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 14 May 2021

Show 165 - Gary Numan - Live At Manchester Apollo - 26 Sept 1979

 

 

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.

Live recordings of Gary Numan from his first national tour in 1979 are few and far between - and those that exist in the public domain (all audience recordings) are very poor quality generally. But thanks to a few donations over the last year or so, I have been able to invest in better software, so I thought I'd have a go at repairing this one - not quite realising just how much time it would take up!

You can hear a snippet of what the BEST of the original recording sounded like in the intro to the show but this one took a lot of work. A brief list of things fixed for this one...All these things listed are now gone, as best as I can so, so don't worry.. ;-)

First thing I did was reduce the hall "reverb" - the show sounded like it was recorded from the back of the hall (or possibly from the toilet in the bar outside the hall...!) and the band were a long way away. It was hissy (of course). Recording levels were low. Bass distortion in places too. It was too fast and high pitched, there were odd gaps, tape dropouts so all the way through the volume was up and down on the left and right channels (not always at the same time), the sound COMPLETELY changing in quality for a couple of seconds...why? No idea...

There were also some random beeps part way through, which had nothing to do with the gig - I can only think whoever transferred this to digital format used demo software that inserted the beeps! There were also a whole bunch of scuffling banging noises - I think the tape recorder was being moved about during the first few songs and the mic was brushing something.

Sadly, the last part of "Bombers" is missing - I guess that's where the tape ran out and needed turning over. Some things I can't restore - rather than it just STOP as it did on the original, I faded it out and back in as it goes into Remember I Was Vapour. And finally - of course, being recorded from a tape recorder in a hall full of people in 1979, it was in mono.

Once all the above was worked on, only THEN did I get to EQ and use the sound improving tools to improve the sound. In all, this was probably the equivalent in man hours of several days work. Working on a show like this there will always be some compromise in the final EQ choices and it was never going to sound as clear as Living Ornaments 79 of course - or even the full Living Ornaments 80 from Manchester (that was originally a soundboard recording, so far clearer source material) but I think you now have an alternative 1979 live show which is finally listenable!

You can now download this restored show exclusively for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file (some phones and tablets have issues downloading the MP3 from the host site so you may need to use a computer).

If you would like to have separate tagged MP3s or FLACs of this show and show your appreciation for the work put in on all these shows on the site, please head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain separated, tagged files these for a very small donation towards the site costs: a full set of MP3s for £2, or lossless FLACs for £5, ready for you to burn to CD if you wish. 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
Intro
Airlane
Me! I Disconnect From You
Cars
M.E.
You Are In My Vision
Something’s In The House
Random
Everyday I Die
Conversation
We Are So Fragile
Bombers
Remember I Was Vapour
On Broadway
The Dream Police
Films
Metal
Down In The Park

Encore
My Shadow In Vain
Are "Friends" Electric?

2nd Encore
Tracks