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 10 September 2018

Show 128 - Slade - Live At The Winterland, San Francisco - 6 May 1973


A great set from Slade from one of their many dates in the USA; a short set from when they were second on the bill to Humble Pie. The source is a bootleg with other tracks tacked on from a different gig - but I like the sets on here to represent individual gigs wherever possible, so this is just the 6 tracks from The Winterland.

It's a great recording anyway with just a couple of things that needed repairing before I could set the 30 band EQ loose on it. The EQ cleared the mix quite a bit and brought out the drums - this is a really powerful performance (well, Hear Me Calling isn't quite so much but once the sound guy had sorted out the mix they were off and rocking!) and, like Slade live always was, best played loud!

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! Incidentally - this site has some great pictures taken from a gig the night before at the same venue, along with a write up of the experience. Well worth a read while you're listening to the gig!

Setlist
Hear Me Calling
Move Over
Gudbye T'Jane
Just A Little Bit
Keep On Rocking
Mama Weer All Crazee Now

Saturday 1 September 2018

Show 127 - Siouxsie and The Banshees - Live At The Vortex, London - 11 July 1977


I knew when I got this bootleg that it was one I'd like to have a crack at improving a bit - it being 1 of the first shows to feature John McKay on guitar, so completing the lineup that would get signed to Polydor in 1978 and record the first 2 albums, "The Scream" and "Join Hands". It was a muffled old recording but was just about listenable, although far from clear (the original is also on youtube somewhere if you haven't heard it).

For this one there was quite a bit of editing to clean up a few issues - "Mirage" is chopped off after a minute and a half, so I faded that out rather than just having it stop; a few parts had varying volume; a couple of tape drop outs needed fixing; the whole thing was quite hissy so I took some of that away without affecting the recording too much.

Then the whole thing was much louder on the right than the left, so that needed evening out, so I balanced the stereo image, such as it is. After all that, I whipped out the trusty 30 band EQ to remove some of the muddy midrange and harsh top end, as well as try and bring back some weight to the drums and bass (there wasn't any). While it's still not perfect and there's no way it would ever sound as clear as (say) a soundboard or FM recording, I'm pretty happy with the improvements I have been able to make. The beginning of the recording (as is so often the case) is probably the worst part.

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
Make Up to Break Up
Helter Skelter
Mirage
Scrapheap
Psychic
20th Century Boy
Carcass
Love in a Void
The Lord's Prayer
Captain Scarlet