Welcome - About Live and Loud!

Live and Loud! began as a fortnightly internet radio show 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.

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 the shows in lossless format, or as separate tagged files, head over to the Rewards for Donations page and see how you can get a lot for very little!

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, 31 March 2017

Show 96 - Fatal Charm - Paris Theatre London - 1981


Fatal Charm were formed in 1978 in Nottingham and made a name for themselves in support slots for both OMD and Ultravox in 1980. They continued to write and record in various lineups through the 1980s.

I was lent a cassette with this recording on it, along with the 2 tracks from the flexi disc they used to give out at gigs. Those 2 tracks are included on the compilation album "Plastic", which can still be bought from the shop on the band's website, so I've taken them off the recording here. What you have left is this rather short recording from an FM broadcast of excerpts from their 1981 live set recorded at the BBC's Paris Theatre, in Lower Regent Street, London.

Anyway, the recording was good quality and hadn't really degraded with age, so no major repairs were needed other than some noise reduction and volume balancing. Then it was out with the trusty 30 band EQ to improve clarity and space between the instruments and improve the bottom end somewhat of what was a rather flat recording; hopefully its a far clearer mix now than it ever was.

The show is available for free download here as 1 MP3 file (you may be temporarily redirected to an ad - if you have adblocking software, please disable it for this page - the link will be available very shortly after). Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Western Laughter
Le Boulevard
Christine
Dark Eyes
The Dark
Paris

Special thanks to Dave Barker (Fatal Charm's keyboard player) for clarifying one of the song titles.
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4 comments:

  1. Mark Radbourne6 May 2017 at 07:07

    I remember hearing this set on Radio One when it was broadcast - if I remember correctly, Ultravox were on the same broadcast that evening.

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    Replies
    1. Flip Martian12 May 2017 at 04:51

      They were indeed - I used to have a copy of the show I recorded myself with them on the other side of the tape.

      Delete
  2. Ryan Carter29 December 2017 at 07:33

    I had an old chewed up cassete also Ultravox on the other side which died on me about 15 years ago so pleased to have found this little gem at last ,,,been looking for years actually saw them with Ultravox must of been same tour Sahra Simmonds walked past me in the audience at one point nearly stood on my toe she had a green Robin Hood like jacket on and big boots i remember thinking wow they are good what a band:)

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    Replies
    1. Flip Martian31 December 2017 at 05:30

      Happy to help, glad you enjoyed it; its a great set.

      Delete

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