners 'Rustic' Rod Goodway and Paul Ricketts, I had began work on recording a tape which we hoped Alan would release on the label. We had heard "Trip Up!" by The Palace Steppes and thought that we could do something similar. Thus it was that The Tryp was born. This was in 1985, and when completed, the album, "My Brain Collapsed" was sent to Alan and finally saw release on the label in early 1986.

By this time word was filtering down to Calne that Alan was closing down Acid Tapes to concentrate on putting out vinyl under the name Imaginary Records. This was a bit of a blow because by the end of 1986 I'd just finished a debut tape of songs by my new band Stormclouds titled "It's Raining Still", and Rod Goodway had completed his new project: "Two True Believers" by The Jellymonsters, and we were hoping that these would also appear on the label. Meanwhile I released them on Mardentapes, sending copies to Alan with view of a release on Acid Tapes. He wrote back saying he loved the packaging of the tapes (but hadn't played them yet) and would I like to take over Acid Tapes? I of course said yes.

A week or so later I received a giant package of cassette masters, tape covers and labels. It took me almost a month to sort everything out. There were quite a few master tapes missing, so, as I had the complete back catalogue myself, I used my copies as masters. This will explain why some of the earlier releases, most notably the compilations (such as Advice from A Caterpillar, Little Creepy...., Everyday Heroes etc) are not of the best quality. No money changed hands, nor did I receive any information on any of the bands released on the label. There were hardly any cassette labels left and Alan didn't even forward a list of his customers. All this was bad enough, but Alan's loss of interest in the label had meant that in the past year he'd only released one tape (coincidentally "My Brain Collapsed" by The Tryp) and Acid Tapes had pretty much been run into the ground.

So, with my first batch of releases, I was basically starting Acid Tapes from scratch, hoping that there was still interest out there. I had a few tapes of unreleased material which Alan had sent me and I put these out, along with some new, original material (and the above mentioned tapes by Stormclouds and The Jellymonsters) in the Summer of 1987. I also put out the first issue of Try Acid! a catalogue/magazine listing all the new releases on the label, plus news and reviews. And from there it's just one small leap for a slimy toad to today.

The aim of Acid tapes is to promote music and make it available as easily and as cheaply as possible. It is operated on a non-profit basis and everything is put back in to the running of the label. Although named 'Acid' Tapes, the label covers many musical styles from garage/punk, country, blues, folk, pop, psychedelia, rock, space-rock, ambient and anything else which takes our fancy.The aim of this catalogue you hold in your hands is to provide a brief description of what we have available and to let you know what tracks are exclusive to compilations and which ones appear on other Acid Tapes' releases.

Acid Tapes welcomes tapes for possible release. You can send an album's worth of material or just a couple of songs (for 'Various Artists' compilations) and, as long as the recording quality is halfway decent, they'll be considered for release. This doesn't mean 16 track studio works (although some releases are), a decent 4-track front room recording will do just as well. Also, along with your tape we'll need a black and white master of your cover artwork, (unless you want a cover designed for you). Also some background information on the group/artist and a short paragraph or two on the music for inclusion in Try Acid!

Because Acid Tapes is non-profit making, bands and artists don't receive any money. Hopefully though what they will receive is exposure, radio airplay, favourable reviews and the contacts that Try Acid! provides. We don't demand exclusive releases and artists on the label can release their tapes anywhere else they want to. All we're here for is to get the music to as many people as possible and hopefully generate interest and maybe even help to secure that sought after record deal (if that's what you're after). We're also here to provide a choice - you don't have to go out and buy the sanitised crap that's chosen for you by corporate cretins and forced upon you by the spotty retards who work in Our Price and the like. Support underground music - there are many other fine tape labels out there just waiting to hear from you.

 POSTAGE UK EUROPE USA/AUSTRALIA

1 cassette 40p £1.00 £1.50

1/3 cassettes 60p £1.50 £2.00

4 cassettes onwards add: 20p per tape 50p per tape 80p per tape

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