Black Sabbath
August 31, 1970
Montreux, Switzerland
Montreux Casino
Stereo soundboard recording
Confirmed lossless version

~*~ Mk2 version, carefully remastered fixing minor issues, with a little EQ ~*~

Tracklist:

01:18 - 01. --tuning up & first song intro--
03:21 - 02. Paranoid
06:34 - 03. N.I.B.
06:47 - 04. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
07:04 - 05. Iron Man
08:23 - 06. War Pigs
06:32 - 07. Fairies Wear Boots
Encore :::
03:09 - 08. -- applause, last song intro & tuning up--
08:29 - 09. Hand Of Doom

Running time:

51 min 37 seconds

Lineage:
Flat transfer from 7 1/2 ips BASF stereo master tape -> Steve Hammonds 8-CD set Disc #5? -> CD -> CD... -> ? -> CD Source -> EAC -> WAV -> FLAC
DimeTravel Remastering 2016-02-xx ::: wav -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset, slight channel/phase alignment, fades, manual dropout repairs, cable crackle repairs in a couple of spots, removed micro-gaps between songs, volume adjustments, 00:00-33:00 +0.5% pitch (speed) fix with single pass after frequency analysis & with pitchpipe verification (33:00-end was OK), slight equalisation done to left channel to raise bass] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> frogster. The Mk2 version is narrower stereo to balance the sound somewhat. There are positive & negative aspects to the changes so approach with a listening ear. I enjoy both versions.

What we already know:

In the year 2002 or 2003, several multitrack and a few stereo master tapes with several hours of unreleased Sabbath's demos and a live recording were first discovered by Simon Platz while doing an audit. He contacted Steve Hammonds and asked if he was interested in them. Hammonds said yes. The included live show tape box said nothing but the tape speed. It was only later that someone labeled it 'Live 1970'.

In January of 2004, the tapes were transferred to 8 CDs (often referred to as the 'Steve Hammonds 8-CD set').

On October 5, 2009, captainsdead.com user 'gregor' first uploaded an MP3 version of the 1970 live recording on Captainsdead.com. At that point, the exact date and place of the show recorded was still unknown - the upload was called 'Sometime in 1970'.

On January 9 + 23, 2010, Youtube user '1970sabbathlive' uploaded two tracks of the show on Youtube. Recording date and place were still unknown.

Internet discusssions on the amazing new find on Youtube only seem to have started in October of 2010. The original Captainsdead download link was already dead.

In November and December 2010, Youtube user '1970sabbathlive' uploaded the remaining tracks of this show on Youtube. Asked by many people for an upload of the source, '1970sabbathlive' informed that he originally received the show in MP3 format. Then he converted that MP3 version to WAV, 'cleaned it up a little' in Audacity, converted the WAV files to FLAC and shared them on the Deep Purple Hub and possibly elsewhere. That MP3-sourced, 'cleaned-up' FLAC version is now all over the internet and served as the source of ALL commercial bootlegs that were released shortly afterwards. Asked for an upload of the 'original', unedited MP3 files, '1970sabbathlive' never gave an answer.

On December 5, 2010, Sabbath collector 'Megalomaniac' finished and published a PDF file called 'Possible dates & venues of the unknown Black Sabbath 1970 SBD recording'. Based on the available knowledge about early Sabbath tourdates, as well as on an analysis of variations in Ozzy's lyrics as heard on available bootlegs from the early years (e.g. in 'War Pigs', a song which changed a lot lyricwise), it concluded that "1970-06-28 (or 1970-07-03) Ciney and 1970-08-31 Montreux are the most probable guesses so far".

On December 20, 2010, 'Megalomaniac' released another PDF called 'The Riddle is solved: Unknown 1970 Sabbath SBD is 1970-08-31 Montreux'. It was based on the work of many people, some of them renowned Sabbath collectors - including several Frech-speaking collectors, one of which recognized the announcer's voice. Several people then confirmed that the announcer was Claude Nobs who used to organise the Montreux festivals, which led to the conclusion that the recording originates from 1970-08-31 Montreux Casino.


This recording:

Long story short. For years, this recording had been hoarded. Then it got released in lossy quality around the world on multiple bootleg releases. Surprisingly, searching through my old CD collections, i noticed i had one Sabbath CD. It was not labeled at all. But obviously after the tunings i heard Ozzy quoting 'Paranoid' as a 'new' song, so i listened.
I wrote down the setlist and started searching through the internet. It was a soundboard recording, so i thought it had to be famous, and i was not wrong at all.
The setlist - including the tuning - matched the Montreux Casino recording. But i read that the recording was widely circulated as lossy, so i checked.
Based on the spectral and frecuency analysis, it was perfectly lossless. So i sent it to a very reliable source on Sabbath recordings and got their confirmation that it was indeed lossless.
Then i sent it to kneesfudd who helped me with the speed corrections and remastering. He sent me back the files and here they are for your enjoyment.

Thanks to kneesfudd for his help on this project, as well to all the persons who helped me to find information about the recording, the background info and anything else (you know who you are!).

frogster on DIME
February 2016