Show 77: OMD - Live at The Electric Ballroom London - 7 December 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 - as someone has already happened with this show and then tried to deny it (you know who you are). Thanks.
 

It's been a while since I did an OMD gig - but only because I hadn't found any recordings to do! I had a donation of quite a large number of recordings of various bands recently and I was really pleased to find this one among them.

The original recording is from the soundboard but had tape hiss and was quite tinny with virtually no bass - most of what you could hear was vocals and synths that were too bright. Gentle noise reduction and EQ helped with that. There were also a few defects that needed fixing which took a while, including correcting the pitch and repairing some dropouts. Considering the age of the recording and the bad mix on the night - Andy's voice is often far too loud - its very very listenable now; I hope you enjoy the result. At the start of Messages listen out for Andy imploring the sound engineer "can you turn the organ down?"!

At the time of this recording, OMD were more well known as Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and they'd already signed a major record deal with DinDisc, a subsidiary of Virgin records. A new version of Electricity had been released as a single to coincide with them coming to national attention as the support act on Gary Numan’s debut UK tour which ran through September and October 1979.

Their debut album was a couple of months away at the time of this gig - the first of 2 nights, supporting Talking Heads at The Electric Ballroom. This is a rare chance to enjoy a very early version of OMD, when they were a 3 piece consisting of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys...and a TEAC reel to reel tape recorder called Winston.

2019 Update
While preparing this older show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. 

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

If you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format of the new version, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

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Setlist
Messages
Bunker Soldiers
Mystereality
Julia's Song
Red Frame/White Light
Almost
Electricity
Waiting For The Man

  

Show 75: The Runaways - Live at The Agora, Cleveland, Ohio - 19 July 1976

Another band being featured for the first time on Live and Loud! This time it’s The Runaways, an all girl 5 piece group formed in 1975 in Los Angeles, California, featuring a very young Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Between 1975 and their last gig at the end of 1978, they released 4 studio albums and underwent several lineup changes but it’s the lineup that recorded the first album you can hear on this one.

That first album, called The Runaways, was released in June 1976 and in support of that the band played a number of dates in the USA - including this one, featuring not only songs from the first album but also a couple from their second which wouldn't be released until the following year. Originally broadcast on FM radio in the USA, this recording was basically sound but rather flat and with a few clicks and noises in it; its responded well to some repairs, EQ and mastering tools and really does sound superb!

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
California Paradise
Cherry Bomb
Take It Or Leave it
Secrets
You Drive Me Wild
C'mon
Blackmail
Wild Thing
Don't Use Me
Rock and Roll
Is It Day Or Night?
Johnny Guitar
Dead End Justice

Show 74: Mesh - Live at The Sala Bikini Barcelona - 22 June 2002

This show is dedicated to a band we’ve not featured before on Live and Loud! - Mesh, an electronic band from Bristol. The 3 original members of Mesh first came together in 1991, released their first EP in 1994...and 2 of those, Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn, are still together and, at the time of writing, are just about to release the latest Mesh album, called Looking Skyward, in August 2016. Quite some record.

Back in 2002, they had just released their 4th album, called Who Watches Over Me? and in support of that release they played quite a few live dates in the UK and Europe. And it’s an unreleased recording of one of those gigs that we have remastered for you this time, from Barcelona in Spain. The original recording was in good condition but the ending was chopped off just after the last song of the main set ended, so no encores are included, I'm afraid. The encore incidentally consisted of Razorwire, It Scares Me and Confined. It's a shame they're missing but this gig was so good I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to make this one available.

Anyway, judicious use of EQ and some mastering tools have really polished this up. 

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Firefly
To Be Alive
Headstone
People Like Me
Little Missile
In The Light Of Day
Trust You
Purest People
I Can't Imagine How It Hurts
Retaliation
Let Them Crush Us
Leave You Nothing
You Didn't Want Me
My Saddest Day
Not Prepared
Friends Like These

Show 73: Ultravox - Live at The Whisky A Go Go, Los Angeles - 30 December 1979

Its been a while since we last featured one of my favourite bands from the 1970s and 1980s, Ultravox. So I’ve remastered a gig from an interesting point in their history! And broken one of my own rules to do it...

This is an audience recording! But apart from some very brief moments when someone is close to the mic (especially at the beginning), you can barely tell. Its a great performance, very raw and exciting. This one has been subject to some judicious EQ, level balancing and noise reduction and has polished up really well.

Original singer John Foxx left after they began 1979 with no record company, after being dropped, and after a short tour of the USA (there’s a remastered gig from Philadelphia on that tour on the Live and Loud! Archive already HERE). It seemed Ultravox were finished until keyboard player Billy Currie, who had been working with Midge Ure in Visage, persuaded him he should become Ultravox’s new singer (it may actually have been Ure persuading Currie!). Without a record deal, Ultravox reconvened, wrote some songs and arranged to play some live dates in America in November and December 1979 - and we have a recording of the last show from that tour for you this time.

It’s not quite the full set - Hiroshima Mon Amour and, I think,  King's Lead Hat are missing, sadly - but what IS there, from set opener Astradyne to set closer I Can't Stay Long, is a great record of a band enjoying themselves and gelling - they went on to sign a record deal in early 1980 and included many of the new songs played at this gig on their first album as a quartet, Vienna. The set also features a few tracks from the last album with John Foxx (Systems of Romance) as well as an early version of a song which didn’t make it onto record at all (at least, not as a studio recording).

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

There are plenty of other Ultravox restorations on the site also, so don't forget to check those out by clicking HERE.

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s of this one, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Astradyne
New Europeans
Quiet Men
Sound On Sound
All Stood Still
Mr X
Western Promise
Slow Motion
Sleepwalk
I Can't Stay Long

Show 72: Joy Division - Live at Effenaar, Eindhoven, The Netherlands - 18 January 1980

This is the first time Live and Loud! has featured Joy Division. Long overdue! This is from their short European tour in January 1980 where they played in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

They’d released their debut album Unknown Pleasures in the summer of 1979 and their 1st non-EP single, Transmission, the following November. After returning from the tour, the band recorded their 2nd and final album, Closer, just 2 months later. That finished, the band played more dates in the UK and were due to fly out to begin their first tour of America when singer Ian Curtis sadly committed suicide the day before. The remaining members, as everyone surely knows, went on to change their name to New Order - a band who will also be getting the Live and Loud! treatment shortly.

The show you’re about to hear features only Colony from the forthcoming Closer - the remainder of this 16 song set being made up of tracks from Unknown Pleasures and single and EP-only releases.The recording did have a few defects, with some bass distortion and tape errors here and there - especially on the first couple of tracks. I've done what I could to sort them out, as well as EQ the recording to make it far clearer than the original. I hope you agree it was worth it!

UPDATE 2019
While preparing this older show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. 

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Digital
New Dawn Fades
Colony
These Days
Ice Age
Dead Souls
Disorder
Day Of The Lords
Autosuggestion
Shadowplay
She's Lost Control
Transmission
Interzone
Atmosphere
Warsaw

Show 71: Elvis Presley - Live at International Hotel Las Vegas - 3 August 1969

A bit of a special treat this, the second Elvis show to be added to the archive (check out the first one I did from 1956 here); this is believed to be the earliest soundboard recording that exists of Elvis in concert, recorded during the first week of his return to live performing, in Las Vegas in 1969.

Elvis had last played live in 1961 and then spent most of the 1960s making films in Hollywood, his final film being in 1969, which finally left him able to return to playing live. After wanting to return to live performances for some years, a deal was made for him to appear at the International Hotel in Las Vegas from 31 July all the way through to 28 August - his first live appearances in 9 years. In all during that run, he performed 29 shows to over 100,000 people; a  run so successful he returned there the following year, playing again in August 1970, which spawned the film Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.

Over the years a few of the concerts have been made available as commercial releases on CD but only from later in the residency; certainly not one from so early in the run. Anyway, after working on this for a while with some EQ and studio toys, I hope you agree its polished up really well - it a very listenable stereo recording with plenty of chat from Elvis in between songs, just as it all happened, on 3 August 1969!

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Blue Suede Shoes
I've Got a Woman
All Shook Up
Love Me Tender
Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel
Heartbreak Hotel
Hound Dog
Memories
Mystery Train/Tiger Man
Baby What You Want Me to Do
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Yesterday/Hey Jude
In the Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
What'd I Say
Can't Help Falling in Love

Show 70: B-Movie - Live at Rock City Nottingham - 21 February 1981

B-Movie formed in 1979, releasing 2 EPs in 1980. They ultimately released a few singles over the years but never an album until 1985 - by which time their time had perhaps been and gone - the lack of success of which contributing to them finally calling it a day, after several lineup changes.

This gig came just weeks after they featured on the Some Bizarre album, a compilation album also featuring the then unknown Depeche Mode, Blancmange, Soft Cell and The The, amongst others. The single they're perhaps most known for is Remembrance Day - and that was about to be released shortly after this gig.

The B-Movie story didn’t end in 1985 of course - since then they’ve got back together with the original lineup a few times and in March 2016 released a brand new album called Climate of Fear on download, CD and vinyl! Well worth checking out (I bought the CD).

But back to 1981... The recording of this gig I got was so noisy, it sounded like they performed in a wind tunnel! However, some careful noise reduction, speed correction and judicious use of EQ has really helped rescue this one - it sounds far better now. I hope you enjoy this rare live recording from a band that are so often overlooked when people talk about "the 80s".

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Polar Opposites
Moles
Escalator
Welcome To The Shrink
The Devil In Me
Nowhere Girl
The Fool
Time Out
Remembrance Day
All Fall Down

Show 69: Slade - Live at The Showplace, Dover, New Jersey - 30 July 1976

 

Slade, from their US tour in 1976. Slade had long since conquered the UK charts by 1976, with a string of hits for years beforehand, where they were seen very much as part of the glam rock movement for a long time. By 1975 they were off to America to try and conquer there too, spending much of the next 2 years there touring. This gig comes from towards the end of their time in the USA. Slade always had a reputation as a great live band and this gig is great evidence of that, combining many of their hit singles with album tracks in a great performance.

A flat and thin sounding soundboard recording has been restored and sounds really good now - the power of the performance only gets better as the gig warms up.

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Hear Me Calling
Get On Up
Scratch My Back
Take Me Bak 'Ome
How Does It Feel
Just Want A Little Bit
Move Over Baby
Gudbuy T'Jane
Them Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing
Cum On Feel The Noize
Get Down and Get With It
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller 

Show 68: Simon and Garfunkel - John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland - 21 October 1966

 

Since first meeting in 1953, Simon and Garfunkel have worked apart more than together, since their first hit record together in 1957 under the name “Tom and Jerry”. Their first album together was released in 1964 and didn't sell so well at the time, with Paul Simon choosing to then go to England and play on the folk circuit, and Art Garfunkel continuing his studies at university in America.

A second album was recorded and released at the beginning of 1966 on the back of a huge surprise hit with Sound of Silence. They then spent several months in the studio later in 1966 recording a follow up to that - a time when they began to exert more control in the studio and the recording process. By the Autumn they had just released their 3rd album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme before resuming their touring schedule of American colleges.

And that's where we find them on this recording. They begin the set with A Hazy Shade of Winter - released as a single the following day.

UPDATE 2019
While preparing this old show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality far beyond what was originally done to the recording back in 2016.  Further, "A Poem On The Underground Wall" was in the wrong place entirely...and no-one told me! But all fixed now.

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s for the price of half a cup of coffee, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Cloudy
Teenage Moron
Benedictus
Blessed
A Poem On The Underground Wall
I Am A Rock
Anji
The Sound Of Silence
Sparrow
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
A Church Is Burning

Show 67 - Nash The Slash - Live at The Edge Toronto - 15 February 1980

I first came across Nash The Slash (like many in the UK) while he was supporting Gary Numan on his UK tour in September 1980. Coventry, in my case. My first live gig and my first live experience was Nash, surrounded by his machines on 3 sides, with an ear splitting intro to what I would recognise as Nash's version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. What an incredible noise that was, and what an image...

I could write reams about him but will try and keep it fairly brief...after buying all his solo material when it came out after that gig and through the early 1980s, I eventually got to meet Nash in 2008 when a member of the band I was in had the idea to invite him over to tour with us around the UK. Mad idea - but it paid off! He said yes and a deal with Flag Promotions was done to bring him over from Toronto, where he still lived. I can still remember meeting him for the first time at the rehearsal studio in a converted farm building not far from where I live. He sat on the sofa while we went through a few songs that we did (we played Gary Numan songs). A nerve wracking moment until I saw his foot tapping away - fortunately we passed the test!

Then he plugged in. To hear that wall of sound of his when he picked up his bow and played - a sound I'd loved since seeing him in Coventry in 1980 - well, it was quite something; there it was, live in front of me. While on the tour it was Nash’s idea to share his stage time with us - on most of the dates, we would play our set, he would play his - and then he’d invite us back on stage to play a few Numan songs - including You Are, You Are, a track he’d played on that Numan had never done live at that point; always went down a storm.

(pic of Nash on stage with us, taken from here)

For a few nights on the tour he stayed in my house - he loved the view out over the countryside from our back garden and used to sit out there to relax - he posted a pic of it on his site at the time. I also took him shopping for bandages (as a long term fan, that was quite surreal - but hey, I guess he had to get them somewhere!) and to the dry cleaners to get the famous white suit cleaned in a short break between gigs.

Nash retired from music in 2012, and sadly died on 10 May 2014. It was an honour to play with him - at his best he was a generous and talented musician, happy to share the stage with a few nobodies (that was us) and bring us up to his level. His website and music live on - go HERE for both.

Anyway, long before I met him, the story goes that Gary Numan came across Nash playing at The Edge club in early 1980 and immediately invited him to support him on his tour of Canada and North America - which started in Toronto on 18 February. I can’t say definitively this is that same gig - Nash was playing several nights at the same venue that week - but who knows? We'll probably never know for sure.

This show, featuring several rare tracks and early versions, was apparently an FM recording broadcast on local radio at the time but was very tinny and thin sounding if it was. I spent a lot of time EQing this to bring out the bass and drum machines a bit, while keeping the trademark mandolin and vocals to the fore. I hope you agree it’s an improvement.

This show is dedicated to Nash, and to those who knew him and called him a friend. I hope they enjoy this and approve of what I've done. And hopefully there will be 1 or 2 more in the near future.

***2021 UPDATE
Thanks to a listener who donated to the site and asked for this show as separated files, I had cause to listen to this again. In short, I have far better studio tools available to me now and so rather than just spend a few minutes splitting the show, I spent rather longer remastering the show a second time - the result is a far clearer recording - if you downloaded the earlier version, grab this one, it is far better!

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, 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 this new version. And, as Nash would say - "listen in safety".

Setlist
Wolf
Reactor No.2
Anthrax Gavotte
Next in Line
Million Year Picnic
Bring Out Your Dead
19th Nervous Breakdown
Dead Man's Curve
Dopes On The Water
Tending Sheep
Jester On A Tightrope