Extremely Rare, Probably Broken Radiohead Cassette Tape Fetches £2000 At Auction

The only known copy in existence of a Radiohead demo cassette from 1986 was sold at an auction yesterday for £2000 (around AU$3400) to some die hard Thom Yorke fan who has nothing better to do with their wads of cash lying around.  Rich people, amiritie??* Though, to be fair, the asking price could probably be considered a bargain in comparison to ticket prices devious scalpers ask for when Radiohead concerts sell out. 

The cassette was a demo from Radiohead’s days pre-Radiohead, when the band was just a bunch of college kids called On A Friday trying to make their big break (spoiler alert: they got there). The tape fetched such a high price not only because it’s literally one-of-a-kind, but also because it features tracks that never appeared on subsequent Radiohead releases, which probably says less about their ~exclusivity~ and more about their quality in comparison to Radiohead classics. The tape features tracks nobody really cares about such as: “‘Fragile Friend’, ‘Girl (In The Purple Dress)’, ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘Mountains (On The Move)’, ‘Lemming Trail’ and ‘Lock The Door’, with remixes of ‘Fragile Friend’, ‘Lemming Trail’ and ‘Lock The Door’. 

At the same auction held a day earlier, a rare Oasis cassette tape made before the band were signed also sold for a similarly absurd price, being auctioned off at £1750. 

Most importantly, in the same way Vinyl has been infecting hipsters’ trendy dispositions for a while now, does this mean that the humble cassette tape is back? Dust off your walkmans and make actual mixtapes not streamed playlists, you guys, it looks like cassettes are cool again. 

Via NME.

*Seriously though. Would totally buy this unashamedly if we had the cash.

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