Live and Loud!: Show 142 - Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Live At The Pinkpop Festival Netherlands

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).

Tuesday, 11 February 2020

Show 142 - Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Live At The Pinkpop Festival Netherlands - 8 June 1981

Very happy to finally have the chance to remaster a set by Ian Dury and The Blockheads - such a great band to hear live. This was the full headlining set at the Pinkpop Festival in 1981, with UB40 and Madness on set earlier in the day (you can hear Dury calling them to the stage during the last song - and from a brief video on Youtube, UB40 turn up but only Mike Barson (I think) from Madness makes an appearance (and you can hear him briefly singing too!).

This wasn't in bad condition - guessing an FM recording - but the mix and sound balance is a bit ropey in places. I did what I could to fix that and EQ'ed to improve clarity and the bottom end - you couldn't hear the drums and bass much at all; now you can.

You can safely download all of this improved recording for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file with no pop up ads getting in the way.

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 remastered 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
Wake Up and Make Love with Me
Clever Trever
If I Was With A Woman
Superman's Big Sister
Dance of the Crackpots
Plaistow Patricia
Sink My Boats
I Want to Be Straight
Yes and No (Paula)
Hey, Hey, Take Me Away
Billericay Dickie
Oh Mr Peanut
Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick
What A Waste
Sweet Gene Vincent
Blockheads
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll