The Moody Blues - Two rare vinyl bootlegs - diehards only!

Let's get real here. These are lo-fi, distant audience recordings from a long time ago. They are classic bad-recordings (but, at least they aren't distorted. Much.) If you are looking for a great recording, forget it. But, if you ever looked at a bootleg discography and sighed "Gee, I wish I could at least hear that!", then you have come to the right place. The performances are great, the recordings are not.

These two vinyl recordings have been sitting on my hard drive for a long time. I have been searching and searching for some form of attestation as to where and when these performances originate, all without success. So, I have given up and decided to pass them along to you anyway.

There does not appear to be a vast compendium of sources for the Moody Blues, as there is, for instance, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. From what I have heard, the band themselves don't have much of their history either. They were in it for the music, and for the music only. But, this is what I do know:

The recording "October '72" is supposedly from the Nassau Coliseum in 1972. I may or may not have been to this show. I don't recall if I went in 1972 or 1974. They did perform "Oh! Suzannah" when I went, and it is on this recording.

According to the Hot Wacks discography, the recording "Live On A Tuesday Afternoon" is the same show. Sorry guys, it isn't. The recording is somewhat similar, the performances are not.

LOATA, along with its even rarer identical companion "Moody Blues Alive", are perhaps the rarest of the Moodies live vinyl. LOATA was probably limited to under 200 copies, and only came out once, a very long time ago. To those who understand the following lingo, it's an East Coast WCF pressing, made in either North Carolina, or Flushing, NY. I have no information about "Moody Blues Alive", except that the pressing may be European. The cover was a small insert with a stoned-out face floating in a blue starfield.

Both pressings are quite good, but the production values were not. Some idiot added echo during the mastering process, and stopped and started the tape, producing a loud "thwack!" each time. It's been edited out, by the way. It seems the tape was fast-forwarded and stopped to make the transfer as quick as possible. Anyway, what you now hear is as pleasing as I could make it.

"October '72" came out more than one time. It's probably best to call it a Berkely Records production (also East Coast, somewhat later than LOATA). Most of the pressings were terrible, and this one is no exception. Along with overbearing surface noise (most of which has been eliminated), the pressing was way too slow. It was remastered to the right pitch as much as possible by comparing a couple of tracks to a commercial CD. There are a few good pressings of this show by the way, but they all suffer from speed problems.

The real treat here is the impromptu version of "Oh! Suzannah!". It's great, short as it is.

Hope you like the shows! Many thanks to MoodySMB for help doing research.

Setlists

Live On A Tuesday Afternoon

Gypsy
Tuesday Afternoon
Sunset
The Tortoise And The Hare
Question
Melancholy Man
Are You Sitting Comfortably?
The Dream
Have You Heard? Pt 1
The Voyage
Have You Heard? Pt 2
Nights In White Satin
Legend Of A Mind

October '72

Melancholy Man
Living In The Land Of Make Believe
Nights In White Satin
Are You Sitting Comfortably
The Dream
Have You Heard? Pt 1
The Voyage
Have You Heard? Pt 2
Oh! Suzannah!

Enjoy!

A DoinkerTape