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).

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Show 27: Japan - Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK - 7 February 1981


From the tour in support of their 4th album, "Gentlemen Take Polaroids", comes this FM radio recording featuring a selection of tracks from their live set. Its interesting to compare this performance with the later Japan show I did, from their last tour before splitting up. They have far more vibrancy and enthusiasm here, I think.

The recording needed a bit of repair but responded well to remastering and has proved very popular among Japan fans.

UPDATE: And now in 2018, I've made it sound better! While preparing this old show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. 

You can now download this new version (as of 2018) HERE as 1 new 320kbps MP3 file.

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

Setlist
Swing
Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Alien
Rhodesia
Quiet Life
My New Career
Taking Islands In Africa
Methods Of Dance
Ain't That Peculiar
Halloween
European Son
Posted by at
Labels: ,

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 September 2015 at 07:51

    Hi great site, any chance of 're upping Japan and kraftwerk concerts? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flip Martian2 September 2015 at 09:18

      Hi - yep, keep checking back. All the concerts will be being re-upped in he next week or 2. Number 1 through 29 (including this one) will be available as 320 kbps downloads for the first time. 30-45 will have the original 320 files re-uploaded. Cheers!

      Delete
    2. Flip Martian21 September 2015 at 01:17

      And all now reuploaded!

      Delete
  2. Mark Parker24 September 2015 at 05:45

    Nice set cheers for the Japan. I think I was there for tat concert.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous26 September 2015 at 13:54

    Really nice recording, but I have a request for future uploads: leave a second or two of blank space between your intro and the beginning of the actual recording. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flip Martian27 September 2015 at 01:04

      And see the remasters edited and passed around the internet by others claiming as their own? Nope, that's not going to happen, sorry.

      There are some shows where there is no ambient noise at the start of the recording. But otherwise - no, sorry.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous22 January 2016 at 04:12

    Thanks for the show flip.
    Enjoyed your other Japan re-master so looking forward to this one.
    CC, England.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown21 March 2016 at 15:51

    Wonderful many thanks for posting
    I believe this was a BBC recording originally
    Any more japan gratefully appreciated

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flip Martian22 March 2016 at 02:14

      It was, I believe, yes. There are 2 other Japan gigs on the archive - just look for Japan down the right hand side). And there is likely to be another later this year. Thanks for the feedback!

      Delete
  6. This Wreckage20 May 2018 at 02:54

    Another well-burnished show, many thanks for providing it to us all.

    Japan's career was interesting. At the point this was recorded, they had garnered a large, early-teenage, mainly-female fanbase, probably owing to the band's change to a newly radio-friendly sound and to Sylvian's image. Yet their arty pretensions (nothing wrong with that) were far removed from the standard of that genre. On this recording we can hear the audience screaming in ecstasy at anything Sylvian says between songs. Their split not long after the next album must have annoyed not only this fanbase but the rest of the band, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flip Martian22 May 2018 at 06:24

      There's a big difference I think in the band between this gig and their last gig in 1982 (also on this site) where they sound tired and just...unenthusiastic. Big shame, I think they were on top of their game here.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)