Live and Loud!: October 2018

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).

Monday, 29 October 2018

Short Break - Updated Content

The latest show (featuring XTC here) will be the last new remaster of 2018. However, some updated and better quality content will be uploaded during the break.

Short break
We're planning on moving house, hopefully in about 5 weeks or so, up into a rural part of Scotland. Before then, there's lots to do and sort out, and where we're moving to has slower internet than here, so upload speeds will be slower - and necessitate me leaving files to upload over night I think, rather than the several minutes they take here! So I'm trying to get through as many of the old shows as possible and upload the separated versions for any donators that request shows (doesn't happen often but I like to be prepared!) to save time after we move. Once they're on the server, these usually take much less than the 48 hour turnaround I usually give to process the order and send on. (Information on what you get for donations is posted in the link below: http://www.liveandloudshows.com/p/blog-page_12.html)

Updated content
When I do split the shows for donators, some of the older shows (if they need it) get revisited and improved again when I prep them as separated FLACs or MP3s; I think I've got better at this restoration lark since I first started in 2012 and some of the older shows certainly don't sound as good as I remember. For the first time, I will be updating the free "single MP3" versions on here as free downloads, with those new and improved versions (previously, only donators got the benefit of any improvements). Donators still get the separated MP3s and FLACs of course - and not EVERY old show needs reworking - but I'll post updates on this as I go.

The future
New shows will resume asap after the move - probably early in January 2019. I have tons of material to work on - literally hundreds of shows - about half a terabyte's worth, last time I checked, by artists yet to appear on Live and Loud! as well as others who have appeared already. And new ones being found regularly too, of course! And hopefully (!) once the move is out of the way, I can get back to a more regular and frequent release schedule next year.

So there really is much more to come! Stay tuned...

Saturday, 27 October 2018

Show 130 - XTC - Live At The Rainbow, London - 17 September 1979

A second show for the archive from XTC, this time from 1979. This was a soundboard recording, ripped from a vinyl copy originally I think. It's a great gig, with a setlist spanning their career to date, from the 3D EP to the recently released Drums and Wires.

I removed some vinyl rumble and hiss, as well as evening out the volume between some tracks which were oddly very loud or pretty quiet. Once all that was done, I then set about clarifying the recording with 30 band EQ. Oddly, Battery Brides was far more bass heavy than other tracks - like someone had tweaked it before, or the song had been put in from a different copy of the recording. So that got tweaked separately to more closely match the other songs in the set.

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

Or, if you would like to support the site with a small donation towards storage subscription 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
Beatown
Real By Reel
The Rhythm
Roads Girdle The Globe
Science Friction
Life Begins At The Hop
Helicopter
Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)
Making Plans For Nigel
Scissor Man
Instant Tunes
Outside World
Life Is Good In The Greenhouse
Crowded Room
Radios In Motion
Are You Receiving Me?
I'll Set Myself on Fire
Encore:
Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)
This Is Pop
Dance Band
Statue Of Liberty

Saturday, 6 October 2018

Show 129: Nash The Slash - Live At City Garden, Trenton, New Jersey - 21 Feb 1983

An outing for Nash The Slash from early 1983 with a set including a few songs from his album American BandAges which would be released the following year. For those who only really know him for the Children Of The Night album in the UK, the versions of Swing Shift and Deadman's Curve here are different - studio versions of these appeared on the compilation The Million Year Picnic - so it's a very interesting listen.

This was a soundboard recording I think, although 1 track, Womble, is badly affected by what sounds like FM interference - which was mostly in good condition but some tracks were very noisy and/or hissy and recording quality took a nose dive during 1 or 2 songs. So while most of the tracks have only needed a fair bit of the old 30 band EQ to improve things, I've spent a lot of time trying to rescue some of the others. Womble is, I'm afraid, still rather noisy but worth a listen. Hopefully the rest of the gig makes up for 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 small donation towards storage subscription 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
Born To Be Wild
1984
Who Do You Love?
Swing Shift (Soixante-Neuf)
Womble
Dopes On The Water
Dance After Curfew
Dead Man's Curve
American Band
Children Of The Night
Psychotic Reaction