Marianne Faithfull

Koninklijk Theater Carré
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

23rd November 2014 (2014-11-23)


RECORDING:

Type: Audience master, recorded from seat in centre of front row of the stalls,
2 metres from the stage.

Source: Factory-matched pair of Schoeps CCM 41V microphones (DINa mounted) ->
Marantz PMD661 recorder with Oade Concert Mod
(-18 dB gain/44.1 kHz/24 bit WAV)

Lineage: Audacity 2.0.6
* Amplified left channel by 1.7 dB.
* Amplified left channel by 2.0 dB.
* Applied Click Removal effect to attenuate applause.
+ Threshold 50/Max Spike Width 40 to sections with music.
+ Threshold 200/Max Spike Width 40 to sections with no music.
* Manually attenuated remainder of intrusive hand claps.
* Added fades.
* Split tracks.
* Converted to 16 bit.
-> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.3.0 20130526]

Taper: Ian Macdonald (ianmacd)


SET LIST:

01. [01:06] [intro]
02. [01:20] [banter]
03. [03:50] Give My Love To London
04. [00:58] [banter]
05. [03:59] Falling Back
06. [00:17] [banter]
07. [05:02] Broken English
08. [02:07] [banter]
09. [05:05] Witches' Song
10. [01:13] [banter]
11. [02:32] The Price Of Love
12. [00:51] [banter]
13. [04:30] Marathon Kiss
14. [02:00] [banter]
15. [04:21] Love More Or Less
16. [01:54] [banter]
17. [03:03] As Tears Go By
18. [02:43] Come And Stay With Me
19. [07:25] [banter]
20. [04:30] Mother Wolf
21. [05:51] [banter/band introduction]
22. [07:28] Sister Morphine
23. [06:46] Late Victorian Holocaust
24. [03:05] [banter]
25. [04:29] Sparrows Will Sing
26. [00:27] [banter]
27. [05:46] The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
28. [01:50] [banter]
29. [03:25] Who Will Take My Dreams Away
30. [02:21] [encore break]
31. [01:24] [banter]
32. [04:25] Last Song

Total running time: 106:18

NOTES:

It's my first time seeing Marianne Faithfull. I've left it late in the day, I
know, but I thought I ought to go to see her before one of us dies; and given
the trials and tribulations the woman has so far survived in her lifetime, she
might just outlast me.

Attempted suicide, heroin addiction, homelessness, anorexia nervosa, cocaine
abuse, loss of child custody, breast cancer, hepatitis C and now a broken
hip... it's a catalogue of misery and suffering that makes it frankly nothing
short of amazing that she's standing here in front of us tonight; and no-one
is more surprised than the artist herself.

Leaning on crutches, Marianne laboriously hobbles onto the stage and
immediately makes light of her situation.

Alternating between standing and sitting, Faithfull spends the better part of
the next two hours providing a window onto various phases of her long career,
stretching all the way back to 1964's 'As Tears Go By', the song that
catapulted her to fame more than half a century ago.

The years have taken their toll on Faithfull's voice, which is battered and
bruised, but not broken. It's a million miles from the voice that recorded 'As
Tears Go By' or even the one that brought us 'Broken English', but the
present-day rasp does lend the more plaintive songs a certain autobiographical
authenticity.

'Come And Stay With Me' completes "Sixties' corner" and heralds the start of
what Faithfull affectionately refers to as "Junkie's Corner". The bleak tale
of 'Sister Morphine' unfolds.

It's an interesting set-list, spanning the artist's entire career from first
singles to most recent album, released just a couple of months ago.

That latest album, 'Give My Love To London', features songs written with
several collaborators and is well-represented in tonight's show.

There's the title track, penned with Steve Earle; 'Falling Back', written with
Anna Calvi; Love More Or Less', written with Tom McRae; 'Late Victorian
Holocaust', penned with Nick Cave; and 'Sparrows Will Sing', ably assisted by
Roger Waters.

It's a good album, and 'Late Victorian Holocaust' in particular is a gem of a
song. One can easily imagine Cave himself performing a rendition of it in
years to come.

Marianne is chatty, too. She shushes the audience at one point when they
politely applaud the clearly considerable effort that it takes her to stand up
from her chair. "You don't get applause for standing up", she advises.

I purchased my ticket for this show more than a year ago and, in my haste,
accidentally booked myself the seat in the dead centre of the front row.
Whilst it's many a music fan's dream to occupy that seat, it's less than ideal
for recording, because the PA is located far above one's head, blasting the
sound anywhere but directly into the microphones. This has a significant,
detrimental effect on the sound heard at this location and therefore also on
the sound that is captured.

That said, Carré's sound is so good that I'm rather amazed at how well the
recording has turned out, given that my microphones were trained on the stage
monitors. My position in the front row did at least have the advantage of
muting the sound of the audience, which is never an issue here.

Anyway, I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the recording. In any
case, samples are included to help you determine whether it is worth your
while.