The Byrds
1st festival internazionale in europa di musica pop
(The first International European Pop Festival)
Piper Club
Rome, Italy
May 7, 1968


1 intro 1:07
2 You Ain't Going Nowhere 2:46
3 Old John Robertson 2:38
4 You Don't Miss Your Water 3:53
5 Hickory Wind 4:38
6 Feel a Whole Lot Better 2:13
7 Chimes of Freedom 3:42
8 The Christian Life 3:10
9 Turn! Turn! Turn! 2:43
10 My Back Pages > Baby What You Want Me To Do 5:59
11 Mr. Spaceman 2:15
35:08


Source notes: This recording is primarily from a Dutch rebroadcast from circa 1969. That rebroadcast apparently did not include two songs that were broadcast previously.

So, here tracks 2-3 are from the vinyl bootleg, which is slightly better quality than the common CD bootleg (which was mastered at the wrong speed). The quality of those tracks, however, is still much less than the rest of the recording.

The introduction from the FM broadcast (which preceded 'You Don't Miss Your Water') was moved to Track 1.


Source & transfer to CDR (1987):
Tracks 1, 4-11: VPRO FM rebroadcast circa 1969 > probably reel >
my source's reel or cassette > my cassette (1997) > Nakamichi CR-7
(playback head azimuth optimized) > my CDR (circa 1998)

Tracks 2-3: vinyl bootleg > my cassette (1997) > Nakamichi CR-7
(playback head azimuth optimized) > my CDR (circa 1998)


Transfer to flac (January 2010):
CDR > Macintosh MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) (running in Windows
XP mode) > Plextor DVDR PX-716A > Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5
(secure mode, no errors - see rip details) > wav > (same computer
running in OSX mode) > xACT v1.71 (shntool used to join the songs
into one large wav file > Apple Logic Pro v7.2.3 (see editing notes
below) > Bias Peak 6.0.2.17641 (normalized, split into songs) > wav >
xACT v1.71 (sector boundaries repaired; level 8 compression) > flac


Editing notes:
Bias Peak editing:
* Stereo image was not equal, so left channel raised 2 db
* Entire recording normalized by 3.5 db
Logic Pro editing:
* Vinyl source was noisy, so on Tracks 2 and 3 only, Waves professional
Z-Noise v7.0 plugin was used to reduce the noise (Adaptive setting;
Threshold -19; reduction of 4; slight eq push at 150 Hz and 1,433 Hz;
normal optimization)
* Throughout tracks 4-11, spikes of feedback were reduced with narrow
filters (the filters fade in and out using automation), usually
in the 1,900 and 2,800 Hz range.








Misc. notes:

Date often mislabeled: The International Pop Festival in Rome was May 4-8, with the Byrds appearing as the headliner at the Piper Club on the 7th. The Byrds' set was recorded by VPRO (a Dutch broadcaster) with assistance from RAI radio (the Italian broadcast network).

VPRO has an excerpt of the show on its web site: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/programmas/afleveringen/5260810

Nice writeup about the pop festival: http://www.theromanforum.com/?p=1034

The tape I received was erroneously labeled as a Swedish rebroadcast from 1972, but the introduction is in Dutch and the comments place the rebroadcast in 1969.

Here is a translation of the intro provided by Joep Muijs

At many's request, the next half hour we'll rerun the recordings
we made of the American pop group The Byrds in May 1968 during
the Rome pop festival. It was their first and so far only
European tour.

The Byrds' line-up in Rome was as follows. Roger McGuinn, guitar
and vocals. Gram Parsons, guitar and vocals as well, nowadays
playing in The Flying Burrito Brothers and who at the time was
new in The Byrds. Douglas Dillard on banjo, who joined The Byrds
in Rome for the occasion, and is nowadays playing in The
Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark. Kevin Kelley on drums,
who isn't a member of The Byrds any longer now; and Chris Hillman
on bass, who also nowadays plays in The Flying Burrito Brothers.

We'll be hearing now first Gram Parsons as lead singer in the
songs You Don't Miss Your Water and Hickory Wind, and next
McGuinn and Hillman singing in I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better and
Chimes of Freedom Flashing.