J. Geils Band
Hec Edmundson Pavilion
Seattle, WA
Bloodshot Tour
April 27, 1973
JEMS Full-Track Tandberg Mono Master

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-22P Microphone > Tandberg Model 11 Portable Reel to Reel

JEMS 2018 Transfer: Master reel > Tandberg Model 11 > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 First I Look At The Purse
02 Homework
03 Talking
04 Give It To Me (false start, perhaps power went out?)
05 Give it To Me >
06 Back To Get Ya
07 Talking
08 Pack Fair and Square >
09 (Ain't Nothin' But a) Houseparty
10 Whammer Jammer
11 Gonna Find Me a New Love
12 Talking
13 Serves You Right to Suffer >
14 Lookin' For a Love
15 Encore Break
16 Floyd's Hotel
17 Hard Drivin' Man

Peter Wolf - lead vocals
J. Geils - guitar
Seth Justman - keyboards
Richard "Magic Dick" Salwitz - harmonica
Danny Klein - bass
Stephen Jo Bladd - drums

Tale of the Tapes and the Tandberg

With Jared�s passing in October 2016, the JEMS Archive was moved south from his home up north. That change, sad impetus aside, presented the daunting opportunity to go through and organize the collection. With the help of amazing friends and experts (among them Slowburn, SS, RD and slipkid68), JEMS tapes are now accessible in ways they have never been before. Stan was also on hand to help and fill in our taping history as he always does.

When the task was done and loaded into the truck, one box in particular captured my attention: master tapes recorded by Stan on his Tandberg portable reel to reel. We�ve posted some 30 or more of these on DIME over the years, but this box contained master reels that had never been digitized before and, in some instances, had seemingly never been traded or circulated.

If you don�t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS, but in full-track mono. I won�t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of SG�s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some as audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs around ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

Happily, the original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, so these new transfers capture full-track mono playback on the original tape recorder to maximize quality.

J Geils Band

This is the sixteenth in a series of Tandberg master reels digitized for the first time. If you want to find the others, search JEMS or Tandberg using �Search title and torrent filename only.�

This tape was undated and simply said J Geils Band on the spine. With some research into the setlist and confirmation that the band toured with Loggins & Messina (another Tandberg master reel), we were able to pin this show down as April 27, 1973 in support of the band�s recently released third album, Bloodshot.

It is a highly spirited set from a period in the band�s career for which very few recordings circulate. As Stan�s Tandberg masters go quality wise, it is more in the good not great category. Hec Edmundson is the basketball arena on the University of Washington campus and was never known for its acoustics. Stan�s taping position sounds a little distant too, though once you adjust to the sound it is quite listenable. Samples provided. I will leave it to frogster to comment on the performance.

Once again, our hat goes off to Stan for his remarkable work in the �70s, �80s and beyond capturing these shows in the first place, and to Jared, may his legacy live on as he rests in peace. Thanks as well to frogster, for his continued support and encouragement to get the tapes out of the vaults and into your ears. His post-production is the critical last mile in getting shows posted. All comments welcomed.

BK for JEMS

The JEMS Tandberg series is back after a short season of inactivity. But make no mistake about it, we are more than ready to continue delivering classic recordings.

This instance we bring you a one of a kind gem, a previously uncirculated recording of the J. Geils Band. And recorded with the Tandberg, no less.

While this recording may not be up the Stan Tandberg master quality we are used to, is a fine recording that showcases the musical ability this band had in its heyday. Samples provided.

The J. Geils Band was on absolute fire during this period and that energy can be felt in the recording, which captures them having a hell of a time and surely, the crowd was having a great time, too.

One of the things you'll notice in the recording are some pauses after the first attempted performance of "Give It To Me." The pause was most likely caused by an on-stage power outage and the taper paused the recording, then re-started it when the band had fixed the problem. Besides that, there are no other major flaws.

A good recording of a great band during their peak isn't something you can ignore so, check the samples and decide if it fits your criteria.

Kudos and thanks to 78jazz for his help regarding the setlist and special information. Also thanks to BK for his assistance in transferring the recording and letting me do the final edits.

There are many things to come from the JEMS archive so stay tuned.

frogster