Electric Avenue (BBC 1988) SpecDrum (Micro Live follow-on)

[@sneakyalien101]

I actually got arrested after I bought the SpecDrum. I was young, I had £30 in my pocket and was on my way to the police station to pay an outstanding final demand for a payment on a fine I had got for messing with an air gun. Unfortunately there was a computer shop on the way that had the SpecDrum set up and it blew me away and I was thinking I will couple this with my Jen Sx1000 synth (lol) and dominate the synth world ha ha. I bought the SpecDrum and went home, set it all up and was having loads of fun until about 6 hours later, the police turned up and arrested me for none payment of fines and took me away with the sound of the Spec drum and my mum shouting 'I gave him the 30 quid to pay the fine' ringing in my ears. lol.

[@popeymongames]

Fantastic documentary. I loved Fred Harris. Well done to the guys. I want a Spec Drum. Also good to hear Art of Noise "Beatbox".

[@casm2003]

specdrum played a huge part of my teenage years, fantastic bit of kit at the time

[@DOSputin]

Cheetah MD8 & MD16 are still some of my absolute favorite drum machines

[@bluebull399]

I had the Specdrum for my spectrum. I was always impressed by the punchiness of the sounds. I used to have loads of fun recreating the drum beats to songs on it.

[@mrljgibson]

I bought a specDrum recently for a few quid, great device, and simple enough that if it goes wrong you might have a chance of fixing it, something people seem to forget.

[@sma7530]

Just ought a Specdrum from ebay today !

[@senorverde09]

I wish I could meet these two today!

[@reggiep75]

Nice to see stuff from things so long ago and I remember the buzz about SpecDrum long ago.

[@MrFaceHead]

the two best-looking men in britain circa. 1988

[@MarkTheMorose]

I didn't care for Electric Avenue, so this passed me by. Thanks for uploading.

[@calamalabar]

incredible documentary ! still own my Cheetah MD16 but sold my MS6

[@matt16103]

ohmygod thankyou so much for uploadig this, i remember this series

[@CartoonsKick]

Wow this brings back the memory's. I remember borrowing a friends Specdrum - with the additional drum kits - and spending ages making tunes. I even remember seeing this program on the BBC. Now over 20 years later, still fascinating. Course, all the youngsters looking at this will think 'But my phone can do stuff like this now'. Not back then it couldn't. Nothing a bog standard user could afford touched it. Thanks uploader :)

[@HMEERBEEK]

i remember the specdrum as a interfacecard you plug in at the back of the spectrum and load the software from tape .. i had one then playing i will rock you from Queen!

[@skeewifftube]

Thank you guys! My first drum machine and where I learnt my trade.

[@techsuperman]

Nice Upload! It's great seeing the background to how the Specdrum came about, which at the time really was an amazing piece of kit. I vaguely remember you only had about 1 second of sample time which you could cram a whole drum kit in. Exciting times.

[@weegerri1sm]

Still got me Specdrum. Still use it. :)

[@revivedfears]

No

[@weegerri1sm]

@@revivedfears Ermm.. Yes!

[@revivedfears]

@@weegerri1sm okay then 👌 👍

[@weegerri1sm]

@@revivedfears What? 🤣 Why on earth do you find this so hard to believe? I have loads of ZX Spectrum videos on my channel and I just kept my original SpecDrum and continued to use it just like all my other Spectrum gear. There is nothing remotely far fetched or unlikely being said here! Weird! 😳

[@revivedfears]

@@weegerri1sm mmhmm 🙄

[@amigajunkie]

Had a Spec drum back in the day, and also a Ram Music Machine for my Speccy. Both were marvelous pieces of kit for making music. The Ram music machine only allowed you to record the music or drums but not both at the same time, so you needed a four track to mix everything together.

[@LeonardCrassman]

Speccy gave a lot of young people a chance.

[@notanfningain]

Fred Harris could do anything he put his mind to

[@matt16103]

copyright by sending yourself a sealed letter, that is utter genius ans so simple

[@kristianTV1974]

Yeah, remember being advised that as a minimum back in the 80's and early 90's. Not sure how well that would stand up today!

[@dnebdal]

Alan Pateman is on linkedin - with his first job as "Specdrum designer". After that he's listed Andy's Gitar Shop ("Workshop repairing electronic musical instrument technology"), and Programmer (independent; "Designing and programming advanced musical instruments"). In other words, I have no idea if he's actually made any other interesting things after it. :D

[@MarkPMus]

Alan developed the Android SpecDrum in 2017 I believe. I looked up Specdrum on iOS App Store and there’s a thing called SpecDrums in the plural but it doesn’t seem to be the same thing and is developed by someone else.

[@TheDustpile]

'Out-Nip the Nips'? The trendy mad hatter brigade would have had him in court for that remark if this programme came out 20 years later!

[@BottIsNotABot]

I thought I had misheard that to begin with!

[@ChrisWalshZX]

Great film!

[@kristianTV1974]

Did Grayson Perry invent the SpecDrum?

[@mercifulzeus01]

Howard Jacobson? Booker Prize winning author Howard Jacobson? The places people pop up unexpectedly...

[@weegerri1sm]

Actually, that long haired guy looks like me! A hell of a lot like me!!! o.O

[@kristianTV1974]

Is it you?

[@weegerri1sm]

@@kristianTV1974 Nope. Just a similar dress sense and hair style.

[@808music3]

The one with the long hair is looking like a fe robot. Don’t suppose he’s got a chip in him😂😂

[@wildone106]

that guy with the long hair is creepin me out

[@roofy10]

Yeah it should be Pateman

[@count69]

21:10 Needs more cowbell

[@dnebdal]

Peter Hennig seems to have dropped off the map, though.

[@mercifulzeus01]

It's not by the way...

[@jasonlee7816]

Peter Hennig did a crap job with the audio in The Lawnmower Man game on the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive then Mega SWIV also Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive