Rare AC/DC Recordings To Be Destroyed?

A report from The Irish Times says that over a thousand tapes from the old Windmill Lane recording studio in Ireland, including rare recordings by AC/DC, Metallica and others, are waiting to be reclaimed either by the artists or their record labels. If that doesn't happen by May, they will start to be destroyed.

Weighing more than a ton, the two-inch multi-track tapes have filled the attic at the new Windmill facility. Among the rare finds are an early version of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" and a recording of Metallica performing with Marianne Faithfull. The sessions were recorded on the heavy analog tape in the days before digital technology took over.

Other recordings stored there include sessions from Bono and The Edge, tracks by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and demos from the Spice Girls.

There also master recordings of soundtracks from movies like The Commitments, The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Mask.

The tapes have begun to deteriorate and some may not be playable. A producer at the studio, Tony Perrey, said, "They are probably not of any practical value. You would only ever get one chance to play them again and that would be under archival conditions." He added that digitizing them would be "hugely expensive."