MAGENTA & FRIENDS (Pete Jones & The Girls aka Katie Axelson & Liz Harwood)
Acapela Studio,
Pentyrch, near Cardiff,
Wales, UK

20th November 2021

Lineage:
Church Audio CA-14 cardioids > CA-9200 > Edirol R-07 (@24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2 > CDWave > TLH
Recorded 20' back, just inside house right speaker

Recording, transfer and artwork by boombox

Set 1 (71m12s):
1. Taking The Dawn
2. Victorian Brickwork (Big Big Train cover for David Longdon)
3. Blackbird
4. The Goddess & The Green Man*
5. Dancing With The Moonlit Knight/The Carpet Crawlers (Genesis covers)
6. Tuning Jam
7. Mynydd Maen I*
8. Mynydd Maen II*
9. Hanging By A Thread
10. Barstool Prophet*
11. Free My Soul*
12. Songbird* (Fleetwood Mac cover)
13. For King & Country* (Cyan cover)
14. I Defy The Sun* (Cyan cover)
15. Best Of You* (Foo Fighters cover)

Set 1 Performers:
1-5 - Pete; 6 - Chris & Rob; 7-8 - Chris & The Girls; 9 - Tina, Chris & Rob; 10 - Tina & Rob; 11 - Magenta; 12 - Tina & Jiffy; 13 - Pete, Rob, Dan & Jiffy; 14 - Pete, Tina, Rob, Dan, Jiffy & The Girls; 15 - Magenta

Set 2 (79m15s):
1. Favourite Things Jam (aka Tina's Toilet Break)
2. Gluttony
3. Pearl
4. Too Many Voices*
5. Demons
6. Morning Sunlight
7. Because*
8. Moving On
9. Lightspeed
10. The Warning
11. The Logical Song* (Supertramp cover)
12. The Lizard King

Set 2 Performers:
1-12 - Magenta with: 5, 9-10 - The Girls; 7-8, 11 - Pete; 12 - Pete & The Girls

NB 'Bela' and 'Anger' were on the setlist between 'The Warning' & 'The Logical Song', but the band had to cut them due to the venue curfew.

* - new unrecorded song and/or first performance

boombox's notes december 2021:

This was my fifth such "semi-acoustic" family and friends gig and for obvious reasons the one to which I was perhaps looking forward most, especially after its postponement from last year and then Covid had cancelled Red Bazar's appearance at Summer's End. I'd also seen a cryptic post on the TMT facebook page: would the special guest be Pete Jones? Would we hear the revised Cyan material live for the first time? Entering the venue, I caught sight of Chris' setlist, so was a very happy bunny as I sat down for my pizza. Pete's set was beautiful, including a lovely tribute to David Longdon, who had died earlier that day. Chris' new pieces inspired by a hill near his home were excellent and Tina then treated us to some new songs off her, as yet unrecorded, third album and a Fleetwood Mac cover with the multi-talented Jiffy on piano. Set 1 ended with two of the new Cyan arrangements, which, even without Luke Machin's guitar, were every bit as good live as they are on the album, followed by an unexpected Foo Fighters cover, giving Chris his first chance that night to unleash his inner rock god.

Set 2 was the usual mixture of Magenta songs from across their career right to the present, including some new songs recorded in Real World this year, after a fan had died, leaving them some money. (Sidenote: buy the new EP, especially for 'Breaking Point', which they didn't play that night.) Unfortunately, the band overran, meaning two songs had to be dropped before they finished the set and launched into the Supertramp cover, giving Pete a chance to play "that" sax solo. Hardly had they finished the song, that they concluded the show with 'The Lizard King'.

As for the recording, it's OK, but not my best. My mics were playing up (and died the following week), so I had to repair lots of static in one channel by copying over, so at times this won't be the best to listen to with headphones. I was also a little further back than I'd like, with a woman with a real smoker's cough on the next table. Levels were also a nightmare. Pete's and Chris' sets seemed OK when I checked levels and I thought I had enough headroom, but the full band material was LOUD, as indeed were the audience cheers as the night went on. As a result, there is some very minor clipping. Still, it is what it is, a memento of a wonderful evening in Wales with some real surprises in the setlist. If anyone wants my 24bit masters to do a better job - raw, or with the static patched if you know how to sort out the stereo image, please get in touch.

In the meantime, please support your favourite acts and venues, so we all have something to look forward to when the current situation improves.

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

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