PSB & Frankie Fairlight & PPG Discs – UPDATED 2/12/12
Every now and again, eBay throws up some lovely little gems, and if these are anything to go by, these are rather tasty, even more so if they still work and you have either a Fairlight CMI IIx or PPG Waveterm on which to read them.
The seller has the following items for sale…
“This is an original set of 3 early to mid 80’s 8 inch floppy discs used to store samples etc for the Pet Shop Boys on the Fairlight digital sampling synthesizer. I found these in some bags of cd’s and tapes given to me a couple of years ago after the sad death (age 60) of a guy called Ade Cook who had worked with them. I think he was one of the back room guys helping with all the ground breaking music and samples and he was a genius with the Fairlight machine
He is listed on the sleeve notes for PSB’s “Actually” album and did fairlight programming for their Paninaro track on “Disco” and others as shown on these discs. He was a technical whizz kid as well as an accomplished musician in his own right; a very creative musical bloke who also worked with Frankie Goes To Hollywood ( i have some more similar floppy discs from them), and many other well known artists. I got to know him personally and you don’t get to meet many people of such talent who are also so genuine and down to earth, sadly missed.
Anyway you will receive the 3 discs as pictured, in sleeves
Bear in mind these are nearly 30 years old they are showing signs of age and I cannot guarantee the data on them has not become corrupted over the years. They are sold more for their memorabilia value, I have a few more similar but I would imagine they are basically unique so it is hard to put a value on them
I have a very small number of similar discs although every lot is different, and will be listing the others and a set of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood ones is in my other ebay items if you are interested.
you will receive:
PET SHOP BOYS SUBURBIA master sample disc
OPPORTUNITY (Whistle Test)
PET SHOP BOYS “One More Chance”
The disk marked “OPPORTUNITY” also has Blue Weaver’s name on it. Blue was very much involved with the boys back in the day and did a lot of their Fairlight programming for them. So this adds some authenticity to the item. Here is the episode of The Old Grey Whistle Test that is mentioned on the disc…
“This is an original set of 4 early 80’s 8 inch floppy discs used to store samples etc for Frankie Goes to Hollywood on the Fairlight digital sampling synthesizer (EDIT: ATTENTION ALL BIDDERS IT LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE PPG NOT FAIRLIGHT DISCS!). I found these in some bags of cd’s and tapes given to me a couple of years ago after the sad death (age 60) of a guy called Ade Cook who had worked with them. I think he was one of the back room guys helping with all the ground breaking music and samples with Trevor Horn and he was a genius with the Fairlight machine. I believe he also went on tour with FGTH on keyboards etc, a technical whizz kid as well as an accomplished musician in his own right.
He was a very creative musical bloke who also worked with Pet Shop Boys ( i have some more similar floppy discs from them), and many other well known artists. I got to know him personally and you don’t get to meet many people of such talent who are also so genuine and down to earth, sadly missed.
Anyway you will receive the 4 discs as pictured, in sleeves.
Bear in mind these are nearly 30 years old they are showing signs of age and I cannot guarantee the data on them has not become corrupted over the years. They are sold more for their memorabilia value, I have a few more similar but I would imagine they are basically unique so it is hard to put a value on them. I have a very small number of similar discs although every lot is different, and will be listing the others and the Pet shop boys ones if there is any interest
In case the picture is indistinct, here is the text handwritten by Ade on the label of each disc
(disc one – top of pic): PPG Waveterm “Frankie Goes To Hollywood” TWO TRIBES MASTER DISK (some numbers) (c) ADRIEN COOK 11/10/84
(disc two): PPG Waveterm “Frankie Goes To Hollywood” RELAX MASTER DISK (some numbers) (c) ADRIEN COOK 11/10/84
(disc three- some fading to writing): ADRIEN COOK PPG 9/10/84 Vol. One FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD MASTER SAMPLE DISK sampled by A. Cook for P. Oxendale
(disc four): PPG WAVETERM TWO TRIBES Copy #1 Adrien Cook”
So, a couple of rather interesting items for sale, and in their own right, historic bits of memorabilia, and would be even more valuable if they actually were accessible. I, for one, will certainly be keeping an eye on them.
UPDATE
Both these items sold, and for not unconsiderable amounts! The PSB disks sold for £1550 and the Frankie ones for £230. The seller now has many more disks on offer, with the PSB ones already attracting substantial bids. Clearly seeing the value of these things, the seller seems to have decided to sell discs individually. I do hope that whoever is buying these is able to recover the data from them.
Check out the extra goodies here…
Ade was an inspiration as well as a great uncle. I hope they went to a good place.
I met Adrien while he was touring with Frankie as their keyboard tech when they came to my college in 1985. (It was their 2nd or 3rd US show.) I ended up hanging out with him before the show, which was a great experience for a budding keyboardist. Hell of a nice guy, that bloke. Sorry to hear of his passing. RIP.
(I met Trevor Horn there too. Also very nice, although I only spent a few minutes with him.)