Cairo: A Saudi owner of a cassette record store has said he is keeping unclaimed tapes since they were ordered on the eve of Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The keeper of the store, located in the city of Turbah in south-western Saudi Arabia, said in a social media video that he keeps the unclaimed records in plastic bags for their owners.
Amm (uncle) Nahi recalled that customers had paid for the tapes at the time and were supposed to collect them the following day after completing their copying. But soon the incursion happened, followed by the outbreak of the Kuwait Liberation War.
The customers have not since shown up to collect their records and the man whose age was not given is still keeping them in the hope they would do one day.
Kuwait annually marks February 26 as the Liberation Day celebrating the dislodging of Saddam’s troops from the country in 1991 after a US-led military multinational campaign ended the August 1990 invasion.
Although the digital era has revolutionised several sectors, some music devotees continue to highly treasure audio records.
One of them is Ali Al Qadi, a Saudi man who has set up a museum housing rare records, tape recorders and radios.
Living in the Unaizah governorate in central Saudi Arabia, Al Qadi, an acknowledged fan of old Music, recently told Saudi TV Al Ekhbariya that he has nurtured this hobby since his childhood.
He has been collecting the items over 50 years. Some are as old as 285 years, according to him.
