These are the known recordings of the show:
1) Video. Plenty of DVDs come from this source, as well as the Gypsy Eye silver bootleg version. Generally, the sound isn't great on this source, as we all know. The mix is brutal, for starters.
2) LP, called "Free In The Park". It's from an audience recording, but missing four songs, since it was squeezed onto a single LP. The sound isn't the greatest, but definitely listenable.
3) The audience recording used for the above LP. But the only complete version I've heard is worse-sounding than the LP.
For a couple years, I've had this sample, sourced from vinyl, from the audience recording, which undoubtedly is the best-sounding of them all: link
The question is... where is it from?
I received it from a Mexican collector who disappeared off the face of the earth after he promised to send me the 60 minute version on CD. He claimed it was from the "Free In The Park" LP, but it sounds much better than any version I've heard. The pitch was too slow, exactly like the LP (but I corrected it on the sample I shared), so maybe there is a very obscure version of this LP out there...?
Someone suggested to me that it's from a Japanese bootleg acetate, but I'm not so sure.
Also, a 1989 article about unreleased recordings in "Record Collector" magazine mentioned a Capitol Records transcription disc from Hyde Park. The show was apparently broadcast live on the radio, but no recording has seen the light of day. Has anyone heard anything about that?
And of course, there was the radio station who said they would play the 1976 concert at the exact time the 2005 Queen + Rodgers concert at Hyde Park would be performed... but it never happened. What would their source have been?
Your thoughts?
Well the Hyde Park Lp bootleg is on the famous MARK label that was the very first lp release from this show. If i recall correct there were no represses on other labels then this one. So if it;s from this source it should be the same quality. recently one of these lp's was offered on ebay or the dutch marktplaats site.
in andreas voigts his bootleg book from 1995 he tells about a rare acetate from japan, bootleg of course. There is also picture of the item included, should also be a audience recording. But mostly a handfull of these are made.IMO this one should inferior sound comparing to the lp if they are from the same source.
Although I'm not really into the live Queen stuff anymore, I still want to help you out.
The radio show who said to broadcast the real thing in 2005 is called Planet Rock (link.
You could try to mail them about this subject. Maybe they know more about the tapesource. I remember they said they would use the original mastertapes, but you could always give it a shot.
That leaves the question what they really did with the tapes at that time.
Edit
The original announcement:
Further to my earlier message about Planet Rock (222.06 on DAB Digital Radio) broadcasting live from Hyde Park in July I have just heard the following on Nicky Hornes show.
'We will be broadcasting all day from back stage at Hyde Park, and at about 9 o'clock, whilst the guys are on stage, we will be broadcasting the original Hyde Park gig from the mid '70's in its entirety. This is not a shoddy bootleg, the band have made available to us the original master tapes of the concert, and we can assure you that they are far better than anything you may already have heard'.
That sounds wonderful indeed.We have great versions for all the other famous shows(hammy, earls court,houston)but not this one. I would certainly like to hear it. I hope it pops up one day!
Wasn't the sample sourced from a Japanese acetate?
If yes, sounds bloody rare to me.
deleted user 03.05.2009 18:56
Sorry for reviving again, but the sample sounds like the 'Free in the park' bootleg - Audience recording.
I uploaded what I think is a better version here, it is not the audience recording but a Snow remaster of the complete show with stereo reconstruction on the Prophets song.