Sad to hear this morning of the death of Steve Parsons of BBP RECORDS AND TAPES. I knew Steve well when we were both living in Bristol. Steve would be surounded by jiffy bags, tapes, one pound coins covered in sellotape, soaped stamps, letters about obscure bands and all th joys of running a punk tape distro service.Always running to catch up -months behind. I went with him to Greenleaf booksop to pick up his mail – two huge carrier bags full. ‘Won’t be down the plough tonight then’ I laughed….’but he was and with his usual self effacing generous good humour.I persuaded him to stick out a LIVING LEGENDS GREATEST HITS tape………he spent hours/days/weeks trying to re-rcord crackly old tapes………It’ll be a surefire little earner Steve I promised…it wasn’t but Steve couldn’t have cared less if it was….the obscurer the better.I didn’t see him much after he moved to Sydenham but BBP kept on anarcho-punking.
He was very happy with partner Helen and pints in the Dolphin.If ‘punk’s not dead’ its thanks to sellotaped pound coins and people like Steve Parsons who have had the patience and good humour to scrape the tape off.Cheers mate.
STEVE PARSONS – RIP
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I’m really sorry to hear about this. I never met Steve, but I used to order loads of stuff from BBP Records and Tapes back in the late ’80s and he came across as a genuinely decent person through the warm covering letters he would send with the tapes.
I gather that there are plans for a gig to celebrate Steve’s life which is being held March 30th at The Boston Music Rooms in London.