Not easy to remember back that far, My first entry into the world of home tapers came via my writing... I came across the fanzine, hate that word, but that is what they are called, this fanzine was called Peace and freedom and was published by a Paul Rance, still active today, i believe paul and his friend Andy Bruce still bring out the zine every so often..anyway, I sent off for a copy of the peace and freedom zine and it arrived....The exact circumstances of how I met up with home tapers or who's name i got from this zine has long been forgotten in the fog of history, I hired a four track, some instr. and went about creating some soundscapes to put my words to, .My first tape was, of this I am not 100% sure, but parts of the whole is I believe the first tape I recorded and sent off for reviews to various zines, the names of which escape me now, there were a lot...not having the internet, snail mail and zines were the only way we could let people know we were about, that an a few radio stations, though these were mainly in europe and the usa, england had no such outlets for us home tapers, least i knew of none....all my contact came via other home tapers, fanzines, sometimes adverts from the regular music press....buskers, any musician who was wanting to have his of her music heard, distributed and not getting anywhere with the record companies, these were the type of people that Rodent Tapes attracted. Music that would otherwise maybe not see the light of day.
It had been fairly hard to collect names and addresses of others who were into the same things I was so I created Rodent tapes to try and make it easier for others, slowly getting to know people who have proved to be friends for life, mick magic, don, lord litter...all great people still active on the scene. Due to things going on in my life Rodent tapes came to an end in the nineties, but the scene carried on and I have now started to do some work again myself, trying tyo find a place to slot in again...create some new material...maybe sell some stuff, but I'm sure going by my track record most of it will be given away...it's the art that counts...money is the root of all evil...always has been always will be...
I am not a brilliant musician myself, by no stretch of the imagination could I be called such, I consider myself an artist who uses sound instead of paint, with sound I try to crate a picture that expresses what I try to say with words...I know you are looking for selling stories, but I give most of my music away, have sold very little of it over the years..My reward is that people like it...I remember my first fan letter, from Belgium...loved that somebody toke the time to write and tel me that he like what I had done, through this I had tracks included on some vinyl released in Belgium, the name of which I no longer remember....so can't give any anecdotes on selling in the early days, it's always been about giving it away for me....maybe the intention was there to make some money, but just never turned out that way, which isn't such a bad thing...