Live and Loud!: May 2020

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).

Sunday, 31 May 2020

Show 148 - Depeche Mode - Live At The Suedwest Stadium Ludwigshafen - 2 June 1984

An overdue return this time for Depeche Mode - this time featuring an FM broadcast of a one off live performance some months before the release of Some Great Reward when they played an open air festival headlined by Elton John. The set is mainly selected tracks from their Construction Time Again tour (go here for a link to a show from that tour) but does feature their current single at the time, People Are People for the very first time live on stage.

I've heard a few versions of this recording and I chose the best sounding complete source to work with - even so it needed several hours work just to fix tape drop outs and FM interference/distortion. After that, several more hours working on EQ to even out the sound as much as possible and then make it sound clearer and sharper.

I hope you enjoy this much improved recording.

You can safely download all of this improved recording for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file with no nasty pop ups or 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
Everything Counts
Now, This Is Fun
Two Minute Warning
Shame
Get The Balance Right
People Are People
And Then...
Photographic
Told You So
New Life
More Than A Party

Saturday, 16 May 2020

Show 147 - Crowded House - Live At The UCSD Gymnasium, La Jolla - 8 April 1989

A long overdue return for Crowded House - all their shows have been hugely popular on Live and Loud! over the years; this one deserves to be too, featuring really good and clear sound quality, the usual witty stage banter and a fantastic performance from the guys on stage.

This was a soundboard recording and in good condition overall - far better than some I've had to deal with. All that really needed doing was careful EQing to lower the keyboards which were pretty loud, bring some space between the instruments and make the drums clearer, so you can hear the whole band really well.

I hope you enjoy this much improved recording. You can safely download all of this improved recording for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file with no nasty pop ups or 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
Mean to Me
World Where You Live
Mansion In The Slums
Love You 'til The Day I Die
Love This Life
In the Lowlands
Hole In The River
Don't Dream It's Over
Irish Heartbeat
This Is Massive
Something So Strong
I Feel Possessed
Now We're Getting Somewhere
Sister Madly
Better Be Home Soon

Thursday, 7 May 2020

Show 146 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Live At London School Of Economics - 12 Dec 1985

It's not often you come across Sigue Sigue Sputnik live recordings so when a listener said he had one I was only too happy to borrow his tape and transfer it to a lossless digital format.

This is an audience recording from what sounds like a not very full LSE. I now have software that can remove some of the natural ambience from audience recordings and make the music a bit more prominent, so that was my first step. Then fixing a few tape dropouts and noises before removing tape noise. The last stage was then controlling volume levels at various points and applying a 30 band EQ to the restored recording to improve the sound quality.

I hope you enjoy this much improved recording. You can safely download all of this improved recording for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file with no nasty pop ups or 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
Rocket Miss USA
Sex Bomb Boogie
She's My Man
Hey Jayne Mansfield Superstar!
21st Century Boy
Love Missile F1-11