Rockmine's Audio Archive began more than 45 years ago with off-air recordings of radio and television (before home video). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, I recorded every interview and live session, as well as many complete radio shows. Soon, I was collecting any bootleg of out-takes I could find and trading with equally zealous collectors and even the musicians themselves. Needless to say, whenever possible I would get to the musos and fire my own questions at them. Thankfully, my heavy Uher and bags of 5 inch tapes were overtaken by cassette recorders that would fit in a pocket!

When a book detailing the stories behind every Beatles song was first released, it gave me a world exclusive. In amongst all the Fab Four out-takes, I had the original version of "Get Back" which was not mentioned. The original, titled both, "Get Back" and "No Pakistanis" was ambiguous in meaning and seemed rather shocking. Not only did I have the audio tape, I also had a Sotheby's catalogue from some years before that included the original hand-written lyric sheet. The story, which ran world-wide, prompted Paul McCartney to issue a statement that it had been a social comment by the band against bigotry and prejudice. Thankfully, the band dropped the political statement and went with the version we know and love.

There are so many gems in the archive. From radio shows with first album run-throughs which featured tracks dropped from the disc before release; to one-off plays of the only pressing ever made (Jean Michel Jarre's "Music For Supermarkets"). Then there are the interviews that were never published like Bob Dylan's original Playboy interview with Nat Hentoff or Jimi Hendrix last interview with Keith Altham (found on a BBC Transcription Disc, of all places).

Lastly, there are the superstar jams that have never surfaced: Lennon, McCartney and Jagger in L.A., Hendrix and Traffic, Prince and Miles Davis and many, many more.