I have acquired this recently, and some of you have seen this from Omega. I have also started to digitize this (as seen on the link).
I think the story from the person who owned this (which I interviewed after I got this tape) is quite delightful.
From my post:
This came from Steve Clarke, who co-ran Drone Studios (along with Paul Roberts), where The Smiths recorded this single. Steve was also the engineer during the production of this song. This was the first tape that came out of that session, which was used for further mastering to the final product.
The sound is definitely a lot rougher than the released version(s), and has an extra round of instrumentals near the end which was cut in the final mix (making this have a length of 3:23 instead of 3:15).
According to Steve regarding this tape:
“In early summer 1985 I got a call from Paul Roberts who told me that The Smiths were in the studio, they'd been in for about three days...