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, 4 August 2017

Show 108 - Sparks - Live at The Record Plant Hollywood - September 1974



A first showing for Sparks on Live and Loud! and hopefully not the last. A great set from a publicity appearance at The Record Plant in front of a select audience - the first of two sets I think.

The original recording was also available once as a bootleg entitled One and a Half-Nelson and was basically clean, if a bit thin and rather hissy. So I cleaned up the hiss - leaving a little in, to avoid that suffocating "everything sounds underwater" quality so many recordings have get when hiss has been removed badly. After that, it was out with a 30 band graphic EQ to tighten up the bass and drums and take away a bit of harshness which was noticeable on the vocals and Ron's piano, and to reshape the sound a bit to make it clearer.

Fairly subtle changes which will really be heard if you listen on good 'phones or speakers. If you've never heard the original bootleg, well you're in for a treat! A short set but with plenty of chatting from Russell in between songs. All in all, its a great record of Sparks not long after they hit the bigtime in 1974. Mainly songs from Kimono My House but two tracks also from Propaganda (which was released a month or 2 later) make an appearance too.

The show is available to download here as 1 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
Hasta Manana Monsieur    
Something For The Girl With Everything    
Talent Is An Asset    
Thanks God It’s Not Christmas    
B.C.    
Here In Heaven    
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us    
Amateur Hour
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