Velvet Underground Edinburgh 01 June 1993 audience recording from master cassette


Playhouse Theatre
Edinburgh
01 June 1993

track 01: We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together 4.10
track 02: Venus In Furs 5.51
track 03: Guess I'm Falling In Love 4.07
track 04: Afterhours 2.57
track 05: All Tomorrow's Parties 6.40
track 06: Some Kinda Love 5.57
track 07: I'll Be Your Mirror 4.10
track 08: Beginning To See The Light 5.55
track 09: The Gift 10.38
track 10: I Heard Her Call My Name 4.17
track 11: Femme Fatale 4.35
track 12: Hey Mr Rain 6.51
track 13: Sweet Jane 5.24
track 14: White Light/White Heat 3.32
track 15: I'm Sticking With You 3.36
track 16: The Black Angel's Death Song 4.57
track 17: Rock And Roll 6.59
track 18: I Cant Stand It 5.02
track 19: I'm Waiting For The Man 5.39
track 20: Heroin 9.54

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
John Cale: viola, keyboards, bass, vocals
Sterling Morrison: guitar, backing vocals
Maureen Tucker: drums, vocals

lineage: master MAXELL XL11 C100 cassettes/Pioneer CT-S670D player - (Wavepad) - wav - flac (level 8) - you

Recorded from seat 16 in Row A of the stalls using a Toshiba stereo recorder and tieclip mic

original recording by lurid_uk
transfer to wav by lurid_uk
uploaded to dime by lurid_uk December 2007

I knew that there were plans for a "reunion tour" but I never imagined that the opening 2 shows would be right on my doorstep. (I should have realised this was Lou's old trick of playing warm-up shows "in the sticks" so as to give the band a chance to gell before hitting the big cities....) The shows got much positive advance press in the UK. The Playhouse holds about 3000 people, and is a nice place to see bands - I had seen Lou there on his "Magic And Loss" tour.

The atmosphere inside was electric - Row A is the front row and Seat 16 is about 2/3 of the way across, to the right of centre stage. The band wandered onstage (late) to great applause - I still couldn't quite believe it, but there they were, standing right in front of me and about to play. When they did start, the noise was deafening - sometimes it seemed as if the sound was sucking the air right out of my ears.

I'm not going to describe each song - the show itself seemed to be over almost as soon as it had begun. I dont know what sort of set I expected to hear, but it was just one surprise after another. The band were a little ragged on this first night, but nobody in the audience cared. Every song was rapturously received. After the end I wandered out a bit dazed.

The recording didn't turn out as well as others I'd made with the same recorder and mic. It may have been the sheer volume or my position in the front row but it sometimes seems as if the tape itself is saturating. Or possibly the auto gain control couldn't cope. Whatever the cause, it's still a pretty accurate representation of how it sounded to my ears at the time (and very different I think from the "clean" sound of the soundboard recording of the following evening's show). The audience are very apparent between songs, and occasionaly during them. I had to flip the tape over during "I Heard Her Call My Name". Apart from balancing the channels and normalising, I've left it just as it came off the cassettes.

distribute widely but do not sell!

sorry - no artwork
(scans of my tickets included)