Long John Baldry's Big Unit
2001-01-12 (January 12th)
"60th Birthday Blues", CBC TV Special
The Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Excellent TV broadcast audio recording, 46:15, A+

Lineage: TV > Mvhs > CDR
Recorded, transfered, edited, mastered and shared by plaz.

Broadcast Source: CBC Televsion Special analog from cable TV
Recording Source: plaz's TV-2-VHS Masters archive
Recording: cable TV with inline +20dB amp > Sony SLV-N71 VCR > Fuji hi-grade VHS tape
Transfer: master VHS pb on Sony SLV-N71 VCR > TASCAM CD-RW700 > CDR > EAC-wav > edit/track > flac(8)
Editing : remove TV ads ("//"), edit transitions, balance, repair pops and clicks, track.


Long John Baldry's Big Unit:
Long John Baldry (voc, harmonica, perc), Rob Bracken (kb, acc), John Ferreira (as), Tom Knowles (b),
Vince Mai (g), Kathy MacDonald (voc), Anthony L. Robertson (g, tp, voc), John-Lee Sanders (as),
Hans Slammer (d), Peter R. Sweetzir (p), Sybil Thrasher (voc), Allan Webster (voc, table perc)

* With a guest appearance on this telecast by Colin James (g, voc).

Set List (8 tracks, 46:19)

0 (Introduction by Richard Fluehill > Warm Up Blues >)
1 Everyday I Have the Blues (5:28)
2 One Step Ahead (4:31) //
3 Shake That Thing (4:23)
4 Midnight in New Orleans (4:39) //
5 A Thrill's a Thrill (8:53)
6 Dimples* (5:26) // {Colin James in, Baldry out}
7 Burn Down the Cornfield > Spoonful (6:42)
8 Iko-Iko (6:14)

This was a national concert broadcast special celebrating the 60th annual Long John Baldry Day which Canadians have been celebrating since this gentlman emigrated to Canada. He lived a not-so-quiet life in Toronto and Montreal, and moved to Vancouver late in his career. If you were never blessed to see him live, that's just too bad, becasue he's gone, RIP. Baldry's out indeed. This TV appearance demonstrates he still had it after 60 years -- which gives me hope anyway.

Hghly-recommended therapy:

This is one of my personal favourites of all the concerts I recorded. There's some minor discontinuities between songs (indicated by //) where commercials were removed but that does not detract from the performances. And there's no cut tracks here.

An historical side note:
At the time, Long John Baldry had adopted Vancouver as his home, and he became a huge TV success. He made his living after retiring fom his music career doing voice work on the northwest coast. He is the voice of many of the characters in those beloved "Care Bears" cartoons. In 2002 LJB told me that he makes more money from a single episode of Care Bears than from years of touring. And, he confided, the Big Unit is still hot. I appreciate the Care Bears now -- their love-power supported a favourite, too-long-suffering, underappreciated artist I dig. On the other hand, pemcil-dick Snidley Bear used his formidable dark powers to keep Baldry Bear off that stage where he was the rightful and righteious ruler-king.

Don't be scared: Care. Spread the rainbow-powered love.

-plaz