Monday, January 20, 2020

Joe Jackson Band- Early Live concert 1978: Day 12



Sometimes some shows are too good to pass up to post on the blog. A live recording from an early Joe Jackson was upped on Dime last month and though I have many JJ live recordings with better sound quality, the historical significance intrigued me. This is the fourth ever gig by the Joe Jackson Band taped in their hometown of Portsmouth about a month after their the first ever show (also in Portsmouth). They had just completed recording sessions for the debut album, Look Sharp! which wasn't released until January 1979 and the debut single, Is She Really Going Out With Him? didn't release until October. This means the audience of the early shows wouldn't have had any prior knowledge of the material Joe Jackson and band performed until much later and Look Sharp! would go on to become one of the great debut albums of the 70's. Personally, Look Sharp! and the follow-up album, I'm The Man were records that changed my (music) life because at the time I was still mainly listening to the Beatles, Elton John, the Stones and other mainstream rock radio. It wasn't really punk, nor was it slick FM MOR mush, instead it was the beginning of "new wave" that could include piano and keyboards without sounding Prog or Electronic. It was cool with the thin ties, wrap around sunglasses, short hair, the skinny pants that helped to form the look and sound of new wave. This led to discovering similar sounding music such as Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, XTC, Squeeze, Talking Heads and many others.

I had the privilege of seeing the original Joe Jackson Band during their Volume 4/reunion tour in early 2003 and was very impressed how tight and great they sounded. I haven't been able to get into much of the other musical styles he has pursued during his long musical career, but I respect he can explore and move forward musically, but stay humble and still perform his older material. With this early concert in Portsmouth in 1978, the songs sound fresh, but don't sound too different than on the debut album. He has already shaped his sound and the quality of musicianship of the band members (Sanford, Maby and Houghton) are already evident. Though the sound quality isn't perfect, (this is an audience recording from the 70's) it is what it is and I feel fortunate this has seen the light of day, an important live recording from the Joe Jackson Band. A special thanks to Martin A. for sharing this gem with us fans, to the original taper Tony Fitzpatrick, and to Andreas for sound improvements.
Enjoy!

#13yearsoftrouble
Please respect the original poster and taper
Please do NOT sell or profit from the recording!
Do NOT convert to lossy formats
Please share!

Joe Jackson Band 
Rotary Club
Portsmouth/UK
1978-09-17

Basic Mono Cassette Recorder (ITT?) > digital transfer / CD-R (unknown) > Audacity 2.3.1 (some volume levelling, track cut, export as .wav 16bit/44.1kHz) > Trader's Little Helper 2.7.0

01. One More Time
02. Pretty Girls
03. Is She Really Going Out With Him?
04. Look Sharp!
05. Sunday Papers
06. Don't Ask Me
07. Fools In Love
08. Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries (cover version)
09. Happy Loving Couples
10. Throw It Away
11. Baby Stick Around
12. Got The Time
13. Ain't That A Shame (Fats Domino cover)

Joe Jackson Band:

Joe Jackson - vocals, piano, harmonica
Graham Maby - bass
Dave Houghton - drums
Gary Sanford - guitar

JOE JACKSON BAND- 1978-09-17 Portsmouth, Rotary Club FLAC. rar

Monday, January 06, 2020

The Rutles- Millstones, R.I.P. Neil Innes: Day 11



Happy New Year! It's 2020, but I still have some unfinished business from 2019. I'm still trying to complete the #13yearsoftrouble series, that celebrates the 13th year that this blog has been active (it's hard to believe), with a "day" for every year. Thanks for your patience!

This post is a tribute to Neil Innes, the multi-talented performer best known for being a member of the Rutles, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and his collaborations with Monty Python. Innes was a writer, comedian and musician until he passed away on December 29th, near Toulouse. His career spanned six decades beginning with the Bonzo's in the late sixties, up until playing shows with the Idiot Bastard Band in 2012. Personally, he was best known to me as Ron Nasty from the originally fictional band, The Rutles, created by Innes and Eric Idle from Monty Python. The hilarious mockumentary film, All You Need Is Cash (aka The Rutles) was my first exposure to the group which included a soundtrack album, a followup album and live performances. This remains the best Beatles-related parody, with the film documenting the rise and fall of the Rutles, not unlike the career of the Beatles. The concept is bang on and the songs that bare a slight familiarity to Beatles songs, hold up well with age and on their own. I urge you to seek out the film (it must be available to download or stream somewhere) and listen to The Rutles (soundtrack) album and the follow-up, Archaeology from 1996 for the full experience. It's brilliant! This film predates Spinal Tap's heavy metal mockumentary by six years!

The post below I downloaded from Dime and it includes these notes from the original poster:
This Rutles rehearsal tape was rescued from a terrible bootleg purchased a long while ago. It contained the music I’ve included here, but also included extended sections of pirated dialogue and music from the film, along with awful adits, clumsy fades and every other manner of amateur bootlegger nonsense.

Yet buried within this mess was some legendary garage recordings by the Pre-Fab Four, in rehearsal just prior to bringing their songs and trousers to the world.

In order to prevent these rare recordings from being released to the public,
McQuickly sued Nasty and O'Hara,
Wom sued McQuickly,
Nasty sued O'Hara and Wom,
and in all the confusion,
O'Hara accidentally sued himself.

So it is only by special arrangement with Parlourphone that I am finally able to bring these recordings to fans at dimeadozen, in really super-duper kinda good audiophilesque sound. 

Here then, is The Rutles’ “Millstones.”
"MILLSTONES" (Handstamp No. 201) 


I'm not sure if this is actually "rehearsals", but I'm guessing they are at least demos and outtakes. This is recorded in the studio, so the sound quality is excellent. Highly recommended!
Enjoy!!

Thanks to Fonzie for this recording.
And thank you zootype for the reseed, February 2019

Please respect the original poster-
Do NOT profit from this recording!
Do NOT sell!
Please do NOT trade in lossy format
Please do NOT convert to lossy, except for personal use
#13yearsoftrouble

THE RUTLES 
Millstones
(unreleased rehearsal tapes)

bootleg release:
“Rutles Rehearsal” (Goldtone #GT-013)
transferred, edited and 2010 seed by Fonzie:
"MILLSTONES" (Handstamp No. 201)  

source / lineage:
soundboard recordings>bootleg CD>wav>edited in Soundforge>
Flac>2010 seed


01. Baby Let Me Be 2:09
02. Blue Suede Schubert 2:20
03. Between Us 3:20
04. It’s Looking Good 1:57
05. Goose Step Mama 2:35
06. I Must Be In Love 2:18
07. We’ve Arrived 2:04
08. Now She’s Left You 1:46
09. Number One 2:42
10. Love Life 2:17
11. Good Times Roll 3:10
12. Doubleback Alley 3:13
13. Piggy In The Middle 2:48
14. Let’s Be Natural 2:26
15. Get Up And Go 3:29
16. Living In Hope 2:36
extra track:
The Grimms [Neil Innes - rehearsal tape]
17. Plenty Of Time [cuts out] 3:34

43.55 minutes

The Rutles:
Ron Nasty [Neil Innes] – guitar, vocals
Dirk McQuickly [Eric Idle] – bass, vocals
Stig O’Hara [David Battley] – guitar, sitar, vocals
Barry Wom [John Halsey] – drums, vocals

THE RUTLES- Millstone FLAC. rar