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Peter Parker's Rock 'n' Roll Club
The Revox Tapes

Album UK 2013 on Those Old Records label
Rock (Rock’n’Roll, Beat, Garage Rock, Indie Rock, Post Rock)

Peter Parker’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Club started out as a club that Peter founded at 4 Denmark Street, London. The band were inspired to record using a G-36 ReVox reel-to-reel tape machine, because The Rolling Stones had used one when they recorded their first album at the same premises in 1963, when it was called Regent Sounds Studio.The band first met at Peter Parker’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Club in 2009-10. Peter and Sakura met first, Sakura having the idea to name the band after the club. She also spotted Lenny playing bass guitar at the venue and suggested he join the band, which luckily he did. Peter had been told by a recording engineer that the best way to capture the raw energy of the band on record would be to use just two or three microphones placed around the room to pick up their sound in much the same way as an orchestra is recorded. They went on a mission to track down the ReVox and three suitable vintage microphones. They found the ReVox as well as two Grundig ribbon microphones, one Reslosound ribbon microphone and a Vortexion microphone pre-amp, all dating from the 1960s. The ReVox and the microphones weren’t the only vintage gear used on this recording. Peter found a Douglas PA dating from 1961 that once belonged to The Small Faces, in Macari’s of Charing Cross Road. This was used for Peter’s vocals. Once the gear had been assembled the band carried it over from Peter’s flat in Soho to the club, one sunny Saturday in July 2010. They set up on stage, putting one Grundig microphone evenly spaced between the bass amplifier and bass drum, the other Grundig microphone evenly spaced between the snare drum and guitar amplifier and the Reslosound microphone in front of one of the two columns of the Douglas PA. They pressed the ‘record’ button on the ReVox tape machine and played through one take of each song. That’s not quite the last of the recording process. When Peter got home, he read the instruction manual which came with the ReVox one more time and worked out how to put a tape delay over the entire recording, which really made the most of the capabilities of this two track reel-to-reel tape machine.

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