Harry Chapin
London, England 9/3/1977
Venue: New Victoria Theater
City: London
Recorded: September 3, 1977
Lineage: SBD > ? > CDRx > EAC > WAV > MKW > SHN

Performers:
Harry Chapin - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Steve Chapin - Piano, Vocals
"Big John" Wallace - bass, vocals
Kim Scholes - Cello
Ron Palmer - Lead guitar
Howie Fields - Drums

Notes:
This show is also circulated as May 31, 1978, at the Rainbow Theater in London but there are several flaws with that date.

1) This show took place on "Big John" Wallace's 34th birthday.
2) Harry talks about his new album coming out last week, that album is
"Dance Band On The Titanic" and it was released in August 1977.
3) Harry says several times during the show "When we were here in April".
According to the concert dates at
http://www.harrysfriends.com/Concert List/def.htm
They were at the New Victoria Theater on 7-Apr-77 and 3-Sept-77.
The dates used on this site are provided by Harry's drummer at the
time, Howie Fields.

I still have not found a date for Big John's birthday but I think #3
proves the date/location fairly well.

What a fantastic Harry Chapin show. It believe that this is a complete tape, sourced from the soundboard feed. There is an audible noise floor on the tape, but the sound is simply fantastic, and only during the quiet moments and in between songs is it evident. The performance is virtually top notch, with only a few slight misques sprinkled throughout. The majority of the songs are sung with Harry's usual passion and intensity, making for a truly wonderful experience. Dance Band on the Titanic had recently been released, and the songs from that album are particularly fresh and powerful. The version of Halfway to Heaven is head and shoulders above the official, Mr. Tanner is slow and emotional, and the list of top notch takes continues for a good majority of the set. Towards the end, the performance tails off a little bit, due to the declining quality of Harry's voice as well as a few technical problems with the audio setup. Regardless of a fairly weak ending, and due to the scarcity of good sounding Harry Chapin bootlegs readily available to bootleg collectors, this set falls into the "must-have" category for all of his devoted fans. This tape has also been circulated as May 31, 1978, but the most likely date for it is September 3, 1977 (please view the discussion above for more on this debate).
-Stephen Pickett, www.audiophilia.net

Disc 1
01 Harry Talks
02 I Wonder What Happened to Him
03 Mercenaries
04 Harry Talks
05 My Old Lady
06 Mr. Tanner
07 WOLD
08 Halfway to Heaven
09 I Wanna Learn a Love Song
10 Harry Talks
11 Tangled Up Puppet
12 Taxi
13 Sniper Intro
14 Sniper

Disc 2
01 There Only Was One Choice
02 Cat's in the Cradle
03 Bluesman There is a repeated portion as a result of a tape flip
04 Intro
05 Odd Job Man
06 Bicentennial Medley Intro
07 Dogtown

Disc 3
01 Mail Order Annie
02 Let Time Go Lightly
03 30,000 Pounds of Bananas Intro
04 30,000 Pounds of Bananas
05 Dance Band on the Titanic
06 Circle