Sunday, June 12, 2011

Renaissance - 1973 - De Lane Lea

Here
Posted by at

3 comments:

Dr. Forrester said...

Renaissance (with special guests Andy Powell and Al Stewart) Live At De Lane Lea Studios, London 1973-xx-xx FM reel-to-reel - an incredible experience - mp3 samples provided

Well, here we have it. This IMO is the best performance this band ever did. It's also the rarest radio concert I own on reel.

This show comes from a one-time offering by a local Long Island radio station, either WNEW or WLIR. It was taped off the air sometime toward the end of 1973 (I believe the November date sometimes offered up is the date of broadcast). The date of actual recording is still a mystery - perhaps someone with a connection to the BBC can find out.

This is NOT the commercial release, which was recorded at a much later date!

What makes this performance so special? As the group progressed from this point on, the music became richer, denser, and more complex. It also became darker and morose. By contrast, this show is bright and airy and is absolutely *bursting* with good vibes. Like me, you may get an epiphany from time to time from listening to it! As an added bonus, Annie and Co. brought in Andy Powell (from Wishbone Ash) on guitar and Al Stewart on backup vocals for a sterling "Ashes Are Burning". This is one great show!

As kids, reel-to-reel tapes were expensive. It wasn't the kind of thing you could find you know, like cdrs at pennies a piece. You had to scrounge around for discounts, yard sales and cheap "white box" stuff, which was sometimes greatly used when you bought it. That was the situation with this tape. Probably ten years old or more at the time when it was used for recording this concert, it was in very poor shape when transcribed for this torrent. After baking, the left channel sounded close, but the right channel was faded and muddy. Close and careful EQ on the right channel brought it back up to sounding almost like the left. Please note this was not an azimuth problem - as the tape moved it shook back and forth on one side. Listen to the results... this concert now sounds clear and open the way it did when it was first recorded.

Setlist (runtime about 52 minutes)

Can You Understand? (10:23)
Let It Grow (5:40)
Sounds Of The Sea (6:12)
Carpet Of The Sun (3:46)
At The Harbour (7:10)
Ashes Are Burning (with Andy Powell and Al Stewart) (11:52)
Prologue (6:50)

Lineage: FM -> "White Box" tape ->(I don't remember the model of) reel-to-reel recorder ->Baking ->Akai GX-400D-SS playback unit ->Sound Forge 6.0 24 bit 48K ->downsampling and complex EQ right channel only. Flac via Flac Frontend level 6 sectors aligned and verified. No noise reduction. During "Sounds Of The Sea" there's an airplane flyover. You'll hear a momentary distortion in the recording.

Enjoy!

A DoinkerTape

June 12, 2011 at 2:58 AM
zowie said...

thanks!

June 12, 2011 at 9:17 AM
Anonymous said...

Thanks for this great show.

June 12, 2011 at 7:19 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)