#135 PINK FLOYD - Too Late For Mind Expanding 1970 (Flac)

PINK FLOYD
The Montreux 40th Anniversary Series
Too Late For Mind Expanding (HRV CDR 036)
Montreux Casino, 21 November 1970
 

Mastertape by Victor
Remastering by MOB
Quality Control by EdP
Artwork by RonToon
Produced by Harvested Records

Disc One
01. Astronomy Domine (11:45)
02. Fat Old Sun (13:20)
03. Cymbaline (12:37)
04. Atom Heart Mother (17:35)
05. Embryo (12:36)

Disc Two
01. Green Is The Colour (4:14)
02. Careful With That Axe, Eugene (12:04)
03. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (14:02)
04. A Saucerful Of Secrets (20:29)
05. Just Another Twelve Bar (6:00)
06. More Blues (9:06)

*Original Notes*
This is a rare case where all the stars were aligned: we have the best audience recording from that era, and at the same time the Floyd performance was really magic that night. All five songs of CD1 were delivered with fire and passion (including the most powerful rendition of Funky Dung ever recorded). And on CD2, the first part of A Saucerful Of Secrets (Something Else) shows the Floyd sounding like King Crimson would sound three years later. Another highlight of CD2 is Just Another Twelve Bar: even if not too interesting from a musical point of view, this song is a true rarity in Pink Floyd live repertoire (even if it's mainly based on the bass riff from Biding My Time).

This new Harvested release provides the first of the two Montreux 1970 concerts in the most complete form and with the best possible quality. The main source was Victor's raw master transfer already shared last year. The ending part of Green Is The Colour and the following track Careful With That Axe, Eugene, not present on Victor's master, were taken from "The Good" recorder that surfaced some years ago on "The Good ... The Bad" RoIO ref. FA033.

Victor's raw transfer shared in November 2009 was first thought to be from the second concert, mainly because it matched "The Good ... The Bad" RoIO that was labelled from 22 November 1970. However, based on Victor's recollections of the two shows and some pictures from his reels, it now appears that the present show with the two "blues" encores is actually from 21 November 1970 (this show ended late, forcing the band to finish with a quiet blues). The second concert was added at the last minute for the next afternoon at 2.30pm (Roger sarcastically said "good morning" to the audience) and at this second show the encore was Interstellar Overdrive.

Victor's master is a superb audience recording and a compilation cassette he did in the past from both concerts was copied by someone and ended up on the 1995 "Smoking Blues" bootleg ("Smoking Blues" is therefore at least 1st or 2nd gen, and even with that lineage some people thought it was from soundboard or from some EMI acetates that are most probably pure legend). Embryo, Just Another Twelve Bar and More Blues from "Smoking Blues" are from 21Nov70, but the versions presented here are upgrades, coming directly from the master and with an uncut More Blues (fading out on Smoking Blues).

Despite its fantastic quality, Victor's master had some flaws that needed to be corrected. The speed was not consistent throughout the show: for some tracks, speed was absolutely perfect, while for others speed gradually slowed down (probably an "end of reel" effect during the play-back). Fat Old Sun, Atom Heart Mother and A Saucerful Of Secrets suffered from that slowing-down phenomenon and speed was corrected for these three songs. There were some channel loss and level fluctuations, the most obvious being during the first verse of Fat Old Sun. These were repaired. There were also drop-outs here and there, especially during the first 2 minutes of Cymbaline (one drop-out every 862ms, thus 140 drop-outs were manually corrected one by one in order to fully restore these first minutes of Cymbaline). The right channel became slightly weaker during Set The Controls and A Saucerful Of Secrets, where more drop-outs were present on that channel. These flaws were attenuated as much as possible. Last but not least, there were several cuts on the master: the very first chord of Fat Old Sun was missing and has been restored, a short cut during Mother Fore (AHM) was carefully patched, and the central part of Celestial Voices (ASOS) that was missing due to a tape flip, was restored from another show in order to save the continuity and progression to the climax of the song.

The end of Green Is The Colour, Careful With That Axe, Eugene and the first 30 seconds of Set The Controls were taken from "The Good" source. A lot of work was needed in order to restore that part, because of abrupt speed fluctuations during Careful, and also because "The Good ... The Bad" RoIO comes from a "tweaked" tape: the original audio capture is pure mono (there is absolutely no stereo separation between the instruments), but someone found funny to play with the faders during the analogue transfer, introducing artificial panning in order to fake stereo effects (these tricks were clearly done during an analogue mixing of the recording, not in the digital world). Speed was corrected segment by segment, and levels were carefully adjusted in order to restore the original music as it was on the master, i.e. in the centre of the stereo image, before the artificial panning ruining most parts of "The Good ... The Bad".

So there you are. The 21 November 1970 Montreux concert in all its glory!

MOB (November 21, 2010)
Harvested Records

LINK

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#134 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Max's Kansas City Night 1973 (Flac)

Springsteen fans may be feeling somewhat overwhelmed with the sheer amount of official release bootlegs available via the BruceSpringsteen.net site. These shows has certainly made inroads into the amount of downloads each torrent receives on the specialist Jungleland tracker, with many now failing to get anywhere near 100 downloads.

So far the earliest official recording available has been the Roxy show from 18 October 1975. Nothing has yet been released prior to Roy Bittan & Max Weinberg joining the band.

This early show from 1973 is somewhat more intimate and  understated in comparison to many of the official releases. Even if you think you can't manage another Springsteen show, try this one, it really is superb and an excellent example of how the early band sounded.

Max's Kansas City Night (Crystal Cat - CC 874)

Max's Kansas City, New York City, New York
31st January 1973 
Soundboard

Time: 75:02

Lineage: Transfer/Trade and Generation Info: Original Silvers -> Eac (Secure) -> Flac

Max’s Kansas City Night 1973 is from Bruce Springsteen’s January 31st show, sourced from the recent (then) posting on Wolfgang’s Vault.  It includes Micky Ruskin’s introduction and a short tune up at the beginning of the set.

Springsteen had a six-night, twelve show run at the venue in support of Biff Rose and this show was recorded by the King Biscuit Flower Hour with only one song, “Bishop Danced,” being broadcast.  Earlier releases of this show include Live At Max’s Kansas City (The Swingin’ Pig) with “Song To Orphans” cut, and The Unsurpassed Springsteen Vol. 1 with the complete track.  These early versions of the show contained “Thundercrack” edited down to 6:50, with the “comedy break” eliminated, since it was distributed by Springsteen’s management to select industry people for promotional purposes.  But these latter releases have the entire eleven-minute rendition.

Crystal Cat also include the three surviving songs from the last show “Song To The Orphans” is complete, taken from Unsurpassed Springsteen Volume 2 (Yellow Dog), and ”Rosalita” is the song’s debut.  The final track is the studio recording “Phantoms” dating from the May 1973 Phase 1 sessions.  This song would be retitled “Zero & Blind Terry” later on in the year. 

01. Introduction By Mickey Ruskin (0:50)
02. Mary Queen Of Arkansas (7:41)
03. Bishop Dance (6:29)
04. Circus Song (Intro Heat Wave) (5:37)
05. Spirit In The Night (5:26)
06. Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street (7:18)
07. Thundercrack (13:17)
08. Saga Of The Architect Angel (5:34)
09. Song To The Orphans (8:38)
10. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (8:35)
11. Phantoms (Outtake) (5:37)


LINK

#133 THE STROKES - Vienna 2002 (Flac)

The Strokes

Pepsi Music Club, Vienna, Austria.

9 March, 2002

FM broadcast

In April 2002, the N.M.E. (New Musical Express) declared The Strokes as “undoubtedly the most exciting – and most hyped – band of the last two years.” (mmm…what about The White Stripes? I guess they forgot about them.) The weekly music paper certainly played a major role in hyping and promoting them. After hearing ‘The Modern Age’ EP in December 2000 it became a regular on the office stereo system being played virtually non-stop. It was decided that they should be added to the annual NME show along with …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Rocket From The Crypt and Peaches on 3^rd February 2001.

They featured in the paper at the end of January, to coincide with their appearance a week later at the Astoria in London. Like the White Stripes (July 2001) it took them a week to break in the UK. They appeared on the front cover in June and a month later were on the UK TV show ‘Top of the Pops’. The debut album ‘Is This It’ had gone platinum by the end of the year. Weekly music papers like NME, at that time were essential in spotting and promoting new bands such as the Strokes, leading to massive sales in their own country just like Nirvana, Pixies and countless other American bands before them.

A reader of the 100 Greatest Bootlegs blog emailed me recently to comment on the lack of availability of bootlegs by the band. After a search I had to agree that apart from those streaming on Youtube, locating files to download was hard going. Searching the largest torrent tracker for recordings from the early years 2001-03, turned up a 12-minute FM broadcast of four tracks from the Reading Festival 2002. There were three other FM broadcasts from 2002, the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Birmingham Academy and Pepsi Club in Vienna. This posted show has the best sound quality and performance although Birmingham was comparable but this just had the edge. The Paradiso show was a rather subdued recording lacking in clarity.

It was a different story seventeen to nineteen years ago when the following were readily available:

•           Live at Arlene's Grocery (2000)
•           Live at Brownie's (2000)
•           Live at WFMU Radio Station (2000)
•           The Peel Sessions (2001)
•           Live on KCRW (2001 Radio Session)
•           Live on Osaka on Air (2002)
•           Live at Zepp (2002 live bootleg)
•           Live in Reykjavik (2002 live bootleg)
•          This Is Legal Radio Sessions (2002 radio compilation) 

Some of these can be heard on Youtube as previously mentioned but until they re-appear into circulation enjoy 'Is This It' live from Vienna.

Lineage: FM - Sony Dat TCD-D7 - HDD - WAV – FLAC

01. Meet Me In The Bathroom

02. The Modern Age

03. Someday

04. Ze Newie (aka early version of "Between Love And Hate")

05. NYC Cops

06. Soma

07. Hard To Explain

08. Is This It

09. When It Started

10. Barely Legal

11. Alone Together

12. Trying Your Luck

13. Last Nite

14. Take It Or Leave It

LINK

#132 OASIS - Cabaret Metro, Chicago - 1994 (Flac)

25 years ago Oasis released their debut album 'Definitely Maybe.' To be exact on the 29th of August, 1994. Prior to this they had released three singles, all in 1994, Supersonic, Shakermaker and Live Forever, which was the first to break into the top ten of the UK singles chart. 

With the music press on board from the beginning, significantly the NME, who had interviewed them in April, just a week before the release of debut single, Supersonic. The band along with rivals Suede and Blur re-ignited a revival of interest in British guitar-based groups, after the dominance of US bands in the early 90's.

This show highlights a blistering performance taken from their first US tour, just before Tony McCarroll left the band. As was usual for Oasis it was a tour that would not run smoothly, Noel stormed off the tour in California forcing the cancellation of dates in Austin, Kansas, Dallas and Missouri. He finally re-joined the band in Las Vegas and after the show in Los Angeles, Ringo Starr declared that he was "Well impressed".

This is a perfect live complement of how the band sounded on their ascent to world-wide fame. The complete debut album track-list is performed live, less than two months after its release.  

Some classic brotherly rivalry is evident as Liam says “This one’s called Up In The Sky!” and Noel retorts “No it’s not, it’s called Bring It On Down!”

‘Definitely Maybe' frequently appears in high placings, on the many listings of greatest ever debut releases, which music magazines and web sites are fond of publishing.

The band:

Noel Gallagher - Guitar, Vocals

Liam Gallagher - Vocals, Tambourine

Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs - Guitar

Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan - Bass

Tony McCarroll - Drums

 

Original notes

Oasis

The Cabaret Metro

Chicago, Illinois, USA

October 15, 1994

SBD / Audio courtesy of JBTV / ESK 6805

Source:  Label Promo > EAC v0.95 beta04 > WAV > mkwACT v0.97b1 > shn > River Past Audio Converter Pro 7.7.1 > FLAC

01  Rock 'n' Roll Star

02  Columbia

03  Fade Away

04  Digsy's Dinner

05  Shakermaker

06  Live Forever

07  Bring it on Down

08  Up in the Sky

09  Slide Away

10  Cigarettes & Alcohol

11  Married with Children

12  Supersonic

13  I Am the Walrus

Notes:

This is from an 'Oasis Live' promo disc that we received here at the radio station in probably late '94 or '95, show is also on boots called 'Ode to the Walrus' , 'Supersonic' and 'Climbing The Sky'.  It's excellent sound from a promo sent from Sony.  Included are scans of the CD itself.  By all accounts it's a complete show

alternative artwork

LINK

#131 DAVID BOWIE - BBC 50th Birthday Broadcast 1997 (Flac)

David Bowie celebrates his half century, an unlikely looking event after he had hit rock bottom in the mid 70's, barely coherent, stick thin and lost in a haze of drug addiction. Yet the spark of creativity would burn bright as he released a searing series of albums, Station to Station (1976), Low (1977), Heroes (1977), Lodger (1979), Scary Monsters (1980) and the massive selling Let's Dance (1983), hitting another commercial peak ten years after becoming one of the biggest UK rock stars on the planet. 

BBC Radio 1 FM marked Bowie's 50th birthday with 'Changesnowbowie' an hour-long special that featured exclusive acoustic performances of classic tracks and the man himself answering questions from those he has influenced over the years. Broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday 8th January 1997.

BBC DJ Mary Ann Hobbs, begins the interview discussing his age and he declares it as an "English thing, this pre-occupation with age." He admits a sense of satisfaction with his life and discusses the alternatives on how it could have turned out.  

The interview also includes questions and contributions from:
Robert Smith (The Cure), Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen), Brett Anderson (Suede), Bono (U2), Scott Walker, Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Damon Albarn (Blur), Sean Ryder (Happy Mondays / Black Grape) & Brian Molko (Placebo). Bowie is genuinely overcome by the tribute from Scott Walker (see track 7).

The session was recorded on Tuesday 7th January 1997 at Studio Instrumental Rentals Studios, 520 West 25th Street, New York, during rehearsals for the 50th Birthday show that took place at Madison Square Gardens on Thursday 9th January.

BBC Radio>wav>GoldeWave Edit>CDR>EAC>FLAC

01. Interview
02. The Man Who Sold The World (1970)
03. The Supermen (1970)
04. Interview
05. Andy Warhol (1971)
06. Repetition (1979)
07. Interview
08. Lady Stardust (1972)
09. White Light White Heat (1968, VU cover)
10. Interview
11. Shopping For Girls (1991)
12. Interview
13. Quicksand (1971)
14. Aladdin Sane (1973)
15. Interview
16. BBC Promo Clip

'I Can't Read' was performed but omitted from the broadcast. It was aired later on the Mark Goodier show.

Band:
David Bowie: Vocals
Reeves Gabrels: Guitar
Gail Ann Dorsey: Bass, Vocals
Mike Garson: Piano
Zachary Alford: Drums

LINK 

#130 ARCADE FIRE - Capitol Studios, LA. 2013 (flac)

Capitol Studios
Los Angeles, CA
October 28, 2013

The surrounding area of Capitol Records was coned off and managed by traffic officers all while lines built up, leading into the iconic building’s parking lot. At first glance, it was just a swarm of anxious-looking 20-40 year olds waiting for…something, but only one thing could justify closing the streets of Hollywood during rush hour on a Tuesday evening: Arcade Fire. 

One of the most talked about bands of the year, on the day their new album was released, performing live in the Capitol Records building. The crowd wore glitter, sequins, and tin foil; true fans didn’t take the album name Reflektor lightly, and the LP being released that day only reinforced enthusiasm to dress up. 

A few minutes after 6:30pm, a spotlight beamed to the top of the Capitol Records building, well above the stage area, and as people noticed waving hands moving towards the ledge, the members of Arcade Fire each appeared under giant paper mache heads. This got the growing audience excited for the full performance.

Moving down a few dozen storeys, Arcade Fire took their positions and their instruments and drove straight into “Reflektor.” With a setlist rife with tracks from the new album, the band didn’t hold back on expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to play this special show. Whether it was dancing to the music or getting out of a camera man’s way, everyone was moving or at least nodding to the beat, of this captivating band. Towards the end of the set, confetti shot into the sky, glitter scraps filled the air, creating a temporary curtain that veiled the band before they completed their set after thanking the audience once again.

An encore was an unexpected surprise for this unique show in such an unprecedented location. The band returned to the stage, even playing “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” from The Suburbs. The confetti, the lights, and the slightly dangerous mirrors taped onto t-shirts and tuxedos all sparkled in the stage lights, but nothing could outshine Arcade Fire’s explosive performance. (Review by Angelica Coron, October 31st, 2013)

01. Intro
02. Reflektor
03. Flashbulb Eyes
04. Afterlife
05. Supersymmetry (with Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' intro & 'Satellite Of Love' outro)
06. It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
07. We Exist
08. You Already Know
09. Normal Person >
10. Here Comes The Night Time
Encore:
11. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Lineage:
Source: FM > Sony XDR-F1HD > Sony M10 (16/44)
Transfer: microSD > Sound Studio > xACT > flac
Run Time: 63 minutes

LINK

#129 PORTISHEAD - Bizarre Festival 1998 (Flac)

Elysium
Bizarre Festival 1998 at Butzweilerhof, Cologne, Germany
August 21, 1998

The Bizarre Festival took place over three days in August 1998 from Friday 21st through to Sunday 23rd.

As well as Portishead's appearance on the first day, festival goers were treated to sets from Cornershop, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Green Day, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, Tindersticks and The Jesus & Mary Chain. Saturday featured Deftones, Goldie, Placebo, Afghan Whigs and the Cure. Sunday's hard rocking final day included Danzig, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Queens of the Stone Age, Rancid & Therapy.


"The Bristol trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley have been making albums that dramatize the paradox of staying new yet original. It was easy, or at least easier, in the beginning:

1994’s Dummy swims in the sea of possibilities that emerge from self-discovery in a private context. Nothing like them had been heard before, and they seemed to know it. 

Barrow was a sound engineer and producer barely out of his teens: Inspired by hip-hop, and by Public Enemy especially, his percussion tracks strove for turbulence, precision, and density. Utley, a seasoned jazz guitarist 14 years his elder, had studied classical composers closely: his melodic gravity anchored the sonics in a higher register. Finally, there was Gibbons, a self-trained vocalist whose lyrics, while retaining the simplicity natural to song, were closer to poetry in their free-standing, serious tone. 

A word that frequently recurs on her Dummy lyrics is side: pretending inside, being doubled up inside, realizing why this side belongs to you, taking a look from our side. Her songs about love never overlooked its difficulty, how the barriers of selfishness and silence kept people apart: “But the thoughts we try to deny / Take a toll upon our lives / Struggle on in depths of pride / Tangled up in single lives.”

Emotionally speaking, Dummy was an ordeal. Musically, however, it was soothing even in its moments of menace. Hearing a beautiful voice over tasteful production, easy listeners delved no further; their interest was enough to turn Portishead into a band, and eventually a brand. Posh dinner parties and boutiques played Portishead. The new attention came as a shock, and perhaps a bit of an insult, to the band members. 

Like a plant releasing noxious chemicals to ward off pests, their second, self-titled 1997 album pushed forward harsher facets of their sound submerged during the first. Gibbons’s lyrics had always been covertly political, but now they were confrontational as well. The melodies went angular and somber. Utley and Barrow performed odd rituals in the pursuit of authenticity: They recorded their compositions on wax, subjected the records to wear and tear, and only then did they sample them. The efforts succeeded, but only to a point. They preserved their integrity, but only at the cost of flexibility; they had refitted their old style instead of arriving at a new one. 

Their touring culminated in a monumental live album, 1998’s Roseland NYC Live, but it also wore the band members down. Barrow and Utley got divorces; Gibbons fell ill. Everyone was drinking heavily. The only honorable choice remaining was to part ways for a time, and they took it." (Frank Guan, Vulture - May 2018)

This silver disc bootleg by Roach Records (UK, 1998) features eight tracks from their Bizarre festival set and a further six tracks comprising, three rehearsals and three live tracks from their 1998 UK appearances (possibly Glastonbury but unconfirmed.)

The Setlists FM site has twelve tracks listed, with these following 'Sour Times' - Humming, Cowboys, All Mine & Mysterons.



01. Half Day Closing
02. Over
03. Elysium
04. Glory Box
05. Roads
06. Western Eyes
07. Strangers
08. Sour Times
09. Wandering Star (Rehearsal 1)
10. Wandering Star (Rehearsal 2)
11. Mysterons (Rehearsal)
12. Sour Times
13. Roads
14. Strangers

tracks 1-8: Bizarre Festival 1998
tracks 9-11: Studio rehearsals
tracks 12-14: Live UK 1998 (possibly Glastonbury but not confirmed)

Musicians:
Beth Gibbons - Vocals
Geoff Barrow - Decks
Adrian Utley - Guitar
Dave McDonald - Engineer in band
Clive Deamer - Drums
Jim Barr - Bass
John Baggott - Keyboards
Andy Smith - DJ

LINK

#128 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Bizarre Festival 1996 (Flac)

'Ring Of Wild Roses'
Bizarre Festival, Cologne
17 August 1996

01. Brother, My Cup is Empty
02. Loverman
03. Mercy
04. Your Funeral, My Trial
05. Where the Wild Roses Grow
06. The Weeping Song
07. The Mercy Seat
08. Nobody's Baby Now
09. Jack The Ripper

10. Stagger Lee (The White Room, 24/02/96)
11. Henry Lee (The White Room, 24/02/96, w. PJ. Harvey)

12. Do You Love Me? (London 14/08/96)
13. Into My Arms (London 14/08/96)
14. Where The Wild Roses Grow (London 14/08/96, with Kylie Minogue)

In 1996 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released ‘Murder Ballads’ their ninth studio album in February -  it became their best-selling record, aided in no small part by Nick Cave’s duet with Kylie Minogue on ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow.’ The video received repeated airplay on MTV throughout the world. The Bad Seeds toured Europe, Asia and South America in support of the album, and their performance at the Bizarre Festival on August 17, 1996 is posted here.

It was an electrifying set with Cave bonding with his German fan base after his three-year residency in Berlin, despite him admitting that he had learned none of the language. Broadcast on FM radio, the performance captured the dark, brooding nature of’ Murder Ballads’ and the set also included the classic tracks ‘The Mercy Seat’ & ‘The Weeping Song’ from the extensive back catalogue. The two bonus tracks were taken from their ‘White Session’ appearance and fit well here, the latter three audience recordings from the Brixton Academy are in inferior quality.


This show was released on the KTS label in Italy. Short for Kiss The Stone, the bootleg label was synonymous at the time for releasing high quality shows.

Lineage:  KTS 622 (Kiss The Stone, Italy) > Silver Boot CD > Flac
           
'Murder Ballads' European tour - summer 1996
28 June  Roskilde Festival, Orange Stage
30 June  Milano, Italy, Sonoria Festival
04 July   Kristiansand, Norway, Quart Festival
06 July   Belfort, France, Eurockeennes Festival
20 July   Bern, Switzerland, Gurten Festival
26 July   Stockholm, Sweden, Lollipop Festival
27 July   Wiesen, Austria, Forestglade Festival
14 Aug   London, Brixton Academy
15 Aug   London, Brixton Academy
-------------------------------------------
17 Aug   Koln, Bizarre Festival
------------------------------------------
24 Aug   Pukkelpop Festival, Hasselt

Further details on the live shows performed by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds can be found here:
http://home.iae.nl/users/maes/cave/

15 songs were performed, these were omitted from the FM broadcast:

Stagger Lee                   
From Her To Eternity          
Do You Love Me?
Red Right Hand
Black Betty                     
Are You The One...  

LINK