Rick Wakeman - National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, UK (Aud)
Date: 29th April 2014
Quality: Turned out pretty good for an audience recording I reckon, especially considering it was large 'boomy' arena with a massive dynamic difference. Also considering that the mic holder was sat on blu-tac, on the concert programme, on my lap. You be the judge, check out the sound samples.
Artwork included.
Audience Recording Notes & Location
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See location diagram on artwork. Stage right slighty beyond the speaker stack and some way back. Sat with friends who I'd warned not to clap (at least not too loudly). I should also have told them not to laugh too hard as you can hear them laughing at a few of Rick's funny tales! I also had a rather loud clapper sat directly behind me although after my usual processing he is not too prevalent and certainly does not impact on any of the music.
Regarding the actual gig I felt it was ok, not great, just okay. Having seen both 'Six Wives' at Hampton Court and 'King Arthur' at Cheltenham (and my recording of this concert is still on dime) my expectations were high. I have to admit that I'm not a massive fan of the recent Journey re-work and I simply just don't 'get' the additional female vocal on the new recording, although Hayley Sanderson is clearly a great singer. I feel that her voice is just not suited to this kind of music (and please note that this is just my personal preference!) I am probably too entrenched in the original version which I now know as 'a dear old friend' and I guess I felt that some things should just not be messed with. I think a lot of these thoughts ultimately coloured my judgement of this gig and it wasn't helped by a number of missed vocal cues and a couple of keyboard gremlins too. At least this time Ashley was not meandering around the stage like a lost grandfather (bless!) and thankfully there were no tambourines in sight, not even during the encores! Overall, my feelings on the night were that it was not as good as 'King Arthur' and certainly not as good as 'Six Wives' (tho' like I said, this is just my personal opinion.)
Having said all of that, I was highly and most pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed listening to the recording far more than I enjoyed the concert on the night! Very strange, I guess I was just being too picky and probably more concerned with getting a decent recording (and very glad I did!) I hope you all enjoy listening to this gig as much as I have over the last couple of days.
Lineage
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Sony Hi-MD MZ-RH10 (Hi-SP) with external Sony ECM-MS907 Mic (in 120deg) placed on my lap (secured with 'blu-tack').
USB transfer to PC (WAV) -> Soundforge 9.0 (volume normalise to -20db and track split)* -> TLH SB align and Flac encode (Level 8)
*Note: I would normally go louder (e.h. -16db) but like I said above, the dynamic range was massive and I did not want to overly compress the recording. Sounds just about right to my ears.

Set One
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01. Welcome / Intro to 'Morning Has Broken'
02. Morning Has Broken
03. Intro to 'Life On Mars'
04. Life On Mars (feat. Hayley Sanderson)
05. Intro to 'Summertime'
06. Summertime (feat. Ashley Holt)
07. Intro to 'Eleanor Rigby'
08. Eleanor Rigby

Set Two
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01. The Preface
02. The Journey Overture
03. The Journey's Dawn
04. Crystals
05. The Gothic Cathedral
06. The Quest For Water
07. The Hansbach
08. Fervent Prayer
09. The Recollection
10. Lost And Found
11. Echoes
12. 4 Miles
13. The Reunion
14. A New Vist
15. A World Within A World
16. The Raft
17. The Battle
18. Cumulus Clouds
19. The Storm
20. The Cemetery
21. Quaternary Man
22. The Ravine
23. The Dance Of A Thousand Lights
24. Mastodons
25. Ages Of Man
26. The Tunnel
27. Hall Of The Mountain King
28. Mount Etna

Encore
29. Band Intros
30. The Electric Storm
31. Ride Of Your Life
32. Ages Of Man Jam
33. Hall Of The Mountain King
34. Mount Etna

The Musicians
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Rick Wakeman - Keyboards

Hayley Sanderson - Vocals
Ashley Holt - Vocals
Tony Fernandez - Drums
Dave Colquhoun - Guitars
Matt Pegg - Bass
with:
Philip Franks - Narrator
Guy Protheroe - Conductor
The Orion Symphony Orchestra
and
The English Chamber Choir
I have not suggested a CD split, I leave that up to your personal preferences. The listings and artwork refer to exactly how the concert was presented on the night.
Support the artists and buy their music. I do!

Cheers
Relayerx9

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