In the mid-80’s I was given a reconditioned Ferguson Videostar VHS recorder. Until that time, I like everyone else has had no control what I watched on TV. It was either just what was being broadcast on terrestrial channels (and then only three or four of them) or it was off. This machine represented my first opportunity to affect what I was watching, and hearing. It had an audio dub button. And I found a use for it. Having recorded part of a big surf documentary I dubbed a couple of Salt Solution tracks over it and one ‘New Life’ worked out better than the original soundtrack.
Later having retained as a computer programmer I was working for Sony Broadcast when a contractor asked me to use my staff position to buy him a graded Sony Video 8 shoulder mounted camcorder. It just happened to arrive a week before the most prestigious gig that Salt Solution ever played. I asked him if I could borrow it and a good friend of the band, Jon Wensley, was dutied to point it at the action and ‘just keep it recording’. In the matinee performance he recorded from the circle and in the evening he filmed from the wings. My hope was that I could borrow some video 8 recorders and somehow create something that would create the illusion of two cameras at one performance. Whilst trying to find a Video 8 player to borrow I was put in touch with a copying house in London. They had a promising technician who was setting up an editing service and was looking for a music project for his portfolio. The result was a days worth of free mixing. I sat at Ron Kennedy’s
shoulder as he skilfully weaved the fabrication of ‘The Blood‘ and ‘Your Country Needs You‘ before my eyes. That day of video mixing education has since set me up, years later, to embark upon a small selection of editing projects.
I have PC software now, a domestic camcorder of my own and access to a variety of quality recordings. In these pages you will find most of these pieces with a variety of themes.
