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, 20 April 2018

Show 122 - Duran Duran - Live At Wembley Arena, London - 23 December 1988


This was (as you will hear) originally a live FM broadcast on London's Capital Radio, recorded by a listener at the time.A digital copy was sent to me last year by a listener (and donater - thank you again!) to Live and Loud!. It was very thin and flat sounding, with little bass and not a lot of upper end either. The sound quality was variable in places too but overall - a great candidate for the Live and Loud! treatment.

While there was only so much I could do with the variances in sound quality, the whole recording has benefited a lot from hiss reduction and a lot of time spent with the old 30 band EQ.  What you hear now is a far clearer and better record of this gig, I think.

The radio presenter talks through the whole show unfortunately (at the beginning, at the end of songs, at the end of the show) - and rather than try to edit all that out (which would mean losing chunks of music!) I've left it in; So for once, it really is like listening to the radio back in 1988, for this one! And with it being from 23 December, Xmas is only 2 days away, too. Bonus ;) Incidentally, the radio guy does mention Wild Boys being played before Drug - it wasn't in the recording I was given (guessing it was where the tape needed turning over, was incomplete and someone deleted it).

You can download this improved recording for free here as one 320 kbps MP3 file.

Or, if you would like to support the site with a very small donation towards storage and internet costs, in return you can have the show as separate, properly tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format; head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can do this.

Either way - enjoy the show!

Setlist
God (London)
Big Thing
I Don't Want Your Love
Hungry Like the Wolf
Do You Believe in Shame?
All She Wants Is / Planet Earth
Winter Marches On
Palomino
Too Late Marlene
Girls on Film
Notorious
Skin Trade
Is There Something I Should Know?

Drug
Save A Prayer
The Reflex
Rio

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