MATTHEW NORTH MUSIC

Tape recorders have been part of my life since I was a toddler. When I was 3 years old I had a phillips reel to reel that I used to record records on to and in my early teens I was doing sound on sound recordings with a pair of my dads Pioneer RT-707 machines. Technology has moved on a lot in the last 30 years but nothing preserves the past more than tape . Over the years I have been hunting around Car boot sales, recycling centres and the internet looking for old tapes that might have something of interest. Mostly what I am looking out for is old TV and Radio programmes that were recorded at home. So much stuff was never recorded or kept by the broadcasters that domestic recordings were the only way things were preserved. Some of the most famous home recordings are things like John Peel sessions from the 1960s and 70s as well as off air recordings of Doctor Who and Hancocks half hour. Myself I have located a number of missing audio recordings over the years. The

There was a meeting last night in Plymouth about the state of the music biz. I didn't go because I'd been to similar before. These sort of things usually end up as a bun fight or a love it, people being all chummy for a hour then back to every man for himself. I have never been part of the music 'scene' as such though I have lived here for 10 years. Most of my live work is all over the UK. but I though I'd share a few thoughts about why live music is in decline with some specific references to Plymouth. 1) All live music is in decline at the grass roots level. Has been even since the inception of the internet. Computer Games ate the new rock and roll for the youth. When I was a teenager everyone was dressed in their favourite band T-Shirt. Teenager these days are not like that, they are more likely to have a T Shirt for a film, TV Show or computer game than a band.  2) Because of the internet the concept of paying for music is an alien concept, second to that the