Moody Blues (with The World Festival Orchestra)
September 16, 1993
SDSU Open Air Theatre
San Diego, CA
"A Night At Red Rocks" Tour
8:00 PM
KeithM Master via JEMS
01 //Intro > Overture
02 Late Lament
03 Intro > Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)
04 For My Lady
05 Gypsy
06 Lean On Me Tonight
07 New Horizons
08 Say It With Love -
09 Emily's Song > Encore Announcement //
10 // Intro > Lovely To See You
11 Your Wildest Dreams
12 Isn't Life Strange
13 The Other Side of Life
14 I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band) -
15 Nights In White Satin
16 Legend Of A Mind
17 Orchestra Introduction
18 Question
19 Encore Break
20 Ride My See-Saw//
// Faded In/Out
- Cut or Tape Flip
The Moody Blues:
Ray Thomas
Justin Hayward
John Lodge
Graeme Edge
With:
The World Festival Orchestra
Conducted by Larry Baird
Sue Shattock - Backing Vocals
Tracy Graham - Backing Vocals
Bias Boshell - Keyboards
Paul Bliss - Keyboards
Gordon Marshall - Drums and Percussion
Welcome to the second installment (of many to come) in our series of recordings made by San Diego and LA taper KeithM. He recorded hundreds of shows from the mid-80s to today and although we have only just begun this new series of his recordings, judging by the quality of the initial titles, we suggest you to be attentive to the future updates.
Our second KeithM release brings us the first show of the Moody Blues� "A Night At Red Rocks" tour with the World Festival Orchestra at the SDSU Open Air Theater in San Diego.
There is not much to say if you are already a Moody Blues fan, but in case you are not (or you are planning to get into their music), this recording will not disappoint you at all. Moody Blues is one of those groups (along with Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Kinks and others) that are faithful to the sound that they present in their official albums. Unlike many other bands, the studio versions of songs made by them (with accompaniments) are made with the purpose of being presented live to an audience with said accompaniments. Have you ever imagined Love's Forever Changes album without its beautiful accompaniments? Me neither.
I hope that with this introduction I have captured your interest. Trust me, you won't me disappointed. Samples provided.
Now, about the recording:
First, don't let the initial sound give you the wrong impression. The first 30 seconds of recording have some sounds like scratches (which I imagine are blows to the microphone caused by trying to hide it). Unfortunately, such sounds cannot be removed (or at least I do not know a software that allows me to hide them), so I just tried to minimize the original volume of those mic hits, as they were really high. Now, instead of said scratches, they are just small sounds in the recording.
After that momentary rough patch the sound becomes excellent, really, really excellent. The instruments are clear, the voices are distinct. There are moments where the taper talks a little bit but these moments aren't detrimental. This is a solid recording.
I'm a person who believes that the continuity of the recording is important and that the fades in and out should be reserved for cases where it is impossible to join two portions of audio and fortunately "I'm Just A Singer" is one of those cases where you could hide the cut made during the tape flip, but with a cost: a small portion of the song was removed. Therefore, the song begins in the middle of the first verse. If you don't pay much attention to it, you won�t notice it at all while listening.
Another cut due to tape flip (as noted in the setlist) is between "Say It With Love" and "Emily's Song.� Luckily, this cut could be hidden by applause between the two.
Overall this was a very fun recording to work with. I hope it will please all of you fans and not so Moody Blues fans.
Huge thanks to KeithM for graciously lending JEMS his masters. There are many more good things to come from him.
Last but not least, I thank the JEMS team for the opportunity they have given to me, allowing me to present to all of you many of the recordings of the archive.
frogster