An evening in Paradise with the
Bill Bruford Band
John Clarke- guitar
Dave Stewart- keyboards
Jeff Berlin- bass
Bill Bruford- drums
Paradise club
Boston Mass.
June 21, 1980
(early show)
filename: bbb62180Aflac16
performance quality: A
Recording quality: some problems in 1st 30 seconds,
all the rest is a solid B+, up close and clear
runtime: 79:42
lineage: Realistic twinhead stereo microphone >
Sony 158 cassette deck (dolby off) >
Maxell XLI master cassette (normal bias) >
soundforge 4.5 > FLAC 6 > torrentially yours.
It's a 3 step torrent, and a You are There production.
setlist:
1: hell's bells
2: Joe Frazier
3: land's end
4: the sliding floor
5: gothic 17
6: fainting in coils
7: palewell park
8:
9:
10: encore break
11: beezelbub (with sunshine of your love jam tease)
12: end applause
comments:
The second tour of BBB in Boston, this for "gradually going tornado".
this is the full 1st show, except the 1st few seconds of the opening song, Hell's Bells. This is actually my 3rd
remaster of this master tape, and the 1st time I've ever seeded it. The 1st disc was one of the 1st discs I ever made
and like many of those, it had glitches. That was absolutely unacceptable. The second one came out pretty well, but
the computer with its FLAC files died, so I couldn't do a 3-step torrent with it, had to do a CD extraction or remaster it.
I chose the option of making this available with minimum possible lineage since it is from the master tape and it is one of
my all time favorite audience recordings (mine or anyone else's), probably the finest one I got with the Realistic twinhead
microphone (which got alot of use around this time). Everything came together in a nice convergence this night, the sound mix
was very good, the crowd was psyched, the mike was in an ideal position, and the band was on. IMHO, this is required listening
for any fan of Bruford. It's not an FM, but the sound compares to one. I was thrilled with how this came out. This is a
show I like to put on and listen all the way through. Even the between song talk is clear as a bell.
Remastering was a pain with this, mainly due to much needed ICPVR (individual clap peak volume reduction) between
the songs from the very enthusiastic crowd. This is one of the best auds I've ever made of anyone, an automatic
pick for one of my first 10 master seed uploads, and this third remastering may be the most thorough ICPVR treatment I've
done to any show so far. It has been a personal fave for years. This is probably a well circulated recording from tape copy,
but here you get it directly from the master tape- no CD extraction, no tape or DAT copy, no copy involved period. The
tape was flipped about 2 seconds after fainting in coils ended, and before Bill talks about the next song "palewell park"
so nothing is missing there. The mike was sitting on a railing, maybe 15-20 feet from Bruford's face directly in front of
him (and center stage). It was the optimal recording position, the 1st few seconds have some knocking from getting it
positioned, and there is 1 very quick level change dropout (not from the tape, but accidentially dropping the record levels
all the way for a split second) after about 1 minute it gets very crisp and stays that way. You may not even notice the splice
(which I thought came out best on this version) I purposely used an XLI normal bias tape for this because they're better for
high end and sharp midrange frequencies (high bias seems to work better for music like Oregon, or Eberhard Weber's Colours)
and I think it worked out well for this. Bruford is all about the sharp midrange and you hear everything like you're sitting in
the best seat in the house. That's where I was for this show. It was a very good concert too. Bruford has always been very
well appreciated in Boston with all his bands, on my Glasnost Radio program on WCUW Worcester during the 1990's, he was
chosen for our own humble hall of fame for his work with U.K. King Crimson, Yes, and this band, particularly for what
Glasnost Radio focused on most of all- live performance. Every band Bruford has played in, he has left a big impact, even
in National Health and Gong when he only played a few shows with them. There are several reasons why Bill Bruford is one
of my 4 or 5 favorite drummers of all time. The most obvious one is because he is very talented and disciplined (even
without his most significant musical other). From when he was Yes' drummer and King Crimson was one of the hottest new bands
around, Fripp chose Bruford and they became one of the most powerful guitar/drummer combos in any group (in 3 different
decades so far) Of all the great bands to include Bruford, most or all the others (except Earthworks, the only Bruford
band I wasn't impressed with) are someone else's baby and Bill does what drummers have to do- march to someone else's
beat. This band is Bill's baby, and we get to see maybe more than any other group, how a band sounds when Bill gets to
call the shots. I believe he did that in the Cloud About Mercury band of the 80's, and in the BLUE (Bruford/Levin
Upper Extremities) that would sorta/kinda take the place of CAM, but this is where it all started for Bruford
being a bandleader. This is the second tour of the BBB. Because I have such respect for Bruford's drumming (and
he's also a very intelligent, healthy, well-spoken, well educated fellow), I'm sharing several editions of his
great talents. This band may not get the reputation of Yes or King Crimson, but it is a very good band. I wish I could
have seen the second show, but it was a busy week, with Bill's best buddy in music playing 4 days later with the
League of Gentlemen. The only recording I knew of this second show was ripped off from the guy who made it before I or
anyone I know could get a copy. Fortunately I did get a copy of his 79 late show, also a nice show and recording. This
was the only time I ever saw the BBB, and I enjoyed it alot. I will have uploads of Bill Bruford with Yes, Crimson, U.K.
Cloud About Mercury and BLUE which both include another fine guitarist, David Torn, and 2 others with this fine band
from their 1st tour of 1979 in Boston.
Do not sell this recording.
(Bruford has bills to pay too)
Trade freely and losslessly.