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).

Friday 23 April 2021

Show 164 - Genesis - Live At Wembley Arena - 19 December 1981

 


A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit. Thanks.

A first appearance on Live and Loud! for Genesis, in a restored live audience recording taken from one of the last dates of their Abacab tour of 1981 at Wembley Arena.

Originally a vinyl triple album bootleg, the files I acquired were a direct transfer (in lossless FLAC format) from that. And pretty quiet. And noisy. And not the clearest recording I've ever heard, if I'm honest! I could write a small book on what I did with this one but I will spare you the gory details and summarise...

Vinyl crackle was very loud, recording level of the music was pretty low...crackle removed.
It was an audience recording from an arena, so lots of reverb...so that meant reducing the reverb ambience and ensuring the music levels were louder so I could work on them.
Recording levels were up and down all the way through...so I tried to increase the low levels as much as possible and even out the tape dropouts where they appear, without sounding like it was compressed or limited too much. It's now far better in that regard but not perfect. The perils of automatic recording levels back in the day, I guess. Ssssome pretty bad sssSSSibilance too in places...I did what I could to tone that down.

Eventually I had a sound file to get to work on, with EQ and other studio toys to clear up the muddy sound, bring out some details and dynamics where I could and generally make it a nicer listening experience.

Do be aware there is a long (and slightly rude) story from Phil Collins before 1 song - I left it in along with all his introductions as they're part of the gig experience - but I only mention it here to say there is part of it missing from the recording. At a guess, maybe this was where someone had to turn the tape over on the night, I don't know. There is also 1 track missing from the set - the last track ("I Know What I Like") wasn't included on the recording.

It will never sound like a crystal clear FM or soundboard recording but it's substantially more listenable - and enjoyable! - now. You can now download this restored show exclusively for free HERE as 1 (rather large - it's around 2 hours) 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. Absolutely no obligation to do so of course. Either way, enjoy the show!

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
Behind The Lines
Duchess  
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Dodo/Lurker
Abacab  
The Carpet Crawlers
Me And Sarah Jane  
Misunderstanding  
No Reply At All
Cindy Louise (Firth of Fifth intro)
Firth Of Fifth
Man On The Corner  
Who Dunnit?
In The Cage/The Cinema Show/The Colony Of Slippermen
Afterglow  
Turn It On Again
Dance On A Volcano  
Drums duet
Los Endos
 

Friday 9 April 2021

Show 163 - Erasure - Live at Bedgebury Pinetum Cranbrook - 11 June 2011

 

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit. Thanks.

"Holy Show Resurrection, Batman!"

Early fans of Live and Loud! may remember an earlier version of this show when Live and Loud! was solely available via internet radio. For various reasons, the show wasn't made available afterwards, or repeated. And wasn't added to the archive (that's this site) when that was set up in 2014.

So it's been lost forever. Until now...

I found it recently in an old set of files and knowing there was interest in hearing an Erasure live show, I could have just uploaded the file, created this page and said "job done". But I didn't - I went back to the show and got to work on it again. 8 years later, I think I'm a bit better at this - and I certainly have better software at my disposal, to make it sound better than it did when I originally did it back in 2013. So that's what I did. And it sounds much better now.

The new version of this full length 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. Absolutely no obligation to do so of course. Either way, enjoy the show!

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
Hideaway
Breath Of Life
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)
Heavenly Action
Always
Push Me Shove Me
Ship Of Fools
Victim Of Love
Breathe
Chains Of Love
Sometimes
Drama!
Save Me
Love To Hate You
Blue Savannah
Knocking On Your Door
Who Needs Love Like That
Chorus
Oh L'Amour
A Little Respect
Stop!