It's A Beautiful Day
1970-06-27 Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England (M1-AUD)
Royal Bath & West Showground
Bath Festival Of Blues & Progressive Music '70
Approximately 9pm
8th band o' the day, sandwiched betwixt Colosseum & Steppenwolf

(More enjoyable & longer Taper C source. NOT the Taper A 'almost unlistenable' 16CDR Bath Fest. tape)
~*~ Carefully remastered fixing many issues without EQ ~*~

WARNING! "The PILLS I gave you were NOT aspirins!, I repeat..." (stage announcement)

01. --announcements, AUD talk, tuning, band intro--
02. Don & Dewey
03. White Bird
04. Hoedown
05. It Comes Right Down To You
06. Soapstone Mountain
07. Essence Of Now
08. Time Is
09. Bulgaria
10. Bombay Calling

Total Time ::: 1:07:41

::: Fine but varying quality AUD (due mostly to weather!). Check samples for try-out sippin' or bliss-filled earbytin'.
WARTS ::: Occasional mike bumps, mostly fixed but some not fully repaired. Bit o' clappin' in #4 - mostly exorcised. Occasional AUD talk, especially in #8. Several annoying unrepairable dropouts in #8. Tapeflip a minute into #10. At times wind creates some phasing, distortion & high end & fluctuations, but 'tis pretty damn groovy nonetheless.
::: COMPARISON CLAUSE: This (Taper C) is NOT the same source as the 16 CDR Bath Festival collection (Taper A). Taper A version is only 56 mins & more distorted (& a bit slow?). This Taper C version is ~68 minutes & has intro & commentary plus the "missing" last song.
::: Festival line-up information below.
::: Pattie Santos to crowd, "You make me feel so stoned!" & "This sure beats Albert Hall. It's outside, Everybody's stoned, having a good time." with AUD member response, "It's bloody cold!".
::: Nice Bath Festival photos & information at http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/bA1.html
::: IABD tour info at Bruno's great site: http://thesanfranciscosound.blogspot.de/2010/08/its-beautiful-day-performance-list-work.html
::: Tons of SF scene info & a ltd. edition legit live archival IABD LP at www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Girl%20With%20No%20Eyes.htm
::: More recordings coming from this Taper C source. Not sure that any of his source tapes are included in the 16CDR collection.

Recording Information ::: unknown mono cassette recorder (dictaphone machine!)-> master mono audience cassette tape -> 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette, Dolby off (transfer circa 1984).

Playback 2011-08-02 ::: 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette on Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck, Dolby B off, azimuth adjusted, heads cleaned & demagnatized -> Tascam CD-RW900SL professional CD recorder -> CD-RW, no track splits -> computer -> EAC secure mode (logs made) -> wav files.

Remastering 2014-08-xx ::: wavs -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch, bump, pop, click, dropout & dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, single averaged speed fix at +2.4% after spectral analysis & with pitchpipe verification, NO equalisation] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. Tape was in quite good shape overall. First uploaded week of 2014-09-06.

Line-up ::: David LaFlamme - violin, vocals // Pattie Santos - vocals, tambourine, cowbell on #3 // Hal Wagenet - electric guitar, backing vocals // Fred Webb - keyboards, backing vocals // Mitchell Holman - electric bass, vocals // Val Fuentes - drums // PLUS Bruce Steinberg or ? - harmonica (including solo) on #2 only.

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

DimeTravel 061 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader, The Man In The Palace! ::: Corrections welcome ::: This Taper C source would seem to be a fine improvement over Taper A, tho' it is still no sonic wonder. While the Taper A tape purports to be the complete set, in fact it is only 56 minutes & is missing the stage talk, tuning up & intro at the beginning & completely missing the last song, "Bombay Calling". The Taper A source is more clear when there is almost no music happening or just solo violin, but as soon as there is any type of harmony or band effort, it becomes extremely distorted.

This Taper C version is much more complete (68 minutes) & is only missing a bit of "Bombay Calling" from a tapeflip. One definite bonus is here we do NOT have to listen Taper A's close proximity audience member who doesn't like the music & is yelling, "Rubbish", AND, in fact, yelling all kinds of crap at the top of his lungs! But, more importantly, what we do have is a more enjoyable recording with less distortion & more ear-friendly sonics. It does still has some light distortion & other issues due to the equipment (a dictaphone machine made for recording meetings & interviews!), the audience, and, most of all - the WIND. However, it weathers the storm, so to speak, in pretty good fashion. I have spent more than 15 hours with it in the last couple of weeks & I think it is an acceptable, listenable document if nothing else comes along. Plus, I REALLY dig the music.

I started grooving on this band in the early 70's, in junior high school. There was a time in the tape trading world where 1) there was almost nothing to be had by these guys, and 2) there was almost nobody seemingly interested. Mssrs Parrish & Hanwaker were some of the ONLY lists of many dozens I got in the early days which had any recordings listed by the band. IABD was extraordinary in many ways. For one thing, they had an almost entirely unique sound. Also, although "White Bird" ended up being somewhat co-opted by the mainstream & FM radio, the real band was on the forefront of some serious experimental acid explorations. If you haven't yet heard the pre-IABD album by Orkustra (The Electric Chamber Orkustra) with David LaFlamme & psych legend Bobby Beausoleil, you should search it out - the odyssey to outer space began long before the "Bugaria" & "Aquarian Dream" 45. Anyway, the band was well-established by the time of this Euro tour, where they they also played the Kralingen Festival. Killer guitar playing here among its MANY attributes. Check out the first real lead break in "White Bird" - masterful fuzz & sustain! You can really hear the Airplane influence (or vice-versa!) in the "Time Is" vocals in this version. There is some dense & intense interplay going on & it can finally be heard in sufficient enough quality to raise the rafters.

The taper, The Man In The Palace, was & is a huge IABD fan - hence the complete set, including tuning up, etc. (except for tapeflip in #9). This is one of his better taping efforts that weekend. Some difficulties taping during various parts but... it was the wind & rain, man! A slightly challenging listen at times, but VERY rewarding. One thing is clear, the band was a powerhouse - no M.O.R. tame or lame renditions of songs, not over-rehearsed & still experimenting. Once some of the worst microphone bumps were removed & the levels sorted out to some extent, the tape flows much better. They were unlike any other band, a unique piece of the S.F. puzzle - of which I'm always searching for more. Can't someone bring some more Allmen Joy tapes to light & for that matter, or some more of the HUNDREDS of unrecorded, yet to be heard Bay Area bands circa 67-73 (that band members are certainly sitting on tapes of). They would be most welcome. Come on you Mystery Trend guys, we bought the CD. Can't we hear more of the recordings, warts & all? I ain't really complaining, just saying... it would be nice. Aging's a bitch & all & a lot of us who'd care have left the planet or our hearing ain't so good no more, or we just ain't got time left for hundreds of listens, so what're ya waitin' for? Free the sounds. Going along as fast as I can while trying to maintain some standards from this end. If you need help, though, PLEASE ask! Any number of volunteers ready to lend assistance running their decks for digital conversions. Anyway, I've digressed. Feast on this, or take a bath in it, whatever yr preference. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees

::: Festival line-up: Day One, Saturday 27 June, commencing around 11:45am: Formerly Fat Harry // Maynard Ferguson Big Band // Keef Hartley Band // Donovan // Joe Jammer // Fairport Convention // Colosseum // It's A Beautiful Day // Steppenwolf. Then, after midnight into Sunday 28 June: Johnny Winter // Pink Floyd // John Mayall // Canned Heat // Joe Jammer (2nd appearance) // Donovan // Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention // Santana // The Flock // Led Zeppelin // Hot Tuna .... Then, after midnight into Monday 29 June: Country Joe McDonald // Jefferson Airplane // The Byrds // Dr John (5am!). Presumably the festival ended about 6am Monday morning the 29th.

Support the artists (the band is still touring): http://www.davidlaflamme.com

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!