| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 15:56 |
Queen London, England Empire Pool May 13, 1978 The 40th anniversary of this show has just recently passed, and this particular version of it wouldn't have been possible even a week ago. It is compiled from 4 versions of the same audience tape. And there is a hell of a tale to go along with it. It's an average sounding recording of an excellent performance, the last night of the News Of The World tour. For decades, the only copies to circulate were missing the first two songs and the last ~45 minutes of the show (cutting out part way through Brian May's guitar solo). But now the latter segment sees the light of day for the first time. Now how did this happen? Sometimes people just find old tapes in their attic and happily circulate them with the best of intentions, or give them to a well-meaning person to transfer to digital and then post online. This tale is anything but. There was a group of hardcore Queen fans called the "Royal Family" who followed the band around the world to most of their shows for years. They sometimes taped the shows, and most of their recordings have remained uncirculated. But recently, someone from the group anonymously went rogue and started letting out the recordings, beginning with Liverpool 79 last year, and continuing now with several tapes from 1978. This person opened up and told stories about the culture within that tightly knit group of fans. While doing one's best not to engage in any character assassination, this person had some pretty lurid stories to tell about their cliquiness, as well as a competitive nature in recording the concerts. That competitiveness got so extreme to the point that they began to steal and destroy each other's tapes that weren't deemed "good enough" quality, while the tapes that did manage to pass the litmus test would then circulate amongst a limited circle of people, usually with any number of adjustments purposely done to the content in order to keep the best versions for themselves. This apparently led to a lot of in-fighting, and people eventually defecting from the group. The fact that this version of this show comes from four different copies, all of which have seen some sort of quality degradation (far beyond simple tape generation, as I will explain below) and have missing songs in one place or another, attests to this first hand account. The content (which is exactly as I received it): The guitar solo is assembled from three different copies, all of which are cut in different places (and it's entirely missing on one of the copies). Brian plays bits of Three Blind Mice and Frere Jacques as he sometimes did in this period, and the sound quality of each segment fluctuates because of the source changes (make of this what you will). The last couple minutes of his solo and the lead-in to The Prophet's Song (reprise) as heard here are the best indication of how nice the uncut master must sound. Liar has been snipped part way through (just after Freddie holds out the mic to let some audience members sing/shout the parts), with an artificial reverb/delay added to the spot where it cuts out, making it impossible to know what kind of cut it is. And all of the remaining edits on all of these sources have fade-outs while the tape hiss remains, which indicates that every one of the edits was consciously done after the fact, and with analog gear. Yet another indication of zero transparency from whoever initially let these tapes out. A brief moment of audience cheering at the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody has been made considerably louder (probably as a watermark, which was a common tactic with some tape traders back in the day who wanted to keep track of who was circulating their copies, as they ultimately didn't trust their recipients even though they were "friends"). Two of the four copies of the show contain this segment, and the inferior of the two doesn't have this volume fluctuation, proving that the adjustment was indeed intentional. Source info: * the oldest known transfer of the familiar bulk of the show, in mono sound ** transferred decently, but reduced to mono (the last 9 songs have less bottom end, and are slightly distorted at times) *** common transfer of the bulk of the show (stereo, but with more tape hiss, and a bit overblown with occasional bass distortion in one channel) **** stereo but quite an overblown transfer, and it becomes more and more overblown as the show progresses (also, one channel is muffled) All I did was speed correct the tape wherever necessary, and did seamless cross-fades between the different copies. All four copies should should look something like this: AUD > Cassette (x) > WAV (GoldWave speed correction and edits) > FLAC level 8 The performance: Mercury's voice is in excellent shape, and the band are very tight at the end of the tour, with plenty of highlights throughout the show, including a special addition of White Queen for the last night's sake (also its final live appearance). Tonight also sees the final performances of many of the Opera, Races, and News Of The World songs (Mercury absolutely slays in White Man). This is one of the earliest tapes of Love Of My Life with the singalong. At this stage it's still pretty raw and fresh for the band and audience alike. This may well be the best live performance of Bohemian Rhapsody from the 1970s. Jailhouse Rock is more of a 12 bar blues jam than the song proper. They were probably tiring of playing it every night for 8 years by this point, and they finally did drop it after this show. This is the first time the band closed with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. They almost trainwreck the end of the former! It's pretty unfortunate that this entire recording has the fingerprints of people who have intentionally destroyed a tape of one of Queen's greatest performances. But for now it is the best copy of the show yet to emerge, so hopefully you'll all enjoy it for what it is. A giant thank you to this anonymous person for finally letting out these tapes after 40 years. Furthermore - there have been a number of people operating under fake names in the private messaging section of this forum circulating versions of single songs from this show and others in horribly reduced sound quality, all purposely mislabelled as Stafford 5-7-78. This post is a very cordial "piss off" to those people so that they can no longer waste people's time with their worthless carrot dangling and associated stupidity. A tape of the previous night's show also exists and will soon circulate as well. Its story is far less complicated than this one, but it also emerged from the aforementioned delightful online mess. So let's leave it on a positive note and something to look forward to. More info here: link 1) Somebody To Love */** 2) White Queen ** 3) Death On Two Legs ** 4) Killer Queen ** 5) Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy ** 6) I'm In Love With My Car ** 7) Get Down Make Love ** 8) The Millionaire Waltz ** 9) You're My Best Friend ** 10) Spread Your Wings ** 11) It's Late ** 12) Now I'm Here ** 13) Love Of My Life ** 14) '39 ** 15) My Melancholy Blues ** 16) White Man ** 17) The Prophet's Song ** 18) guitar solo [cut] ***/*/**** 19) The Prophet's Song (reprise) **** 20) Liar [cut] ** 21) Bohemian Rhapsody ** 22) Keep Yourself Alive ** 23) Tie Your Mother Down **/**** 24) Sheer Heart Attack [cut] ** 25) Jailhouse Rock ** 26) We Will Rock You ** 27) We Are The Champions ** 28) God Save The Queen ** edit: This is now an inferior copy. See here: link Enjoy, keep it lossless, and don't bootleg this ! |
| Kamenliter 22.05.2018 16:15 |
Thanks for this! Your work and detailed information is always appreciated. |
| Killer_queenIII 22.05.2018 16:20 |
Just got back from the link you sent me of their last ever Japan concert to find this! Talk about hitting two birds in one stone! Damn though, never thought tape trading back then can be a bit hardcore at times. As I said in the other post, Thanks a million again, Bob and a million thanks to whoever taped and shared this recording! Never thought the rest of that concert would see the light of day! |
| Chief Mouse 22.05.2018 16:27 |
Yes yes yes! Big thanks to this person (and Wizard, of course) :) |
| onedunpark 22.05.2018 16:51 |
Huge thanks to you, Bob, for your work in putting this together and bringing it here, as always, and also to whoever is providing the new source material. |
| Chinwonder2 22.05.2018 17:11 |
Wow, amazing. Another NOTW show, can't wait to listen! :D -Chin |
| Golden Salmon 22.05.2018 17:14 |
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the composite version, truly some work of love.
The Real Wizard wrote: There was a group of hardcore Queen fans called the "Royal Family" who followed the band around the world to most of their shows for years. They sometimes taped the shows, and most of their recordings have remained uncirculated. But recently, someone from the group anonymously went rogue and started letting out the recordings, beginning with Liverpool 79 last year, and continuing now with several tapes from 1978. This person opened up and told stories about the culture within that tightly knit group of fans. While doing one's best not to engage in any character assassination, this person had some pretty lurid stories to tell about their cliquiness, as well as a competitive nature in recording the concerts. That competitiveness got so extreme to the point that they began to steal and destroy each other's tapes that weren't deemed "good enough" quality, while the tapes that did manage to pass the litmus test would then circulate amongst a limited circle of people, usually with any number of adjustments purposely done to the content in order to keep the best versions for themselves. This apparently led to a lot of in-fighting, and people eventually defecting from the group.But... why? Seriously. One of the best things I did as a fan was getting out of the trader / secretive collector world. I understand that the best things come from these circles, but it's so unworthy in the end. Now I just want to enjoy their music. |
| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 17:28 |
Golden Salmon wrote: But... why? Seriously. One of the best things I did as a fan was getting out of the trader / secretive collector world. I understand that the best things come from these circles, but it's so unworthy in the end. Now I just want to enjoy their music.It's unfortunately a common thing with entitled people who would tape shows back then. You find these people in virtually every collecting community. I, too, have largely withdrawn from those circles. The deeper you dig, the more shady the characters get. If we could explain why people of all shapes and sizes were selfish and short-sighted, we'd have had world peace by now. As per tape collecting - all we can do is wait for the little goodies like this to fall from the sky. And 40 years later, for better or for worse (mostly better) it's still happening. |
| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 17:34 |
Killer_queenIII wrote: Damn though, never thought tape trading back then can be a bit hardcore at times.It was, and still is. ...although this stuff is kind of dying off now, as some people are starting to realize that old tapes don't do much good sitting in the basement. Luckily people tend to mellow out with age. |
| Killer_queenIII 22.05.2018 17:43 |
The Real Wizard wrote: some people are starting to realize that old tapes don't do much good sitting in the basement. Luckily people tend to mellow out with age.Pretty true. Only a matter of time before their little piece of gold turns to dust. |
| thisissparta789789 22.05.2018 17:55 |
Damn, they were hardcore indeed. It's so odd to think that this all happened, especially coming from the mindset of someone (me) who has grown up in an age where the plethora of cellphone cameras has made actual tapings of concerts not as necessary, since now one can just type in a concert that happened just hours ago and find almost the entire thing on YouTube in probably better sound quality than most of these tapes. |
| Fmarton 22.05.2018 17:55 |
Thank you very much! |
| bootLuca 22.05.2018 17:59 |
It seems to be a huge work...thank you Bob! |
| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 18:00 |
thisissparta789789 wrote: Damn, they were hardcore indeed. It's so odd to think that this all happened, especially coming from the mindset of someone (me) who has grown up in an age where the plethora of cellphone cameras has made actual tapings of concerts not as necessary, since now one can just type in a concert that happened just hours ago and find almost the entire thing on YouTube in probably better sound quality than most of these tapes.Indeed - but that's what makes the old tapes special, the fact that people had to have a game plan. They needed to have a tape recorder and blank tape (the latter of which was pretty expensive back then), new batteries (also expensive), sneak it all in, and avoid security for the whole show. And to acquire such tapes, you had to read record collecting magazines and respond to ads from fellow collectors, and sent cassettes back and forth through the mail, and you had to wait for them (and sometimes they were terrible copies or fakes). Tapes became CDRs, and CDRs became downloads. Downloads are convenient, but the joy of delayed pleasure was lost in translation. While this show is average sound, there are plenty of audience tapes from the 70s that have truly excellent sound. Check out the Providence 78 show that just popped up a few months back. When someone who's in their 60s now shows up and says "here's something I taped when I was 20, enjoy it" - it's a pretty beautiful thing. |
| thisissparta789789 22.05.2018 18:03 |
Certainly! Providence 1978 was amazing. The amount of work these tapers did certainly is impressive, especially given the state of technology at the time. Nowadays, it's so much easier, as evidenced by the fact that security pretty much has all but given up going after cellphones at most concerts. |
| vivaqueen 22.05.2018 18:17 |
MERCI BEAUCOUP |
| gambri 22.05.2018 18:19 |
Wow! Thank you so much for your hard work with this. |
| Killer_queenIII 22.05.2018 18:23 |
Having heard and downloaded a lot of live recordings from the 70's-80's from band not limited to Queen, I can only imagine how they managed to record it all while battling dying batteries, tape flips at the wrong time, finding the best spot to record, the drunk guy standing next to you talking or singing obnoxiously loud, often with the wrong lyrics. Gotta tip our hats to guys like Mr. Peach, Mike Millard, and whoever recorded this show for sharing these kinds of rare gems. |
| pittrek 22.05.2018 19:12 |
This sounds like a labor of love. Thanks a lot for this one |
| Rami 22.05.2018 19:18 |
Great! Thank you very much for your hard work. |
| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 19:33 |
Also - the band are very relaxed and talkative. Anyone want to take on the task of transcribing all the banter between songs? |
| Chinwonder2 22.05.2018 19:42 |
I’ll have a go tomorrow, again thank you so much :) -Chin |
| wsk 22.05.2018 19:45 |
Thank you very much!! |
| Marknow 22.05.2018 20:03 |
Thanks for the up Bob. Interesting notes for sure. I know a few here were sneered at over the years for suggesting such practices were in play. |
| thisissparta789789 22.05.2018 20:28 |
"the drunk guy standing next to you talking or singing obnoxiously loud" *Frankfurt 1980 Guy intensifies* |
| oliverd05 22.05.2018 20:31 |
Thanks for this Bob! great job as always, cant wait to see what else surfaces |
| The Real Wizard 22.05.2018 20:45 |
Marknow wrote: Interesting notes for sure. I know a few here were sneered at over the years for suggesting such practices were in play.Makes you wonder who they were protecting and why. Thank goodness the truth prevails in the end, and that there are a couple new tapes for our troubles. |
| people on streets 22.05.2018 21:00 |
Thanks for the share. I might give it a listen later. Sad story really but nothing that surprises me all that much. I'm so happy my trading days are long gone. Really happy to have no taper / trader 'friends' / contacts anymore either. Good riddance! Equipment got crazy small and crazy good the last two decades. Tapers can operate alone these days. So much better! Thanks to the Royal Family member for letting this out. Beautiful dedication, in a time when Queen was really still the most exciting band on the planet. Must have been amazing. Thanks to you as well Bob. Your persistence, dedication and patience is praiseworthy. |
| Nitroboy 22.05.2018 22:15 |
Damn, the world of bootlegs (not limited to Queen) continues to blow my mind. Thanks Bob for sharing this, and thanks to the anonymous source for letting it out :) |
| Thistle 22.05.2018 23:53 |
What a story! Thank you so much for your work on this :) |
| blueroom 23.05.2018 00:45 |
Thanks very much to both Wizard and the original taper for this great upgrade. Excited to give it a listen! |
| Harry_queenrecordings 23.05.2018 04:56 |
Awesome stuff ! Thank you very much Bob and of course for those sharing the tapes ! |
| Makka 23.05.2018 05:09 |
Thanks for your efforts on this and to the original taper! |
| cmi 23.05.2018 05:26 |
Thanks a lot for this version! |
| Agr123456 23.05.2018 07:09 |
Golden Salmon wrote: One of the best things I did as a fan was getting out of the trader / secretive collector world. I understand that the best things come from these circles, but it's so unworthy in the end. Now I just want to enjoy their music.Out of that world too since...2006? I'm happy with that too. It's not worth it... |
| pmatsynot 23.05.2018 08:59 |
Thanks Bob for your hard work,and to the original taper.....how would you get a cassette recorder past a body search now? |
| Chopin1995 23.05.2018 11:07 |
A sincere thank you Bob for everything you've done with these tapes. Amazing story. And thanks to Royal Family member! |
| Nitroboy 23.05.2018 11:57 |
pmatsynot wrote:how would you get a cassette recorder past a body search now?There are places to hide them.... It still happens :) |
| Killer_queenIII 23.05.2018 12:56 |
Ways and means. In the past, you could tuck it in a wheelchair and pretend to be disabled (I mentioned Mike Millard here earlier. This is how he smuggled his equipment in when he was recording Led Zeppelin concerts apparently), stuff it in your pants and says it's your bulge, and perhaps bribery? it goes on. |
| dave76 23.05.2018 13:29 |
It is simply amazing that after 40+ years these shows turning up.And what an amazing story to go with it. Thanks to Bob and members of the royal family. |
| Krypto_98 23.05.2018 14:41 |
The Bohemian Rhapsody I don't think he hits a C5 but he sounds like he goes higher than he usually does can someone confirm this? |
| Chinwonder2 23.05.2018 14:43 |
I think he does his usual swoop up phrasing 'to dIIIIEeee' -Chin |
| Golden Salmon 23.05.2018 15:26 |
Killer_queenIII wrote: Ways and means. In the past, you could tuck it in a wheelchair and pretend to be disabled (I mentioned Mike Millard here earlier. This is how he smuggled his equipment in when he was recording Led Zeppelin concerts apparently), stuff it in your pants and says it's your bulge, and perhaps bribery? it goes on.I've read stories about security staff keeping tape recorders and batteries to themselves, then selling them back once inside. |
| Killer_queenIII 23.05.2018 15:40 |
Golden Salmon wrote: I've read stories about security staff keeping tape recorders and batteries to themselves, then selling them back once inside.That was from Puebla '81 if I'm not mistaken. Security wanting a little extra besides their pay, which got the crowd in a bit of a riot that night. |
| QSMJohn 23.05.2018 18:17 |
Amazing! Thank you :) |
| la_ultra_zona 24.05.2018 04:36 |
Great! Thanks |
| aristide1 24.05.2018 09:57 |
Interesting share and story. Maybe it's time to update your archive with Liverpool 79 shared last year. What's the point in keeping such an otherwise great site if the content is biased. In a way or another, like it or not, the recording emerged. Do you owe something to these Illuminati? |
| The Real Wizard 24.05.2018 12:33 |
aristide1 wrote: Interesting share and story. Maybe it's time to update your archive with Liverpool 79 shared last year. What's the point in keeping such an otherwise great site if the content is biased. In a way or another, like it or not, the recording emerged. Do you owe something to these Illuminati?...or maybe I just have a life outside of the internet and haven't gotten around to it? Unlike some of us here, who have nothing better to do than troll... |
| MercurialFreddie 24.05.2018 18:13 |
Thanks for everyone involved in getting it right and posting it hear. Many thanks for Wizard for putting tremendously huge work and a lot of heart into this share. Cheers everybody! |
| people on streets 24.05.2018 18:19 |
thisissparta789789 wrote: "the drunk guy standing next to you talking or singing obnoxiously loud" *Frankfurt 1980 Guy intensifies*indeed :) No matter how good the hypercardioid mics you smuggled into the venue are, they never saved a taper from the drunk singing megafan indeed haha. Oh well. Relocating, if possible, and postproduction can help as well sometimes. |
| thisissparta789789 25.05.2018 03:00 |
>implying the Frankfurt guy does anything but enhance the listening experience /s |
| Art Lawyer 26.05.2018 21:02 |
Thank you very much! |
| Sam99 30.05.2018 18:39 |
Bob, thank you very much your shares are always interesting and worthwhile I very much look forward t hearing this in the best possible quality. Thanks again most welcome. |
| tassilo 01.06.2018 11:09 |
Thank you very much. |