Sopwith Camel
2012-12-08 San Francisco, California The Blue Macaw (M-AUD)
Benefit for The Children's Book Project

01. soundcheck jam with drums, sitar & bass -> Fazon (17+ minutes!)
02. Frantic Desolation
03. ?
04. ?
05. ?
06. Hello, Hello
07. Coke, Suede & Waterbeds (*)
08. Dancin' Wizard
09. ?
10. ?

Total Time ::: 1:09:09

::: Very fine stereo digital AUD. Check samples for elucidation, trepidation alleviation or for a couple o' sips of the kool-aid.
::: Warts: Some audience talking in places but overall it's a fine one!
::: Taped by Zongo with the band's kind permission.
::: Songlist help or corrections always welcomed. I was a bit lazy...
::: (*) drunk woman off the street does 4 minutes of "vocals" from about 6 minutes on.

Recording Information ::: Sony Linear PCM Recorder PCM-M10 set to LPCM 44/16, built-in stereo microphones, ALC on -> master wavs.

Playback 2012-12-14 ::: master wav clones -> Audacity (fades, no EQ) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. First uploaded week of 2012-12-15.

Line-up (unconfirmed, borrowed from hoppkorv's bandlist!) ::: Peter Kraemer - lead vocals, flute, saxophone // Nandi Devam (the Artist Formerly Known As Terry MacNeil) - keyboards, guitar, vocals // Martin Beard - electric bass, vocals // Mike MvKevitt - guitar, sitar, vocals // Bruce Slesinger (aka "Ted" from the Dead Kennedy's) - drums // (*) unknown drunk woman off the street "featured" on vocals on track 7.

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

CoolSonics 203 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader, Zongo Bawise! A true Sopwith Camel aficionado ::: Corrections welcome ::: What a great band. The 1973 show I surfaced from the taper many years ago will be up before too long, along with a couple of other Sopwith recordings.

Here are taper Zongo's notes (slightly edited).... The Blue Macaw is a small club with a dance floor with the band playing at one end on a stage about 1 foot higher than the floor and a balcony that you can look down onto the dance floor from. The surrounding neighborhood has many bars, prostitutes, and generally skeevy goings on at night.

Donations were taken at the door in a not very rigorous manner. The music started around 10:30 PM after kids activities For this benefit concert, there were a varying number of people from about 20 to about 100 in the club, coming and going during the course of the show. There were some people dancing at times, at others no one dancing.

The sound was rudimentary, run by a young man named Andrew & the band. It was clearly somewhat ad hoc, & although passable, it was by no means audiophile in nature. The beginning of the show you will hear is a "soundcheck" with drums, sitar and bass jam while other mics and instruments were attempting to be set up. There was no clear beginning of the show, so I started recording just because it seemed something random was going on, and as it turned out it just continued through into "Fazon".

A drunken young woman and her boyfriend meandered into the show about half way through the show during "Coke, Suede & Waterbeds", got up onto stage & took over Peter Kraemer's microphone. He very graciously let her "sing" for an extended period of time until the band basically ended the song & she left the stage. They then started playing "Dancing Wizard" & she tried to get back up onto the stage, but the band and audience members guided her off & later she left the club.

The recording was done with the built-in mics on the Sony MAC-10 with auto record level on, held in my hand because there was no obvious place to tape the machine too or put it safely down on its tripod. I was standing about 30 feet in front of the stage, a little off from center, with the M-10 held at about upper chest level, pointed toward the stage.

Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Weeks, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees

Support the artists ::: http://www.sopwithcamel.com

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!