Fairport Unconventional: What's happened!

[Poor Will (Bill)]

I tried listening to the "Fairport Unconventional" set for the first time in a while today and to my horror it has become unplayable
The disks keep skipping and sticking. I've tried cleaning them, but it hasn't helped, I've also tried playing them on different players, but the same thing happens.
I seem to remember there were a few problems with some of the sets when they first came out, but mine were always fine.
Has anyone else found that this has happened to their sets over time?
It's a shame, because it is such a superb set.

[Dave Brzeski]

I certainly hope not! I think I'll take my set into work tomorrow to check them.
I would suggest writing to Free Reed to see if they know of anyone else having this problem.

[Bob Barrows]

CDs have been reported to deteriorate, but I've never witnessed this myself. 'Course, there's cds in my collection that I haven't attempted to play for years so maybe there's a bad one in there now ...

[Goaty]

It happens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
I've had a few go over the years and a couple self destruct in a drive!

[Andy]

Which is why, against all legal advice, I backup my CD's.

[Jules Gray]

CDs have been reported to deteriorate, but I've never witnessed this myself.

I have - I lost a Who rarities set to the dreaded rot.

My copy of Cropredy Capers doesn't play on my hi-fi but it's fine on my PC.  I suggest you check whether your copy of Unconventional plays OK on your computer - if it does then make copies of the discs!

And yes contact Free Reed.  They sent me replacement copies of the Cropredy Capers.  As it happens they had exactly the same fault, so I left it at that, but your problem is different and potentially more serious.

Jules

[davidmjs]

Which is why, against all legal advice, I backup my CD's.

Imprison the infidel

Incidentally, what do you back them up as?  Lossless FLACs, wavs or 'just' mp3s?  Or something else..?

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Thanks all.
I've just dropped a line to Free Reed, as suggested.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Blimey!!

Within five minutes of me sending my message to Free Reed, I have received a reply saying that if I send the disks back to them they will replace them.

How's that for service?

[Jules Gray]

Blimey!!

Within five minutes of me sending my message to Free Reed, I have received a reply saying that if I send the disks back to them they will replace them.

How's that for service?

Yeah, they're very helpful.  Let's just hope that the replacements are OK!

Jules

[Dave Brzeski]

I played discs 1 & 2 of my set at work today & they played fine.

CD rot is pretty visible. The discs go copper coloured. My first copy of Fairport's 'Heyday' on CD suffered from that, as did many of the early Island Masters series. I recently found an old Steve Hackett CD in stock that looked like it had been rubbed on concrete, but when I tried to fix it with my diskdoctor machine, I discovered the scuff marks were not on the playing surface, so that must have been another sort of CD rot. You shouldn't find CD rot on any discs manufactured as recently as any of the Free Reed sets though, so I have no idea why yours won't play.

[Jules Gray]

You shouldn't find CD rot on any discs manufactured as recently as any of the Free Reed sets though, so I have no idea why yours won't play.

Some CDs rotted quite quickly and the fault was down to the adhesive used to bind the playing surface to the protective surface I believe.

Jules

[Andy]

Until recently I tended to fill the car shelves with bare CDs and CD-Rs (to save space) which rubbed against each other and both flaked quite nicely - I'd lose at least a couple a month. Now I'm able to plug my 20GB iPod in and play through the car stereo (via my Pure Highway DAB) and have put all CDs in the car in a 20-CD wallet. Between that and the iPod, that should be enough for most road trips.

[Col D]

There was a problem with discs pressed at Phonogram's PDO plant in the late 80s/early 90s when they were experimenting with a new disc coating, which after a time was found to react with the sulphur in the paper used for the inlay, causing the disc to turn a copper colour. So anything on one of Phonogram's labels from the time such as Island or Polydor could well suffer from this form of disc rot or 'tea staining' as it was named at the time. A few of mine did this and started mistracking but that's the only time I've experienced any form of problem with discs becoming unplayable.

[GubGub (Al)]

There was a problem with discs pressed at Phonogram's PDO plant in the late 80s/early 90s when they were experimenting with a new disc coating, which after a time was found to react with the sulphur in the paper used for the inlay, causing the disc to turn a copper colour. So anything on one of Phonogram's labels from the time such as Island or Polydor could well suffer from this form of disc rot or 'tea staining' as it was named at the time.

I have quite a few of these including a number of Fairport and Richard & Linda Thompson discs. Most of them still seem to play but I have backed them up just in case.

I did have one disc by the Reading folk rock band Press Gang that just developed a hole in the middle of the playing surface. Fortunately I managed to replace it.

[Jules Gray]

I have a couple of copper coloured CDs from that era, but they still play OK.

Jules

[Richard C]

I recently discovered that my 2 CDs of the Richard Thompson "Doom & Gloom" recordings originally issued on cassette to subscribers to the RT fans' newsletter "Flypaper" have deteriorated to the point where they are full of clicks and stops and starts. My various computers refuse to copy them and I can't get them on to my iPod. Yet 18 months ago I made good copies for a friend (who is sadly in South Africa, not handy for copying them from). The long predicted decline of CDs seems to be happening at last.
Richard

[Poor Will (Bill)]

The replacement CDs arrived today and all seem to play ok.
Many thanks to the staff at Free Reed  

[koho (Koen)]

Of the loads of CD's which I have, only one suffered this fate. It was a mid-80s Jimi Hendrix set called The Singles Collection. Both discs were brown/golden and could be played, but sounded like coming from a distorted radio. Now, I do have about 3000 CDs and undoubtedly at least 1/3rd of the lot live an idle shelf life for the rest of their days with me, so I'd never notice if it happened in these cases, but that's the one occasion where I encountered this problem we were warned about 15 or so years ago.
Other than that, the "List CDs" which I compiled for the FC mailing list on CDR in the late 90s have become pretty much unplayable, so I found out recently when I dusted off Vol 1 and then checked Vol 2, encountering the same problem. This has happened with a few other CDRs too, and I don't have many of 'em. From own experience therefore, CDRs are more of a problem than CDs.
However I can see me in an elderly home surrounded by my 3000 CDs or whatever it is then, at last time to revisit them all, only to find out they're all subject to rot by then. Then again, my CDs and me then will share the same fate, so that's fair enough