Roy Orbison
Allen Park Auditorium
Allen, MI
November 13, 1976
SF Master Tapes Volume Nine via JEMS

(Likely) Recording Gear: Sony TC-110 and Unknown Microphone

JEMS Transfer: Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX10 Advanced and Ozone 9 > FLAC

01 Introduction
02 Only The Lonely
03 Crying
04 Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)
05 In Dreams
06 Mean Woman Blues
07 Leah
08 Lana
09 Blue Bayou
10 Candy Man
11 Blue Angel
12 Land Of A Thousand Dances
13 Falling
14 Ooby Dooby
15 Running Scared
16 Working For The Man
17 It's Over
18 Oh, Pretty Woman

Know Faults: most of "It's Over" cut

Welcome to The SF Tapes, a series of master recordings made by a friend of longtime JEMS pal ML.

SF hailed from Canada, and after his passing in 2022, ML rescued his tapes from near destruction � salvaged after sitting neglected in a garage for a couple of years. We can�t thank ML enough for recovering SF�s recordings and bringing them to the JEMS Archive for evaluation, conservation and transfer.

And what a haul it is. SF made hundreds of recordings in clubs, concert halls, festivals, and arenas � not just around Toronto, but also in Western New York (Buffalo, Rochester), Montreal, Ottawa, and beyond. From Howlin� Wolf and Lyle Lovett to Weather Report and Suicide, he captured an impressive breadth of artists and genres.

ML and SF first crossed paths in 1974 at Albert�s Hall, a club above the Brunswick Tavern in Toronto. �I thought, �There he is again � this guy�s been to all three nights!�� ML recalled. They bonded quickly over music, with SF recounting his adventures at early editions of both the Ann Arbor Blues Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival in the early �70s.

That friendship spanned decades and miles, as ML and SF followed The Who in 1979, 1980, and 1982; Springsteen in 1978, 1980, 1984, 1985, and 1988; and even made trips to Europe � first in 1985 to see John Cale and Pete Townshend�s Deep End, and again in 2019 to catch Cale in Paris. (ML notes that Cale played three straight nights � each with a unique setlist.)

Like JEMS patriarchs Jared and Stan, ML and SF were kindred spirits. SF began recording in 1973 (ML in �71), starting with a Sony TC-110 before upgrading to a series of Sony D6 Professional Walkman recorders and the ever-reliable Aiwa CM-30 microphone.

Their concert nights didn�t always end when the headliners left the stage. Sometimes they�d catch a show at Massey Hall or Maple Leaf Gardens early in the evening, then head to a jazz or blues club for a final set � hence, some of SF�s club recordings are incomplete, having been caught mid-show or near the end.

As the �80s wore on, SF got married and became a family man. He still made it to the occasional show with ML, often letting him handle the taping.

SF had a bit of a mad professor air about him � his newspaper collecting was legendary, and he wasn�t always meticulous about labeling his clippings or his tapes. Recordings could be scattered: unlabeled ones, a part one here, a part two there, or missing entirely. ML often stepped in to label, organize, and preserve what he could.

We�re incredibly glad he did. His generosity of spirit � like that of his great friend Jared � brings us this remarkable SF series.

Rob Orbison, Allen Park Auditorium, Allen, MI, November 13, 1976

The SF Tapes reach back 50 years to 1976 and a performance from the icon Roy Orbison. Though he would release a new album the same year, no songs from Regeneration feature in this greatest hits-leaning setlist, which is representative of what Orbison did on the so-called Oldies Circuit at the time.

SF crossed the border for this gig at the Allen Auditorium, a 3000 seater in the Detroit suburbs. While a bit distant, his tape is listenable and offers a historical snapshot of Orbison running through (it is a fast-paced set) all the songs anyone would want to hear. Samples provided.

Curiously, this is the second Orbison recording from 1976 presented by JEMS, the other being from Hamilton, ON, September 25, 1976 which features an identical setlist.

The charm of the SF series is the wide range of artists he recorded, from Roy Orbison to Bauhaus. We say R.I.P. and express our gratitude to SF for taping these concerts in the first place and special thanks to ML for making this collection available to JEMS for preservation and distribution. Slipkid68 has been on point coordinating the series. He also handled some tape transfers and wrote the introduction to the series above. We'd also like to shoutout Professor Goody for weighing in on tape pitch and to mjk5510 for post production.

BK for JEMS