| The Real Wizard 26.12.2010 14:46 |
There's a Zeppelin website called "Underground Uprising" where people do bootleg reviews. At the end of the year, there is a "Baker's Dozen" section that gets filled in, where everyone lists their favourite 13 releases of the year. The world of Queen recordings isn't nearly as busy as Zeppelin or Floyd recordings, so if we're going to do anything like this, we'll have to include non-bootleg releases... i.e. things shared by fans. And I'll just focus on new material, instead of merges of existing sources. So, here is my 2010 baker's dozen of Queen recording releases.. in chronological order: 1) 1974-77 BBC session masters Sensational stuff. Master clones of the final three BBC sessions were shared generously by John S Stuart. The tracks had circulated in varying quality, but never have they sounded better than here. They are all an interesting listen, but the 1977 session stands out as one of the most interesting recordings of the band, now in superb sound quality. 2) London 11-20-74 - major upgrade The three tracks from the stereo Trident reel-to-reel tape were shared by Ghostofasmile earlier this month in much improved quality. After years of hearing copies full of tape hiss, these are squeaky clean by comparison. A most excellent listen. 3) Nagoya 4-22-75 - master clone Only two songs survived the test of time, but a brand new Queen show always deserves a mention. 4) Yokohama 4-30-75 It's only on youtube, but it's a brilliant performance from the day before the epic and well-documented final night of Japan 75. 5) Himeji 3-24-76 - "Princess Road" (Tarantura) The A Night At The Opera tour is one of my personal favourites, as Queen are purely focused on the music, coming off of what we now see as their creative peak. The setlist and continuity of the show was excellent in 1976, and this recording taped by Mr. Peach is amongst the best-sounding of the band not only from this era, but all eras. 6) Fukuoka 3-26-76 - "A Night At Q-Den" (Tarantura) Another bootleg from a brilliant-sounding Mr. Peach tape. 7) Boston 2-9-77 - master clone At last, a truly excellent recording from early 1977 came out in February. Unfortunately the tape cuts out part way into Liar because the taper's battery ran out, but this has to be one of the best live recordings of the band around. 8) San Francisco 3-6-77 - Super 8 film After 15 years of seeing small snippets in documentaries, this turned out to be an 8mm flick filmed and shared generously by Dan Cuny (whose wife managed to smuggle two 8mm reels into the Winterland Ballroom in her purse). It's amongst the best footage of the band in existence. It's only 6 minutes long, but... six glorious minutes. 9) Bristol 5-23-77 - "Medieval Queen" (Uxbridge) Finally, a clean version of the Bristol audience tape. This bootleg label made many 1977 fans happy, as it's definitely one of the best ever performances by the band. 10) Berlin 1-24-79 - upgrade Copy after copy of this show has come out, but Ghostofasmile came through with the best copy heard to date. It's one of the best Live Killers audience recordings out there, and well worth a listen to compare to the official release. 11) Nagoya 4-28-79 - alt source, master clone An alternate source from Nagoya came out in May. This is one of the most interesting Japanese 79 shows, and this recording is pretty good quality. 12) Tokyo 2-13-81 - master>dat This just came out a few days ago. Even with the great Tarantura bootleg (via Mr. Peach) of the show from three nights later, I still say this is the definitive recording of the five Japanese shows. 13) Birmingham 9-1-84 - source 3 This great stereo recording came out last month. It's missing a few tracks at the end, but it's a great document from early in the tour, before Freddie was reduced to a fraction of his voice. Looking forward to reading the baker's dozens of others. Everyone.. feel free to share your thoughts on the bounty of great material that came out this year. |
| Hangman_96 26.12.2010 15:03 |
Pittrek's versions of concerts from 1979 are excellent! They just came out a few weeks ago. I also completely agree with you about three tracks from Rainbow 1974 shared here by ghostofasmile, they're excellent too. |
| pittrek 26.12.2010 15:27 |
I have to agree with Bob, btw there is still a chance that the second BBC session appears online in 2011 :-) |
| Ale_Pisa 26.12.2010 15:54 |
I have to agree with Bob... and I add the works of Pittrek for the 1979 show... |
| Kamenliter 27.12.2010 09:03 |
Thanks for that list, Bob! I'm now searching out some of the stuff I didn't know about...and currently converting those Yokohama tracks from YouTube into mp3's. |
| The Real Wizard 27.12.2010 14:52 |
No prob! But no need to convert the Yokohama tracks, as I've already done it, and normalized, edited, etc. I'll put it up at some point soon. It's the whole show minus the encores. |
| Kamenliter 27.12.2010 16:58 |
Very cool, I'll look forward to that upload! Thanks. |
| The Real Wizard 28.12.2010 13:47 |
Here you go.. Yokohama 4-30-75 link AUD > Master tape > ? > YouTube > mp4 (keepvid.com) > WAV > FLAC level 8 I won't do a formal share because it's a lossy youtube rip. All I did was use keepvid.com to rip the tracks to mp4, converted to WAV with the Winamp "Nullsoft disk writer" plugin, normalized and edited the tracks a bit in GoldWave, inserted new track breaks, and converted to FLAC. This is probably the best we'll get, as the taper unfortunately hasn't shown any interest in getting a clean cassette>digital copy out there. |
| vivaqueen 28.12.2010 13:54 |
MERCI BEAUCOUP Sir GH, can you help me for my prob with chicago 77 upgrade? It is on the section request |
| Kamenliter 28.12.2010 19:59 |
Thank you, Sir! Much appreciated. |
| GuitarMay 28.12.2010 20:56 |
Many thanks Sir GH, for having worked in editing the obscure Yokohama show and have posted here, even though lossy source !!! ;) |
| GuitarMay 28.12.2010 21:43 |
Hey, Sir GH: this idea is cool !!! I liked very much your initiative in opening a space here in Queenzone and put our point of views and our favorities shares about release bootlegs over the year, like what exists in other sites... It's fuck hard' choose just one in each category like favorite sharing here, but my vote goes to: Audio: part of The BBC sessions in lossless quality was absolutely greatest !!! ( it's yes: really great news, not the shit coletanea officialy realeased, last year... oh no ... ) Video: The fantastic recently compilation of multi-sources, the Hamm.Odeon' 1979 show, made by Pittrek (if we can consider this as''Release") !!! well, there is my opinion ;) |
| riccardo 28.12.2010 23:24 |
My personal podium for those 2010 discoveries is: 1. Birmingham 1.9.1984: the early works tour concerts are among my favourite of all time. This new source shows a great and very powerfull performance, even if we can hear the first problems of Freddie voice. 2. Boston 77: this was for me an unexpected discover. I love 77 early tour and who knows... in 2011 we will see more stuff of this leg of the tour. 3. Tokyo 13.2.1981: great master quality and as Bob said this maybe the definitive performance of that tour. A big thank to all involved into that stuffs and long life to the queen's live recordings! |
| therhyeman 29.12.2010 03:57 |
Not much to add really, apart from Uxbridge's Rhapsody In White (Manchester 1975) has been heavily played this year! Just want to sincerely thank everyone again for uploading all this stuff, including SirGH for the Yokohama. You make being a Queen fan worthwhile :) Tim |
| BriantaylorOBE 29.12.2010 08:47 |
sir gh trys to fool people here no share avalible. |
| on my way up 29.12.2010 13:18 |
Great list Bob. I fully agree about Tokyo 13/2/81 being the definitive document of that tour. |