I love this story. In 1983, a band with a member by the name of Steve Ignorant rattled British cages by fabricating a recording between Reagan and Thatcher. The whole episode, which ended up involving the CIA and British intel, is quite funny. I am again late to the party. Nico Hines told this story a few years back in the Daily Beast and it is great. This article also has a great summary of the whole episode. This one does, too, along with a recording of the tape in question.

Here’s an excerpt:

The anarchic band [Crass] had cut the tape partly as a prank, partly to raise questions about Thatcher’s pro-nuclear, pro-war views. But it wasn’t the intelligence agencies that uncovered their part in the diplomatic incident, it was a British newspaper. The Observer outed the band behind Penis Envy and Christ the Album as the culprits in January 1984.

The Beast article mentions “secret documents [that were] were declassified in London” Those documents are here. Relevant excerpts are below. I find the transcript of confusing , but there is, of course, a nuclear weapons angle. To wit:

Anyway, the excerpts: