Down the rabbit hole of pocket records
When I first considered making a video on this subject a few years ago I didn’t think there would be enough to talk about for more than a couple of minutes, so I decided to hold off until I could find some relevant hardware to beef it up a bit. That decision ultimately wound up changing the whole video into something way more complicated.
I ended up investigating two (or possibly three) record formats and along the way trying to weave together a tale that tied a device found in Japan to a French record label via an American entrepreneur with big ideas but small pockets.
I haven’t had to do this much research in quite some time. It’s more than likely that this video is a bit too dense for a general audience to connect with. However this is the kind of project I enjoy, because I‘m learning along the way. On the flip-side though, I hope the next video proves to be quite a bit more straightforward.
Have a great weekend.
UPDATED - a quick snip here and there and a re-upload to fix some mistakes.
Comments (71)
Ok maybe I'm just thinking about this way too much when I simply shouldn't but what if you include timestamps in the video start. I have seen YouTubers do that before. I think you have tried something like that before but I am not sure. Even if you haven't, I'm assuming you have at least thought about it before. In the case you haven't thought about it, well that's an idea. Also I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you in any way by constantly commenting, I'm just trying to help.
Nah, that would be a spoiler for those of us who want to watch the whole thing.
I guess you can try putting the timestamps in the comments and pinning it to the top of the comments section. However I think people might continue to comment timestamps no matter what according to what you said.
Unfortunately I can’t pin comments at the top any more because dozens of people just reply to it with unconnected comments in a way to get their comment to the top off the page. You then end up with one comment about time stamps and a hundred under it about other things that people can’t read though easily.
I really like the timestamps in the description idea. This way, people can watch the specific parts they want if they don't want to watch the whole thing and you will not get any "The video starts at 5:10".
I still see plenty of those even on the timestamped videos. . You should see the response I got when I explained to someone who did just this how they could use their youtube interface more efficiently. Perhaps including a link to a Google help page was the thing that triggered their semi literate expletive laden reply.
you’ve probably heard this, but U.K. band Rusty Nutz is releasing an album on Zip Disk
Funnily enough - you’ll see a mention in the next video (if I get it finished).
I have some Charles Aznavour records on the French Barclay label.
I, for one, also love these deep research pieces! Great stuff!
The amount of research that has gone into it is really impressive! Your quality standard is amazing, I have to imagine future scholars quoting techmoan in their phd thesis on history of technology.
Et voila! The vinyl Walkman of the 1960s. Or close to it. A bit of forgotten history, which is great to see.
I woulda thought the vinyl walkman of the times was that strange player that played those hard plastic discs with a divot at the centre instead of a hole, around 2.5 inches. I had a set of them as a (around) 5yo, with Winnie the Pooh sounds on one set and something to do with the alphabet on another. I'm told there was another sports-themed set too.
Yet another late 60s/early 70s "youth-oriented and fun" audio player that looks like the sort of device a Soviet-bloc police state would use to record your confession after three hours of interrogation and beatings. "Restyled to appeal to the groovy YOUTH of 1969...with TWO shades of gray!" I guess it was expensive back then to produce bright-colored plastic. (I only have one tape player from that era that looks in any way colorful. And it's just a seafoam green. Most of the Grooviness comes from the paisley pattern silkscreened on the metal speaker grille.)
It is thoroughly miserable in appearance and the colour, font and name Barclay reminded me of having to endure interminably boring trips to Barclays Bank as a young child. Sitting on a mid-century black leather cushioned, chrome framed chair listening to the stamping of paper while my mother dealt with her cheques and savings accounts using a pen on a chain.
So watching the video I thought, maybe if I try to track down the pack-in single with the Barclaytophone we can get a bit more information about the whole ordeal. The title of the Japanese record you showed on the video (which is a higher quality than on the original auctions page so I can put it through OCR to make up for my poor kanji skills) is "いいじゃないの幸せならば", which probably translates to "if you're happy, that's not good" (yikes!). Anyway, on trying to track down that record, I first found out that the "Fontaine" label it appears to have released on has absolutely no details whatsoever that I can find anywhere, and the only other label named Fontaine is in Canada and has no relation. Second, when I pair up the song title with "Fontaine", I just get the original auction for the Barclaytophone, which is also no help. This rabbit hole did give me one good piece of data though - this single was released originally on regular 45s on July 15th, 1969. Given that Toshiba was meaning to release these in the spring of 1969, it looks like they may have missed their date by a few months...
Interesting. After the collapse of the US operation it’s more than likely Toshiba sat on these a while before they could figure out how to offload them. I’d love to know how they managed to sell a record player with only one record.
Fascinating story, and artfully told, as usual. Thanks. Looking at the Barclaytophone I can't help but think the makers missed an obvious trick by not incorporating a transparent window (is there another kind?) into the lid. Surely it would have been a pleasing bonus to be able to view the rotating disk? Or perhaps not…
It is a very bland business machine type of a look for something that’s supposed to be a fun novelty.
I am once again amazed at your ability to find rare, obscure, and unheard-of formats, then track down an incredible amount of backstory on them, and then produce an interesting long form piece covering it all. Stuff like this is definitely why I joined Patreon. Kudos!
At 7:07, do you say "The 8ban will fit on a normal spindle"? Is this a mistake, or am I hearing it wrong?
Whoops said 8Ban when should have said Hip Pocket. I’ll see if I can fix it.
Amazing research here! This is grade A content that I’d pay for on a video by video basis. I’d probably follow you down the rabbit hole on the story of any electronic equipment but vinyl specifically - I am hypnotized. This is just excellent. Thank you so much!
Well thank you for the kind words and you are paying when no one really has to - so your generosity is appreciated.
I tried to do some research on the Japan side of things, but haven't been able to come up with anything useful. The original auction you bought your barclaytophone from just called it a "10 cm flexidisc" (ソノシート "sonosheet" being the Japanese for flexidisc), so I looked that up, and all that came up was this record that came with one as a bonus https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m323189593 On that record it has ミニレコード ("mini record") printed on it, so I looked that up, and among all the 8ban stuff, this also came up with discs marked "the smallest record in the world" (世界一小さなレコード) http://suterarehen.seesaa.net/article/448379440.html So I can't find any references to there being a standardized line of small flexidisc records, but it seems like flexidiscs of that size were ad-hoc given away as bonuses and freebies.
Thanks for looking into this. At this point it’s’ definitely looking like a record player with just the one purpose-made record (and the capability to play a few unrelated novelties). This doesn’t seem like something anyone would buy - yet someone must have. It’s all very odd. Thanks again.
Did I just spot an easter egg in there a little after the 5 minute mark or does that guy in the front just looks like you Mat? 😁
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t in The Doors, but my memory isn’t the best.
This is what I subscribed for and what i joined patreon for. This is for your patrons. Thank you i LOVE deep dives.
Too cool. Thanks for following that rabbithole. :)
Oh my god, thank you so, so much for this. I’m from Detroit, and when I was a media obsessed kid, my parents let me have a Pocket Disc of Three Dog Night’s “Easy To Be Hard.” It was such a mysterious object that I had to know more, but aside from my mom’s recollection that they were sold briefly in vending machines, I came up empty. (I mean, it was the 80s, research was hard.) At long last, now I know!
It’s great to be able to fill in the blanks. Now only if you’d bought the Beatles...
Hit Clips, Hip Pockets, Pocket Rockers, Pocket Discs--All so closely related--there's got to be some vast, unseen conspiracy that ties these things all together. Mat, we're counting on you to crawl back into that rabbit hole to investigate--The Truth Is Out There!
It's the tweens! 😱 https://youtu.be/l6Yd64dhSS8
This is second only to your digital recording on video cassette video for me in the last few months. I find these old audio formats so fascinating, especially when they have such an unusual backstory like this. I think it's awesome you are recording these things that have all but been forgotten for posterity.
I mean some days all you wanna do is open a bag of MiniDisc players.
Exactly.
That was a ripping yarn, Mat. I really enjoyed the detective work to get to the bottom of the Barclay mystery. I look forward to seeing the Crosley Barclaytophone released in time for the 2021 Christmas season.
It'll only happen if this video hits a million views. Fingers crossed.
It has been far too long since I last shaved any of my AV equipment!
Another great video, of course appealed to me as a vinyl (yes know people hate that word) collector. What an interesting format. Old enough to remember Flexi discs being given away with magazines but this format before my time but won't stop me collecting it if see some cheap. Thanks hard work Mat
That's a fantastic deep dive into HP (I kept seeing it mentally as Hewlett Packard). I'm glad to did the research too and not just the review of the disc and the player. I don't think it's too dense at all, it adds a wonderful dimension to such a rare player and another format almost lost to time.
Really enjoyed this. Glad that diving down this rabbit hole was fun for you, too.
Why Barclaytophone? I mean, Barclayphone just rolls off the tongue.
Because the French word for tape recorder is “magnétophone”.
That is some great google-fu and detective work! The Sherlock Holmes of record players.
Could it be possible that the device was destined for Canada? They do have a large French speaking population.
I’d say there was zero percent chance. Barclay were responsible for launching the product in France. Canada wasn’t in the early stages of consideration for roll out -no company had been allocated the Canadian market - but it’s almost certain it wouldn’t have been the French record label Barclay if it did come to pass. Apparently there are 6 million Canadians who speak French - I’d imagine a great many of these understand English - whereas there are 67 million people in France (that’s as of now - but those percentages would likely be similar in 1968)
Very cool! I was just talking about how the Hip Clip format reminded me of the "new" mini records! The deep dive you've done on the array of similar yet distinctly different formats was brilliant and a lot of fun to watch. My only note: When will we see more puppets? I miss them. I find myself watching your videos to the very end and hoping to hear that peppy accordion music start to play... :)
Unfortunately a California law called COPPA has effectively resulted in a ban on the puppets. I am not allowed to upload videos that might appeal to children and the puppets do appeal to children. Youtube uses image recognition to identify the puppets as Children’s content and there’s nothing I have the power to do that will make them change their mind. Uploading children’s content but failing to flag it as such (which demonetises the videos) will lead to a Youtube ban. I can’t afford to risk my livelihood for a couple of minutes of difficult to think up, hard to write, complicated to shoot, time-consuming. poorly received comedy at the end of a video. More information here: https://youtu.be/L5ba_7LVsNs?t=2592
Techmoan at its best! Thanks for this very interesting video.
Well! That is a tour de force, Mat! Curiously, being a marketer (until retirement) I seem to have a photographic memory for logos and I instantly knew I'd seen that Barclay logo before. I also spotted an obvious similarity to the Riviera logo - French also. https://www.discogs.com/fr/label/34471-Riviera-3 It doesn't add anything to your research, but I find it interesting. I totally appreciate the amount of work that went into this - well done!
I can see why it fired those synapses, it’s all part of the same company. I’d also imagine French viewers (if there are any) would be shouting at the screen - Eddie Barclay was quite the character - and a bit of a French icon.
Can't see a dremel now without being reminded of the 8 bit guy. Carry on!
I was told by a representative of a Japanese company that goods exported to Europe and the UK, the French required packaging all packaging was labeled in both English and French. I think it was something to do with French Law that did not allow new English words into the French dictionary and language. These little discs remind me of "Now thats what I call music" compilation CDs of old hits.
I think my main takeaway from this video is that Tiffany was not the original artist for I Think we're Alone Now. I mean I guess I knew that already but you just reminded me.
And as always: thanks for showing some new obscure formats! Again, never heard of this one before...
That was brilliant. Thank you.
These earings could be moderately popular among some hipsters today 😂
Don't give trendy people any ideas. They'd use them as those ghastly ear lobe "plugs". Frightening.
That was fascinating - thanks Mat.
Were the "HPs" distributed with breakfast cereal? Post cereals, maybe? Sugar Pops comes to mind. Or were those full-size flexible 45s? I started kindergarten the month the later ones came out (1968) so hazy. GREAT story - thanks, Mat!
I haven’t seen it mentioned - however it would have only been in the US if it had happened, so I’ll have to leave this one to the locals to answer.
Wonderfully done video! It's interesting how some businesses will ignore history and try a failed concept (HitClips). Thank you for letting us join you down that rabbit hole.
If an idea isn’t worth doing - it isn’t worth doing over and over again.
"Mat goes down a rabbit hole" is one of my favourite genres of Techmoan video. Thanks for a fascinating 20 minutes..
Curious. Land of 1000 Dances was big in the US peaking at #1 on the R&B charts and #6 on the Top 40 charts. Didn't seem hit as high in the UK, coming in at #22.
What a brilliantly researched video. Wonderful!
Dead for 15 years? Not 50 years? Or did I misinterpret that?
If you’re talking about the 8Ban - it’s 15 years. Died 2004 Relaunched 2019
I started that madness a few years ago and was lucky enough to stop. However, you get to make videos about it so go for it and I will live viciously. Thanks, you rock!