UB40
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK
Sunday 7th November, 2010


Lineage:

Church Audio ST-11 Cardioid Mics
-> Battery Box
-> iRiver H120 (Rockbox r18607-3.0-080923)
-> SoundForge (v10.0b) (trim WAV, normalise, fade out)
-> CDWave (v1.9.8.1) (tracking)
-> TLH (v2.6.0)
-> FLAC (level 8)
-> Foobar2000 (v1.1) (tagging)

Source: Audience recording from centre of stalls seated area, stage centre
Taper: PABBY
Duration: 2hr 05m 45s
Size: 774MB


Setlist:

Set 1
01. Tyler
02. King
03. 12 Bar
04. Burden of Shame
05. Adella
06. I Think It's Going To Rain Today
07. 25%
08. Strange Fruit
09. Food For Thought
10. Little By Little
11. Reefer Madness
12. Madame Medusa
13. Signing Off

Set 2
14. Sing Our Own Song
15. Rat In The Kitchen
16. Higher Ground
17. Kingston Town
18. The Earth Dies Screaming
19. Wear You To The Ball
20. Dance Until The Morning Light
21. Easy Snappin'
22. Boom Shacka Lacka
23. Reggae Music
24. Cherry Oh Baby
25. Red Red Wine
26.
27. Here I Am (Come And Take Me)
28. (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You


Notes:

SoundForge was used for joining the two sets together, trimming the start/end of the WAV, normalisation and fading in/out. No equalisation was performed on this recording.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their first album, Signing Off, UB40 decided to tour venues similar in size to those in which they would have played during their early days. The shows were split into two sets, the band playing the whole of the Signing Off album during the first set, with a more laid-back run through the rest of their career in the second set.

I've seen the band many times since my first experience in 1981, but this was my first time with the new lead singer, Duncan Campbell. I didn't really know what to expect, but not only does he look like his departed sibling Ali, he sounds just like him too! This must have been a real Brucie Bonus for the band, as I doubt they could have continued without that distinctive vocal style.

The Bridgewater Hall was sold out well before show date and I managed to secure probably the best seat in the house for recording - 10 rows back, stage centre. The sound levels in the hall were considerably quieter than I was expecting, but fortunately there's not too much crowd noise to interfere with the music.

Enjoy! :-)


Reviews:

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/leisure/entertainment-news/2010/11/08/review-ub40-at-bridgewater-hall-manchester-55578-27622191/

http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/reviews/18739_review__ub40___bridgewater_hall