Bad Korma

First time I got my grubby little paws on a compact cassette tape was back in the steam driven days of my early teen years - the tape was the album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and it opened up a whole new world for me. I spent countless hours mixing down my favourite tracks onto cassette so that I could walk, skate or otherwise transport myself around with music as a constant companion (shouldn't be admitting to this as a fully paid of member of PRS). Now it seems all those days will soon be no more. The advent of digital (CD, DVD, Mini Disk, MP3, and all that) has finally put paid to the halcyon days of the compact tape cassette, just like it did to the VHS tape and vinyl disks. For lo, Currys, one of the major UK electrical suppliers announced today that cassette tapes will no longer be sold in its shops (BBC News Online).

Linear technologies they say, are dead. I know that CDs are ideal for track finding, mixing, mashing, multi-media storage and a shed load of other things, but vinyl disks always have that extra 'ambience' (I still have at least 400 LPs in my cupboard at home). The word 'analogue' is fast becoming a derogatory term thanks to Marc Prensky (gotta love the guy), but vinyl is making a comeback for DJs and other music afficionados. I have an iPod and a CD player at home, but I'm not getting rid of my vinyl or my cassettes - and I'm not going to shop at Currys anymore. Instead, I'm off to the local Tandoori for a Korma...