Eric Burdon
Alvin Lee
Best Of The British Blues Tour
1996-05-18
Ventura Theatre
Ventura, Ca

Openers - Ashford and Gordon

Recorded @ 16 bit 48 kHz.
Taped by Highdesert
10 ft from stage center table.

Lineage:
Sony Ecm 959A >
Sony D7 >
Dat tape >
Tascam DA 40 >
Creative Soundblaster XFi Xtreme >
hard drive >
Sound Forge adjust vol and audio restoration click
(sharp clap) removal. Bass roll off, resample.
TLH

Tapers Notes:
This is a long forgotten tour and tape. Best of the British Blues tour sold very poorly.
There is not much from this tour out there.
I not even sure the tour got through all it's dates before the plug was pulled. A shame.
I remember a Japanese couple sitted next to us who had flown in from Japan specifically for this show,
even more specifically, for Alvin Lee. Alvin played wearing a forearm cast (which probably
contributed further to the tours difficulties). During EB That Same Thing I did something
(probably hit pause for a second) for a goober. Same at the start of 01. There is way to much aud noise (from all 50 people there) for my liking
but what actually killed this tape was the loud, sharp clapping. A moderate swipe at the matter
with audio restoration really saved the day. It was applied to make the clapping background rather than to eliminate,
affecting the master the least. Missed the 1st few seconds of
the EB/Alvin Lee Bands instrumental intro to the evening and missed most of the openers Ashford/Gordon.
Other than all that this tape is actually pretty hard to beat. The crowd noise does not annoy me as much now as it did
when I 1st brought this tape home. Crowd noise and what you hear (including my dumb ass which kept cheers/comments to between songs)
is (mostly) from people who were really into it. Drunk and chatty as they were during the songs. Everyone was just having a good time. It is what it is. You be the judge. Sonically, A little EQ would go
a real long way here for you are so inclined. A very simple bass roll off applied..Hey! it's Boz Burrell and I don't feel like toning
bass boy down. Moments like those demanded a Sony ECM 959A :) Also, I was tempted to edit
out a caustic comment I made about EB's bands recent to this show. But that is how I felt
that night and listening to this again I'd confirm the band kicked EB's other time period bands
in the ass. Also the band stayed at the same hotel as DW and I. So...Nice job by all under difficult circumstances.
If you are into any of these guys , you want this. I'm pretty shocked at how well this turned out
after writing it off 23 years ago. Some great performances to be found in here. A solid B tape that has a ton of A minutes in a just about every song something happens tape, imho. Enjoy!

Bonus story. After Boz Burrell exited the theatre the faithful 3 or 4 fans were waiting. He did not want to talk to anyone. At which point one of the faithful 3 or 4 (not DW or I) told him
his farts did not smell any better than anyone elses as he walked off bless his heart and RIP. Always enjoyed his work.

The Band:
Boz Burrell - Bass
Aynsley Dunbar - Drums
Tim Hinkley - Keyboards
Mick Moody - Guitar
Eric Burdon - Vocals 5-10 and 19-22
Alvin Lee - Vocals/Guitar 11-18 and 19-22

Setlist:
01 British Blues Band - Unk
02 Unk
03 Unk
04 Unk

Eric Burdon

05 That Same Thing
06 16 Tons
07 Misunderstood
08 GTO or THIS SHIT SMOKES
09 Bring It On Home
10 Boom Boom

Alvin Lee

11 Keep On Rockin
12 Long Legs
13 Hear Me Calling
14 Slow Blues In C
15 I Don't give A damn
16 Love Like A Man
17 Going Home
18 Choo Choo Mama

Alvin Lee & Eric Burdon

19 Rock It Up
20 Please Love Love Me
21 Lawdy Miss Clawdy
22 Hail Hail Rock And Roll


Do covert to lossy.
Do not sell.
Enjoy and support the artists!