Huge Thabks to the Terry Hammer for recording and teetering for sharing onDime. Excellent sounding recording.
Original Info File:
Recording chain:
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (10 channels snake, 2 channels audience mics) >
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape
Archival Process:
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format
Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.
Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer
Setlist:
01. The Man Who Dies Every Day
02. Slip Away
03. Slow Motion
04. Hiroshima Mon Amour
05. Touch And Go
06. Artificial Life
07. Just For A Moment
08. He's A Liquid
09. Quiet Men
Length: 45:31
Band:
John Foxx (Dennis Leigh) - lead vocals
Billy Currie - keyboards, viola, violin, synthesisers
Warren Cann - drums, percussion, backing vocals
Chris Cross - bass, synthesisers, backing vocals
Robin Simon - guitar, backing vocals
Notes:
* Another great band, and another 'pre-punk' band (like XTC).
* About band: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultravox
"Ultravox (earlier stylized as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in 1973 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980–86, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna."
The first three LP releases feature the vocals of John Foxx (real name Dennis Leigh), while the rest of the line up of Billy Currie, Warren Cann and Chris Cross were joined by Stevie Shears on guitar for the first two and Robin Simon replacing Shears for the third album, "Systems of Romance," by which the group had dropped the exclamation mark from the band name.
In 1979, John Foxx left after an American tour [that would be this tour I assume] to pursue solo projects, with Simon also departing. Currie, Cross and Cann were subsequently joined by Midge Ure on vocals and guitar. "
* More about band: https://www.discogs.com/artist/70735-Ultravox
"Ultravox (earlier stylized as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in 1973 as Tiger Lily (2). Between 1980–86, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna."
The first three LP releases feature the vocals of John Foxx (real name Dennis Leigh), while the rest of the line up of Billy Currie, Warren Cann and Chris Cross were joined by Stevie Shears on guitar for the first two and Robin Simon replacing Shears for the third album, "Systems of Romance," by which the group had dropped the exclamation mark from the band name.
In 1979, John Foxx left after an American tour to pursue solo projects, with Simon also departing. Currie, Cross and Cann were subsequently joined by Midge Ure on vocals and guitar. "
* The bands first 3 albums, Ultravox (1977), Ha! Ha! Ha! (1977), Systems of Romance (1978) were on Island Records. Island was another key UK label, though it tended to focus mostly on Jamaican music at the time, but it's a label anyone familiar with the world's scenes at the time would have been very familiar with.
* About Island Records: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Records
"Island Records is a British-Jamaican record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island in particular having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. "
* Discogs Island Records: https://www.discogs.com/label/8377-Island-Records
"Island Records (often using a logo that omits "Records") was named for Island In The Sun (a novel, film, and Harry Belafonte calypso hit), and was founded in Jamaica in 1959 by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall. In May 1962, Blackwell relocated the label to the UK in order to market music by Jamaican artists to immigrant communities in London and Birmingham. In 1967, however, Island shifted its focus to relatively edgy rock music, and most of its Jamaican acts were moved to the spinoff label Trojan Records. Island resumed its support of reggae artists with the signing of The Wailers in 1972.
For several years, Island licensed American rights to its material to a variety of labels, most frequently A&M and Atlantic. In 1971, Island first gained its own US label identity through a distribution deal with Capitol. In 1973, Island's American division switched to independent distribution. US headquarters, formerly based in Los Angeles, were relocated to New York City in November 1977. In mid 1978, US Island began a series of manufacturing and distribution partnerships with major labels, first with Warner Bros. Records Inc., and then with Atlantic Records in late 1981. Similar relationships were forged with Philips [for the world except the US, UK and Australasia up to June 1971], Ariola [Europe from June 1971 except France], Festival [Australasia], Dacapo, and WEA for distribution in various other countries. For a history of relationships in Canada see Island Records Of Canada Ltd."
* About Old Waldorf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Waldorf
"Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Waldorf hosted some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as AC/DC, Dire Straits, Blue Öyster Cult, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Pat Benatar, R.E.M., Spirit, Poco, U2 and Dead Kennedys.
The Punch Line comedy club now occupies part of Old Waldorf's location.".
Note: 444 Battery Street (at Washington St.) is about 6 blocks from the location of the Mabuhay Gardens (at Broadway & Montgomery/Kearny), which was in a much seedier part of town (The Famous Carol Doda Condor Strip bar was right by the Fab Mab, on the corner of Broadway and Columbus). But the Old Waldorf was situated right in the heart of the downtown business district, which tended to be completely empty at night after the business crowd had left, so these two venues were very different in feel.
Terry: "The Punch Line was always on the one side of the Old Waldorf building. Jeffrey owned it also. He let me mix shows there a few times when there was no comedy going on that night so I could have some isolation."
* Includes photos.
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No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
No remastering!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.
Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.
Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.
If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.
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About Terry Hammer and the THTP:
Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.
"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/
As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."
If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.
And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.
Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.
TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations:
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). All the KALX shows went to KALX, they supplied the reel to reel tape.
2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels:
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape
Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.
Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx
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- teetering
