HAIL TO THE CHIEF

Part of this past week was spent on the western slope of Colorado for business reasons.  A bonus prize was getting close to Air Force One, the President of the United States visiting Grand Junction the day we were there.  Peach season is at its peak, the truck being loaded up with orders, a box of 40 ripe peaches going for $10.  What a steal!

First up was The English Beat, September 3, 1982, a live performance at the US Festival. This appears to have come from their recent release of their "Live at the US Festival 82 and 83, a CD/DVD combo which covers the band’s performances at the 1982 and 1983 US Festivals. An excellent recording. 

Dave starts the show with "Bit cold here, so to warm up you're going to have to dance, right?"

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vuud45rmvzq

Friday night's show came to a close with the Sex Pistols, performing live at Selina's Nitespot in Sydney, Australia on October 12, 1996. The Filthy Lucre Tour was the 1996 reunion tour of the pioneering British Punk rock band Sex Pistols. The 78-date world tour lasted for almost six months.
A very good audience recording.

John tells the crowd, "Word of advice.  Keep your fucking show to yourself.  Because the silly bastard who threw this is going home without it!"

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/files/859955489/Selina_s Nitespot_ Sydney_ Australia_ 12.10.96.rar

Saturday night opened up with The Doors, a live show at Marty Balin’s club, The Matrix, on March 7, 1967. This was about 5-6 months before “Light My Fire” gave The Doors worldwide fame and notoriety.

It was written:

Only a handful of people showed up, so Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek played for each other, exploring song arrangements and jamming on a few blues favourites. Ironically, only a few weeks after the Matrix shows, the band's second single, "Light My Fire," would make them famous, selling a million copies on its way to topping the chart during The Summer of Love.

"It was early 1967 and The Doors were about to enter the consciousness of the nation. And this is the way it sounded," Manzarek writes in the album's liner notes.

In spite of the empty room, the band is fully engaged, using the time to give "The End" and "Back Door Man" extra lyrics and extended sections. "This is probably the closest we've come to a true document of The Doors without constraints," says Bruce Botnick, the album's producer and the band's long-time co-producer and engineer.

The band performs much of its self-titled debut on the first disc, including "Soul Kitchen," "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)," and the first single, "Break On Through (To The Other Side)."
Along with those early originals, the band indulges its love of the blues with Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love," Muddy Waters' "I'm A King Bee," and Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman," which has never appeared on any previous Doors albums.

Read it all here:
http://bandweblogs.com/blog/2008/11/07/the-doors-live-at-the-matrix-1967-san-francisco-shows-watch-video/

One of the holy grails for Doors collectors the The Matrix Tapes are also one of the most controversial. Originally recorded by the Matrix Clubs co owner Peter Abrams, a review cassette copy of the master reel to reel tapes of the complete 3 set shows from March 7 and 10 were allegedly sent to, then Elektra founder, Jac Holzman in the late 60′s early 70′s in hopes enticing him to purchase them to use for a possible live album. It is reported that Abrams intentionally made the cassette dubs “lo fi” so Elektra couldn’t release them commercially without purchasing his high quality masters. It has been claimed that Holzman didn’t want a live album so early in the Doors career and relegated the cassettes to the vaults where they were forgotten for nearly 40 years.

The resultant recording is very clear almost early soundboard quality with the vocals very dominant in the mix. The rest of the instruments are well back in the mix and have a very slight dullness and hollowness to them that you can get with an audience recording, which is an interesting contrast to the crystal clear vocals. The tape is a little light in the bass frequencies and the high frequencies are muted very slightly but there is a mid range warmth to the recording which makes it a very enjoyable listen. There is also a slight background hiss which is only evident during the between song quiet passages.

Read it all here:
http://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com/godfather-label/the-doors-the-original-matrix-tapes-godfather-records-gr-366367/

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ccf072e/n/DoorsCompleteMCT.zip

Saturday closed with the February 6th, 2002 show by Echo and the Bunnymen in Glasgow, Scotland.  A very good audience recording that sounds very similar to the shows that have been performed the following decade with the exception of the set list that includes a number of songs that are no longer played.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/files/1072023194/The Garage_ Glasgow_ Scotland February 6_ 2002.rar