But how did the recording come about? According to the editorial team, Schmidt's wife Alice found a tape recorder in a skip in the late autumn of 1977, brought it home and repaired it. A handwritten note dates the recording to New Year's Eve 1977/78, which was apparently a rather "jolly" evening. The tapes were subsequently deposited in a kitchen drawer, the key to which was lost at some point, only to turn up this spring.

It's such a shame the piece isn't strictly true.