The first live recording made of The Human League for you this time, done at their second ever gig. It recently came to light on YouTube, marked as their first ever show - and wikipedia lists it as such - but according to Martyn Ware (and he would know) and other sources, it is, in fact, their second. The first gig was also at Psalter Lane Art College but several months earlier - on 16 February 1978. Even so, it's pretty wonderful it's now in the public domain after so long.
The original of this was recorded on a reel to reel tape recorder in a bar, with people milling about talking, getting drinks in, etc - the quality is pretty noisy and not very clear - partly due to THIS version being from a copy of a copy. I'm now in touch with the guy who originally recorded this and hopefully a new version will be forthcoming at some point this year.
Anyway, back to THIS one... For those who are interested in such things, I reduced the room ambience, tape hiss, fixed as many dropouts and changes in volume as I could, then got to work with EQ and other studio toys to bring some clarity back and expand the mono sound a little.
Featuring early versions of some songs that would appear on Reproduction, both sides of their first single Being Boiled, and a couple of tracks that would be consigned to history and remain unreleased at the time, this is a fascinating listen, recorded just days before Being Boiled was finally released by Fast Product. While it was never going to be a crystal clear listen, I hope you enjoy this new version.
The show is now available to download exclusively for free HERE as 1 MP3 file.
Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s or FLACs, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.Either way, enjoy the show.
My special thanks to Paul Forshaw for allowing me to incorporate his cover design in mine (so much better than I would have done) and also to Peter Needham, who's photos from the gig appear in the cover design and below.
Setlist
Year Of The Jet Packs
Dance Like A Star
You've Lost That Loving Feeling
Disco Disaster
The Word Before Last
The Path Of Least Resistance
Being Boiled
Circus Of Death
Blind Youth
Thanks Flip..That was all superb to hear how Human Leagues first Concert sounded..A really True gem..+ these two photos too, Would that maybe be anymore Human League later or also Ultravox ? I Know that you have here a few Ultravox concerts..Have you some More Ultravox from these magic years 1980- 83/84 like Rage in eden, Quartet, Vienna period When M.Ure is the Leadsinger ?
ReplyDeleteBut a huge thanks..For This Human League...all effort you doing with this..
Regards
Tomas
Thanks Tomas. I do want to do a Rage In Eden tour gig from Ultravox - haven't done that year yet! Fingers crossed. There aren't too many Human League ones left that would be restorable - but you never know. Maybe something will appear. Thanks again for listening!
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