Precision Tapes Ltd./Pye UK Q8's (info/catch all thread)

[JonUrban]

Had this one in my rare UK Q8 folder, grabbed off eBay years ago. Don't have the tape, just the blurry jpg

 

[steelydave]

Thanks Jon, I think it's a great resource to get all this info and pictures in one place. Thanks to rustyandi we know the catalog number for that tape is YQ8D 101.

There's something slightly ramshackle about these Precision tapes, and that Acker Bilk tape is a perfect example - they didn't even get the title of the album correct on the back side of the tape! 'Acker Bilk His Clarinet & Strings' somehow becomes 'Acker Bilk With Clarinet And Strings'. It also annoys me as an OCD person that the labels on the front side of these tapes are too big and go over the little ridge or rail that runs along the right side of the top side of the tape. I think every other company's Q8 tapes had the album artwork between those two rails on the top side.

Also, to answer my own question about there being another Pye quad sampler tape, I noticed the original Pye sampler LP catalog number was QUAB 1001, which would seem to line up with the Q8 version of that album being Y8QPB 1.

 

[steelydave]

There are a few of these tapes on eBay UK at the moment (going for ridiculous prices I might add, the Carpenters 'A Song For You' SOLD for £45 and the ones that are current all have bids @ £25...mental) so I nicked all the pictures and tidied them up in photoshop and thought I'd throw them up here for anyone who's interested:

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream And Other Delights (Y8QAM 958)


The Carpenters - A Song For You (Y8QAM 63511)


Bob Jackson - "Boots" The Sax With The Strange Ones (Y8QP 1011)


Cyril Stapleton & His Orchestra - Great Film And Television Themes (Y8QP 1003)

 

[boojidad]

Found this one on eBay today. Wish I could read the catalog ID. Anyone know?

 

[winopener]

Found this one on eBay today. Wish I could read the catalog ID. Anyone know?

View attachment 27775

Should be Y8QVS 79330 (pYe 8track Quad Vanguard Stereo) + same number of LP.

What does surprise me is that QP is a November 1973 release, still on Vanguard Pye/PRT tapes, probably just before the switching to RCA UK thus ending q8 productions.

 

[steelydave]

So while all you losers are buying actual music and listening to it, cool guys like me are buying musty old buyers guides and tape catalogs like this:



A little while back I was looking at the Precision Tapes advertisement that I posted at the beginning of this thread, and it said something like "write for the full Precision Tapes catalogue" so I had this brainwave that some of these catalogues must still exist, and a Google search yielded this lot of material, which includes the Precision Tapes catalogues for '72 and '73, and Record Mirror/Music Week Tape Guides from Summer '72 and Winter '74. Between them, I have a pretty definitive idea now of what Precision Tapes put out through early/mid '74 - interestingly neither the '72 catalog or '72 Tape Guide show any Precision Tapes quad releases, so presumably they started either in late '72 or early '73.

Jon's given me the power to edit my old posts, and very kindly installed a new tables plugin that works with this new forum software (not to mention being much nicer visually than the old one) so using the info from the catalogs, combined with things we've found 'in the wild' I've updated my initial post, which I think gives a pretty definitive glimpse of what Precision released, through early '74 anyway. If we could locate Precision Tapes catalogs from '74-'76 and/or more of these 'Tape Guide' issues from the same period I think they'd be really useful, but I haven't been able to turn up any thusfar.

I think eventually I'll scan the relevant pages from the books I have, but for now, all the info is at least in the first post here. I've also gone back and replaced all the photobucket photo links, which were broken when photobucket went rogue (they seem to have temporarily turned image hosting back on, but it's just temporary, they want money to host) with QQ-hosted photos. I've switched them all to thumbnails as well, to make scrolling through the thread easier, but you can click on any of them for a full-size version. I also have more photos that I've collected that I'll post after this message.

Should be Y8QVS 79330 (pYe 8track Quad Vanguard Stereo) + same number of LP.

What does surprise me is that QP is a November 1973 release, still on Vanguard Pye/PRT tapes, probably just before the switching to RCA UK thus ending q8 productions.

This sort of intrigued me too, the rare Vanguard Precision tapes - when I got these Tape Guide issues, neither the 1972 or 1974 issue had any Precision Vanguard tapes listed. All the Vanguard tapes were stereo-only, and manuactured/sold by RCA. That seemed odd to me based on the timeline you suggested, I figured the '72 issues at the very least would have some info. So I did some digging and found this short Billboard article that answers the question (relevant bit highlighted in yellow):

So it seems that Vanguard didn't link up with Pye/Precision Tapes until the spring of '74, and didn't issue any product until July. So presumably the Vanguard quad tapes manufactured and distributed by Precision Tapes only came in to print in mid-late '74, and with quad in the UK pretty much dead by '75 they probably weren't in print very long, maybe 18 months or 2 years. Sort of like the Columbia Q8's in the US from '76 and '77 that are proportionally harder to find because they weren't in print very long.

 

[steelydave]

Y8QPT 1001 - Synthesonic Sounds 'Ye Olde Moog'


Y8QP 1004 - The Button Down Brass featuring The Funky Trumpet of Ray Davies 'Why Can't We All Get Together'


Y8QAM 64361 - Rick Wakeman 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII'

 

[steelydave]

Y8QAM 64339 - Joan Baez 'Come From The Shadows'


Y8QO 77016 - Carole King 'Rhymes & Reasons'

 

[steelydave]

Y8QUN 306 - Horenstein/London Symphony Orchestra 'Andrzej Panufnik: Heroic Overture/Tragic Overture/Autumn Music'


Y8QDJ 430 - Vic Lewis Conducts The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 'Film Themes - My Way' (thanks to @fredblue for this one)

 

[winopener]

So while all you losers are buying actual music and listening to it, cool guys like me are buying musty old buyers guides and tape catalogs like this:

View attachment 33452

A little while back I was looking at the Precision Tapes advertisement that I posted at the beginning of this thread, and it said something like "write for the full Precision Tapes catalogue" so I had this brainwave that some of these catalogues must still exist, and a Google search yielded this lot of material, which includes the Precision Tapes catalogues for '72 and '73, and Record Mirror/Music Week Tape Guides from Summer '72 and Winter '74. Between them, I have a pretty definitive idea now of what Precision Tapes put out through early/mid '74 - interestingly neither the '72 catalog or '72 Tape Guide show any Precision Tapes quad releases, so presumably they started either in late '72 or early '73.

Jon's given me the power to edit my old posts, and very kindly installed a new tables plugin that works with this new forum software (not to mention being much nicer visually than the old one) so using the info from the catalogs, combined with things we've found 'in the wild' I've updated my initial post, which I think gives a pretty definitive glimpse of what Precision released, through early '74 anyway. If we could locate Precision Tapes catalogs from '74-'76 and/or more of these 'Tape Guide' issues from the same period I think they'd be really useful, but I haven't been able to turn up any thusfar.

I think eventually I'll scan the relevant pages from the books I have, but for now, all the info is at least in the first post here. I've also gone back and replaced all the photobucket photo links, which were broken when photobucket went rogue (they seem to have temporarily turned image hosting back on, but it's just temporary, they want money to host) with QQ-hosted photos. I've switched them all to thumbnails as well, to make scrolling through the thread easier, but you can click on any of them for a full-size version. I also have more photos that I've collected that I'll post after this message.



This sort of intrigued me too, the rare Vanguard Precision tapes - when I got these Tape Guide issues, neither the 1972 or 1974 issue had any Precision Vanguard tapes listed. All the Vanguard tapes were stereo-only, and manuactured/sold by RCA. That seemed odd to me based on the timeline you suggested, I figured the '72 issues at the very least would have some info. So I did some digging and found this short Billboard article that answers the question (relevant bit highlighted in yellow):

View attachment 33453

So it seems that Vanguard didn't link up with Pye/Precision Tapes until the spring of '74, and didn't issue any product until July. So presumably the Vanguard quad tapes manufactured and distributed by Precision Tapes only came in to print in mid-late '74, and with quad in the UK pretty much dead by '75 they probably weren't in print very long, maybe 18 months or 2 years. Sort of like the Columbia Q8's in the US from '76 and '77 that are proportionally harder to find because they weren't in print very long.

Very iintresting, supposed it backward - early days and discontinued soon, instead it was latest days, and discontinued soon.
I agree about the max 2-year lifespan (maybe just 12 months...), by 1975 quad 8 in uk was so dead they didn't release even Stormbringer or Wish You Were Here, both bottom-seller titles.
Probably these three Vanguard were a market test, it failed (low sales) and anything other on Vanguard quad 8 was relegated as import from USA.

 

[steelydave]

Very iintresting, supposed it backward - early days and discontinued soon, instead it was latest days, and discontinued soon.
I agree about the max 2-year lifespan (maybe just 12 months...), by 1975 quad 8 in uk was so dead they didn't release even Stormbringer or Wish You Were Here, both bottom-seller titles.
Probably these three Vanguard were a market test, it failed (low sales) and anything other on Vanguard quad 8 was relegated as import from USA.

It's possible (and even likely) that there are more of these '74-'75 Precision Vanguard tapes - I think by then they knew exactly how many units they were likely to shift, so I think it's likely they issued a bunch, and we just haven't seen them because of how scarce they are. How many copies of the Joan Baez and Buffy St. Marie Precision Q8s have we ever seen? 1, 2? I hope people will keep their eyes out for more, unless we get lucky and I get my hands on a 1975-era Precision catalog.

I also found this Billboard article when I was doing a bit of research that firms up the timeline about when Precision actually got in to Q8, in a bit of detail:

 

[winopener]

Vangaurd UK Q8 are extremely rare, so far 1 copy of Buffy and one set of Joan Baez + one single tape. That's all i've seen in nearly 18 years of fleabay shuffling.

 

[quadtrade]

here is the number, gotta look for a photo. don't think i saw it


LEWIS VIC MY FRIENDS THE STARS Y8QP 401

 

[steelydave]

Wow, interesting - would really love to see a picture to confirm it exists. The quad LP is circa 1974 so it would be pretty late in the day for Precision Tapes' Q8 output, and probably why it's rare. Anyone else have this one?

 

[quadtrade]

I have the files and i remember selling it. Photo will turn up. Just gotta have a moment to look.

Sent from my LG-SP320 using Tapatalk

 

[fredblue]

Wow, interesting - would really love to see a picture to confirm it exists. The quad LP is circa 1974 so it would be pretty late in the day for Precision Tapes' Q8 output, and probably why it's rare. Anyone else have this one?

is there an LP of Vic Lewis' "My Friend The Stars" marked Quad?
looks to be single inventory/unmarked if not

 

[steelydave]

It's single-inventory unmarked quad, as per Mark Anderson's discography - I think the majority of Pye's output between 1972 and 1977 was quad encoded. The early stuff was marked, and then they removed the quad notation - I think possibly because most/all of their quads were single inventory, they feared that by being marked quad, their releases were being filed in the quad/audiophile sections of record shops rather than in with the general releases. That's what happened with RCA, they originally intended for all their releases to be single-inventory quad after the introduction of the quadradisc (beginning with APD1-0001 Montenegro/Godfather) but they found that the first few weren't selling well in a general sense because they were getting filed in the quad section rather than in with the artist's stereo releases. So I think Jimmy Castor Dimension III (APD1-0103) was the last single-inventory from them, and then their next quad release (Guess Who #10 APD-0130) went back to dual inventory.

The interesting thing about Pye is that they actually went back to marking their stuff as quad-encoded, after that period of not doing so - there's an article in Billboard about it, I can't remember exactly when it was from, maybe '75/'76. So the final Pye QS releases '76-'78 era (or most of them anyway) are actually marked again.

 

[fredblue]

It's single-inventory unmarked quad, as per Mark Anderson's discography - I think the majority of Pye's output between 1972 and 1977 was quad encoded. The early stuff was marked, and then they removed the quad notation - I think possibly because most/all of their quads were single inventory, they feared that by being marked quad, their releases were being filed in the quad/audiophile sections of record shops rather than in with the general releases. That's what happened with RCA, they originally intended for all their releases to be single-inventory quad after the introduction of the quadradisc (beginning with APD1-0001 Montenegro/Godfather) but they found that the first few weren't selling well in a general sense because they were getting filed in the quad section rather than in with the artist's stereo releases. So I think Jimmy Castor Dimension III (APD1-0103) was the last single-inventory from them, and then their next quad release (Guess Who #10 APD-0130) went back to dual inventory.

The interesting thing about Pye is that they actually went back to marking their stuff as quad-encoded, after that period of not doing so - there's an article in Billboard about it, I can't remember exactly when it was from, maybe '75/'76. So the final Pye QS releases '76-'78 era (or most of them anyway) are actually marked again.

thanks for all the cool info
i've a lot of QS catching up to do!

 

[steelydave]

Y8QP 1020 - Valentino 'Contrasts' (Featuring the unique Quadraphonic Cordovox of Valentino)

 

[boojidad]

Here's a couple in my database that I didn't notice in the earlier posts:

Y8QP 401 - Vic Lewis 'My Friends the Stars' (featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)



Y8QP 41036 - Acker Bilk 'That's My Desire'