Live and Loud!: Show 71: Elvis Presley - Live at International Hotel Las Vegas

Welcome - About Live and Loud!

Live and Loud! began as a fortnightly internet radio show in 2012 taking old unreleased live concert recordings I could find and working to repair and improve them - fixing tape hiss, noise, tape drop out, clicks, speed variations, defects - before improving the sound quality by EQing the sound to bring out the instruments as clearly as possible. These are now made directly available to download for free to reach as many fans of the music as possible.

Depending on the quality of the original recording, these can often be made to sound almost like commercial recordings - but of course I can't guarantee that for every show. What I can guarantee is it will sound far better than the original files available which have been floating around the internet and on bootleg recordings for many years.

Almost all are either "soundboard" recordings (taken directly from the mixing desk used at the gig on the night) or old FM radio recordings. A few gigs, if they are of special historical importance, make an appearance even if they were recorded from the audience - these can also be made to sound better than ever.

Do your ears a favour and listen on headphones or good speakers to get most benefit - laptop speakers will always sound pretty poor by comparison.

All shows still available are listed, including a link to download the remastered show for free. If you want to support the site with a small donation, you can receive the shows as either separate MP3s or FLACs (your choice) - head over to the Rewards for Donations page and see how you can get a lot for very little!

If you want to email me, an email link is in my profile in a link in the side panel.

And finally... These are great fun to listen to but DO NOT replace original releases - support these artists and buy their music. There is nothing you can go and buy in a regular record store here. If a gig is made available as a regular release, then it will be removed (as a couple have been already).

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Show 71: Elvis Presley - Live at International Hotel Las Vegas - 3 August 1969

A bit of a special treat this, the second Elvis show to be added to the archive (check out the first one I did from 1956 here); this is believed to be the earliest soundboard recording that exists of Elvis in concert, recorded during the first week of his return to live performing, in Las Vegas in 1969.

Elvis had last played live in 1961 and then spent most of the 1960s making films in Hollywood, his final film being in 1969, which finally left him able to return to playing live. After wanting to return to live performances for some years, a deal was made for him to appear at the International Hotel in Las Vegas from 31 July all the way through to 28 August - his first live appearances in 9 years. In all during that run, he performed 29 shows to over 100,000 people; a run so successful he returned there the following year, playing again in August 1970, which spawned the film Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.

Over the years a few of the concerts have been made available as commercial releases on CD but only from later in the residency; certainly not one from so early in the run. Anyway, after working on this for a while with some EQ and studio toys, I hope you agree its polished up really well - it a very listenable stereo recording with plenty of chat from Elvis in between songs, just as it all happened, on 3 August 1969!

The show is available for free download HERE as 1 320 kbps MP3 file.

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Blue Suede Shoes
I've Got a Woman
All Shook Up
Love Me Tender
Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel
Heartbreak Hotel
Hound Dog
Memories
Mystery Train/Tiger Man
Baby What You Want Me to Do
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Yesterday/Hey Jude
In the Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
What'd I Say
Can't Help Falling in Love