Live and Loud!: December 2014

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).

Thursday, 25 December 2014

End of Another Live and Loud! Season

We're now done for a month or two. :-) I have to say thank you to those of you who have taken an interest in the shows and enjoy them as much as I do - especially those who take the time to get in touch and send me their thoughts or thanks. I don't suppose many of you enjoy every show (I do, oddly!) but its been great to get feedback from people who appreciate the work that goes into these.

The show is now taking a short break but Live and Loud! WILL return in 2015. There are still shows outstanding I've not had chance to do, as well as new ones of course that surface from time to time. I have to say that most recent gig recordings I've heard are decent quality already - so probably won't feature on here. The whole point of Live and Loud! was to resurrect and make listenable older recordings that might otherwise disappear.

As I say - loads still to do. So keep an eye on this site - I'll be updating it with the latest news as and when I know its returning, and which shows are being done.

Still on the lookout for good soundboard and FM radio recordings - so if you have any that might be of interest - please do GET IN TOUCH! Some of the shows I've done so far have been listeners who have sent in recordings from their own collections.

To all listeners - Merry Christmas. Have a peaceful holiday season and I wish you only good things for 2015.

See you soon :)

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Show 57: Ultravox - Hammersmith Odeon, London - 7 June 1984

A bit of a special gig for me as the first time I saw Ultravox was by attending all 5 nights at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1984. This is by far the best recording from that tour that exists - but sadly its not complete. Taken directly from the soundboard in stereo on the night, the recording stopped after One Small Day - just as they segued into Hymn. Also missing are The Voice, and the encore songs Lament, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes and All Stood Still.

That said, what IS here is superb and remastering has really paid dividends, sorting out the majority of noises, clicks, tape deterioration, with EQ to bring the best out of the sound.

UPDATE 2018
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.

UPDATE 2024

This gig has been released officially, in full, as part of the Lament 40th Anniversary reissue box set - as such, it is no longer available here. The free version was downloaded over 3500 times. Pretty pleased with that, given this was also a bootleg I originally had on cassette back in 1984, bought at Camden Market in London. Nice to see the whole thing finally released (and presumably cleaned up - I haven't been able to buy it yet). Thanks to all who grabbed it and enjoyed it over the last 12 years.

Playlist:
Man of Two Worlds
Passing Strangers
We Stand Alone
New Europeans
I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)
Visions in Blue
Heart of the Country
Western Promise
Vienna
Reap the Wild Wind
We Came To Dance
White China
One Small Day

Show 56: The Beach Boys - Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, California - 1 August 1964

This was quite a show - The Beach Boys on their first national tour of the USA. 2 shows on 1 August were performed and recorded, the best bits were combined and overdubbed later to form the "Concert" album. This remaster is of the afternoon performance and is a great historical record of The Beach Boys live, in front of an audience of screaming teens! Perfect overdubbing is replaced by the odd missed cue and bum note here and there but it doesn't detract - you hear the raw excitement of the gig. Which is really what live performance is all about, isn't it?! :-)

As a bonus, part of the rehearsal for the shows was recorded as well and this is presented at the start of the show.

This is stored HERE as a 320kbps 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:
Rehearsal
Louie Louie
Little Honda
Surfin' U.S.A.
Wendy
Wendy
Wendy
Don't Worry Baby
Little Honda
Little Honda
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
The Little Old Lady From Pasadena / Don't Back Down

Gig
Introduction
Little Honda
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
The Little Old Lady From Pasadena
Hushabye
Hawaii
Let's Go Trippin'
The Wanderer
Surfer Girl
Monster Mash
Graduation Day
Be True To Your School
Surfin' U.S.A.
Don't Back Down
Don't Worry Baby
Wendy
I Get Around
Fun, Fun, Fun