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).

Thursday 23 December 2021

Show 173: Jean Michel Jarre - Docklands London - 8 October 1988

 

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 steal and take the credit. Thanks.

There are several recordings of Jean Michel Jarre at Docklands - including an official release including excerpts of the concert, with edited tracks. There are also 2 different FM radio recordings I know of - both have very strange sound mixes with delay and so on - I can only assume this was an anti piracy measure at the time. Both would be fairly pointless trying to improve. But a listener to Live and Loud! also sent me an audience recording on CD, which he kindly sent to me for appraisal.

It sounded as you might expect a cassette recording at a large outdoor event might sound! Rather thin, overly bright at times, muffled at other times; the music levels were up and down, crowd noise and fireworks sometimes overtaking the music, wind noise. Lots of wind noise. Consequently I spent the longest time I've ever taken on a restoration, splitting the work over several months. Removing booming wind noise alone was a painstaking (and rather boring) manual process that took many hours - but was worth doing as it was very intrusive. It's not gone completely in places but you will not hear 95% of it and now get far more of the music. 

Another thing I noticed in the original recording, which I'd forgotten when I attended the gig myself - there were long pauses sometimes between tracks. So I spared you 6.5 minutes altogether of audience noise and chatter taken from between tracks. Again, not gone completely - it just helps the concert flow better I think. Hopefully you won't always spot the edits!

For an outdoor audience recording I think this one has come up really well; I hope you enjoy it. But bear in mind with such variable sound quality, some tracks inevitably sound clearer now than others - sometimes the fireworks still get in the way and there are a couple of distorted drum hits during Ethnicolor which couldn't be fully fixed -  but it is still a good improvement over the original recording I started with and well worth your time.

So sit back, turn it up...and if you want to recreate the wet and windy 2nd night instead, turn a desk fan on while spraying water onto your face. Job done. ;-)

You can now download this restored show exclusively for free, right HERE as one 320kbps MP3 file.

If you would like to have separate, fully tagged 320kbps MP3s or lossless FLACs of the restoration, 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 - you can take the file on this page absolutely for free - but every single donation does go towards this site and domain/storage costs.

Either way, enjoy the show! And if you like this recording, PLEASE spread the news and share the page link to anyone you think might be interested. Many thanks.

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW 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
Part 1:Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution: Overture
Industrial Revolution (part 1-3)
Equinoxe 5
Ethnicolor

Part 2: Swinging 60’s
Computer Weekend
Magnetic Fields II
Oxygene 4
Equinoxe 7
London Kid

Part 3: The 90’s
Third Rendez-Vous
Tokyo Kid
Revolutions
Souvenir of China
Second Rendez-Vous
Fourth Rendez-Vous

Part 4: The Finale
September
The Emigrant

Friday 3 December 2021

Show 172 - Soft Cell - Live At Hammersmith Palais London - 8 March 1983

 

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 steal and take the credit. Thanks.

Soft Cell gig recordings from the early 80s are rarer than hens' teeth, it would seem, so I'm really pleased to finally be able to bring you a restoration of one, thanks to the original copy on cassette being sent to me by a listener. 

This was a fairly clear but quiet and flat audience recording and I'm not convinced this was the complete gig - this is the only setlist I can find but the recording cuts off after Memorabilia with no "goodnight!" or anything, so I assume they played another track or 2 at least.

There were a few things that needed sorting out as best I can - there's a cut in "Insecure...Me?" which I've faded out and in, and  Loving You, Hating Me cuts off rather abruptly and Bedsitter has the beginning chopped off - I guess this is where the tape was turned over back in 1983 - so I've tidied those up too. Also a weird couple of glitches which you won't hear now. And the usual tape dropouts on either the left or right channel that needed fixing. Once all those were done, I got to work on the sound quality with my EQ and other sound tools - far more clarity and "oomph" now, with everything more audible and clear. 

For an audience recording I think this one sounds really good and I am sure all fans of Soft Cell will enjoy this one!

You can now download this restored show exclusively for free, right HERE as one 320kbps MP3 file.

If you would like to have separate, fully tagged 320kbps MP3s or even lossless FLACs of the restoration, 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 but every single one does go towards this site, it's costs and the restorations.

Either way, enjoy the show! And if you like this recording, PLEASE spread the news to anyone you think might be interested. I now have a 1984 recording too but the only way I can gauge demand is on page hits and downloads, so please pass on this page link (not the download link) to others if you can! Many thanks.

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW 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
Forever the Same
It's a Mug's Game
Insecure...Me?
Numbers
Soul Inside
Torch
Loving You, Hating Me
Bedsitter
Barriers
Youth
Baby Doll
Martin
The Art of Falling Apart
Purple Haze
Frustration
Memorabilia