Prefab Sprout - Reading University, 16th November 1985 (originally broadcast January 11th 1986)
FM Ultimate Quality Master, A+

See http://psgigs.wikispaces.com/Reading1986

Paddy McAloon - vocals, guitar
Martin McAloon - bass
Neil Conti - drums
Wendy Smith - backing vocals
Mike Shipley - Keyboards

01. Radio Intro (Steve Blacknell)
02. Moving the River
03. Cars and Girls
04. Bonny
05. Faron Young
06. Hallelujah
07. Lions in My Own Garden, Exit Someone
08. Wicked Things
09. Goodbye Lucille #1
10. Don't Sing
11. Tiffany's
12. When Love Breaks Down
13. When the Angels
14. Cruel
15. Radio Outro (Steve Blacknell)

Ultimate quality copy of the entire FM broadcast, almost entirely from a newly discovered very high quality off air master. Stunning quality: you will simply not get better than this. Just a few repairs as detailed in the lineage below. Upgrades the existing FM sources, and probably the pre FM transcription disk sources which suffer a bit from some surface noise in the versions I've heard.

The BBC recording of the penultimate gig of the 1985 winter tour of the UK promoting Steve McQueen is pretty ubiquitous and various versions have been circulating for many years, including rips from a vinyl transcription LP, off air tapes (and copies of tapes), and digital rebroadcasts from 6music (incidentally if anyone has a copy of the 6music Dreamticket broadcast in any format I'd love to hear it, I have the facilities to transfer minidisk etc). I do also have a physical copy of the vinyl disk, and if that transfers well will upload it as a counterpoint to this recording.

A while ago I was contacted following an enquiry on a Smith's board by a true audiophile who had a stash of very high quality recordings of BBC In Concerts from the 1980s. After a little bit of chatting he was kind enough to make a brilliant hi res transfer. It really is jewel like and totally free of FM and tape noise, and sounds amazing in headphones - every detail is pristine and crisp. I've downsampled for the composite "repaired" version - not a lot of point in having 96K for an FM source and it simplified the repairs. Anyone with a really good reason to want the 32/96K sources can get in touch, but they don't add much.

It's a wonderful recording, not least because of the imperfection of the performance. Lots of little nuances to enjoy - the out of tune guitar on the intro to Goodbye Lucille #1 and the clicks and burps as a new one is plugged in is one of my favourite parts, and some extraordinarily dodgy guitar solos at the end of the song. Great version of Cruel too.

Now if only the Christmas 1985 Capital Radio broadcast of a gig in Europe (the extended version of the circulating Utrecht from Dutch Radio) would surface...


CONTRAST CLAUSE:
=============
Different from:
Torrent: 301210 Title: Prefab Sprout - Univ of Reading UK, 1986-01-11
Torrent: 65283 Title: PREFAB SPROUT - BBC Radio 1 "In Concert" - Reading University, UK - 11th

Which are both mostly a pre FM transfer from a BBC transcription disk, but contains radio sourced copies of Cruel and Don't sing which have been badly messed with (poor eq)

Torrent: 109795 Title: Prefab Sprout (FM) Reading univ. 16 nov 85

Which is the pre FM transfer from a BBC transcription disk (identifiable because including Appetite and not Don't Sing and Cruel)

Upgrade from:

Torrent: 24441 Title: prefab sprout 1985 11 16 (EZT)

because better quality master and known lineage.

LINEAGE:
======
Three sources used.

Main source (all except Radio intro and applause into Moving the River, and a linking section between Wicked Things and Goodbye Lucille #1, covering a tape flip). Lineage:

BBC Radio FM network ->Holme Moss (main regional transmitter for Northwest England) ->
Indoor four element Uda/Yagi Band II (FM) aerial -> Technics ST-Z11L tuner ->
Rotel RA-611 amplifier -> Sansui D95M cassette deck -> Sony HF-S C-60 with Dolby B encoding

Sansui D95M cassette deck (customised direct input, no pre-amp/amp)->
Asus Essence ST soundcard ->Audacity 1.2.6 under MS Windows XP Pro ->
(32 bit float / 96 kHz recording and .wav file format)->

SOX (join part files uploaded to transfer site)->32/96 .wav->Audacity 11.1dB amplification->
.wav file 16/96->SOX (high quality resample to 16/44K10

Second source: Paddy intro and applause into Moving the River, short tape flip repair (~10s):

Torrent 24441 above .shn files 16/14K1 ->Digital Eq to match main source

Third source: Radio intro only

16/14k1 .wav file received in trade (thanks Craigie!)->Digital Eq to match main source


PROCESSING:
========
Audacity to amplify (11.1dB) main source. Resampling to 16/14K1 of main source using SOX. Inversion (Audacity) and equalisation (VST Plugin) of second source to match waveform of main source and spliced in at nearest zero crossing to cover tape flip after end of Wicked Things into start of Goodbye Lucille #1 (about 3 seconds of music), and initial applause into Moving the River. Equalisation of third source (VST Plugin) and spliced in for Radio Intro only. Audacity for track and flac.