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).

Friday, 14 February 2025

Show 215 - Japan - Live At Rock City Nottingham - 7 May 1981

 

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it, cut out the intro and outro and take the credit. Thanks.

The Show
This is a fairly muffled and "distant" mono audience recording of the first night of the "Art of Parties" tour of the UK in May 1981, featuring the first live appearance of their new single at the time - The Art Of Parties. It was sent to me by a listener, asking if it could be cleaned up. I was initially dubious (quality really wasn't too good) but after sending him a free sample of 1 of the tracks done, this was then done as a private commission. My client was so pleased with the final result he offered it for the website as well, so that others could enjoy it! So here it is.

What Was Done
The recording was, like many old audience recordings, muffled and sounding quite far away, with a few odd cuts and gaps here and there. Quite a bit of feedback in places too.

All those gaps and cuts were removed and blended, so the recording is whole again. Feedback I was able to remove for the most part. A big part of the hall ambience was then reduced, which gave me more of the band sound to work on. I could then get to work with EQ and my box of studio tools to make the band clearer and far more audible. Once that was done, I mastered the whole thing to give the recording some power and width.

The result is a big improvement. I hope fans of the band will enjoy it as much as my client has.

The All Important Download/Stream Link

As always, the restored and remastered show is available to download or stream for free as a single 320kbps MP3. Just hit the link:

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Setlist
Intro (Burning Bridges)
Swing
Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Alien
...Rhodesia
Quiet Life
My New Career
Obscure Alternatives
Taking Islands In Africa
Methods of Dance
Ain't That Peculiar
The Art Of Parties
Halloween
European Son
Life in Tokyo
Sometimes I Feel So Low
Fall In Love With Me

Be sure to check out the other gigs from Japan I've restored HERE - all similarly downloadable for free.

Supporting The Site

If you want to support the work I do on these recordings, and the site, and (if you wish to) obtain separate, fully tagged 320kbps MP3s of this restoration for less than the price of a coffee in return, or lossless FLACs or even a lossless copy on CDR, head on over to the Rewards For Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site. There is NO OBLIGATION to do so of course - you can take the file on this page absolutely for free - but every single donation does go towards this site and helps me do more shows and update some of the software I use as time goes by. Either way, enjoy the show.

Subscribe And Share

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And if you like this recording, please spread the news and share the page link to anyone you think might be interested - Facebook fan groups, web forums, Bluesky, Mastodon, X, Threads, Instagram are a great way of spreading the word - that way, I always find out which bands are popular and can do more shows by them in the future. So please tell ya mates about the site and this page! Many thanks.
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4 comments:

  1. Gman14 February 2025 at 07:27

    Thank you, G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown14 February 2025 at 08:22

    Thanks for sharing that (both you and the original listener!). It's an interesting set list. Personally I prefer the first two Japan albums so the inclusion of a few tracks from "Obscure Alternatives" is nice to see ... I imagine they'd start to disappear after this tour!

    Another great addition to your list of gigs! Thanks for the work!

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