Live and Loud!: Show 59: The Specials - Live at The Lyceum, London

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, 21 January 2016

Show 59: The Specials - Live at The Lyceum, London - 2 December 1979

The Specials formed in Coventry in 1977 and after some lineup changes and the formation of the 2-Tone record label by the band’s leader Jerry Dammers, saw their first single, Gangsters, become a top 10 hit in the UK in the Summer of 1979. October saw the release of their first album, also called The Specials, which featured a number of tracks you can hear in tonight’s show. In December 1979, at a time when their 2nd single, A Message To You Rudy, was becoming their 2nd top 10 hit, and a month before they went straight to #1 with The Special AKA Live! EP, featuring Too Much Too Young.

A brief word about this show - I think it was originally for French radio, as someone is babbling away in French in between some of the songs - I’ve taken that out without losing the songs but some of the gaps between songs are very short as a result! Maybe I should have left it in but it was fairly loud and annoying to me. So its a fairly breathless gallop through the set for about 40 minutes from 2Tone’s finest!

This show is dedicated to the memory of John Bradbury, The Specials’ drummer, who sadly passed away at the age of 62 over Xmas 2015.

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. 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
(Dawning Of A) New Era
Do The Dog
Monkey Man
Concrete Jungle
Too Hot
Doesn't Make It Alright
Too Much Too Young
Guns Of Navarone
Little Bitch
A Message To You Rudy
Nite Klub
Gangsters
Long Shot Kick The Bucket
Skinhead Moonstomp
Madness