Spools For Eyes. Tape For Hair. Heart Of Dreams.

Ah. The elusive Cassetteboy. Very well.

Legend has it, it should be Cassetteboys and not Cassetteboy, in the shape of two Brighton based ne’er-do-wells called ‘Mark’ and ‘Steve’. Or ‘Mark’ and ‘Simon’. But not ‘Steve’ and ‘Simon’.

A likely story.

There are whispers in certain opium dens in certain ports, that Cassetteboy is actually the evil Decepticon Soundwave, an ingenious robot / audio cassette recorder contraption, with the ability to detect and jam radio transmissions all across the energy spectrum.

Slightly more plausible. But wrong.

For my part, after many minutes researching the matter, I see the truth lying somewhere between man and machine – for I believe Cassetteboy to be a manchild with tape spools for eyes, splicing instruments for hands, cassette tape for hair, cogs and wheels for insides, and a good heart, made of hopes and dreams. His only hope of communicating with the outside world is by taking that which he can play, and attempting to shape it into some kind of coherent message. To presume his appearance appalling would not be quite correct, but in truth, he is no oil painting.

Hence sporadic output, and even more sporadic appearances, using human puppets whilst he works behind a veil of secrecy on the rare occasions of live performance (please see the picture above).

Here we have some selected moments from The Parker Tapes which can be found on Barry’s Bootlegs. The full 98-track monstrosity can be purchased from those fine folk at Rhythm Online (go to ‘C’ and keep scrolling down), who also have other selected Cassetteboy gems for your perusal.

One day, the world will accept him. Until then, we must make do with what we can, and wait for the message to become clear…

Cassetteboy - Phil Collins’ Cock

Cassetteboy - CV Mosq And More Except For CV Mosq

Cassetteboy - If That’s Yer Attitude

Cassetteboy - 2 Millennium Big Knee

Cassetteboy - Joliver