Steve Winwood - Cleveland, Ohio 1987.

This is Steve Winwood during his first 'High Life' solo American tour. The concert was recorded by Westwood One (for the Superstars series) and has circulated as a bootleg, both as a double vinyl album and silver disc CD.

It is also sometimes available in slightly more legitimate forms as a Westwood One radio disc through dealers of radio shows who advertise in collector's magazines.

This is the most complete version of the concert I have been able to obtain and runs as a 45 minute single track. Although it has been circulated as recorded in 1986 it is in fact from a concert at the Blossom Music Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1987. Audio quality is extremely good.

Source: FM Broadcast

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@320kbps.

Genre: Rock, blues rock.

Set: Broadcast element of concert.

Set List:

1. Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys-Glad
2. Freedom Rider
3. While You See A Chance
4. Valerie
5. Band Intros-I’m A Man
6. Higher Love
7. Gimme Some Lovin'

Links: Official site HERE.

Comments:

Constant artistic differences and personnel changes led to Traffic's final break-up and Steve Winwood's release of his self-titled first solo album in 1977. This was followed by his 1980 hit Arc Of A Diver and Talking Back to the Night in 1982. Both albums were recorded at his home in Gloucestershire with Steve Winwood playing all instruments.

Steve Winwoods first solo tour in the US had Low Spark as the opening number with him playing alone on the piano, before he counted the rest of his band in, for a stomping version of Glad.

Download link in comment below or click on the picture.

2010FM - January Magazine Two

Parisian band Caravan Palace made their live debut in the United States on January 10th with a performance at globalFEST 2010. Although I failed to mention this prior to the event I did want to bring this intriguing band to your attention. I like to discover different and maybe quirky musical styles and there is something about this act that I really enjoy. Another act to keep an eye (and ears) out for this year...

Comprised of Charles Delaporte (bass, programming), Arnaud Vial (guitar, programming), Hugues Payen (violin, programming), Colotis Zoé (vocals), Toustou (electronics, trombone), and Chapi (clarinet), Caravan Palace is chiefly influenced by Django Reinhardt but also cites Vitalic, Cab Calloway, Justice, Lionel Hampton and Daft Punk as influences. They made their debut on the French independent label Wagram Music and promoted the release with the single "Jolie Coquine.” After a year of intense touring of clubs, theatres and festivals in support of it they reached as high as Number 11 on the French albums chart and are now the 4th best selling artist of 2009 in the country.

Listen:
'Jolie Coquine'



Website: MySpace
Buy MP3:Caravan Palace

I new little about Beast until I received a press release informing me that 'In the recent announcement for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards, acclaimed Montreal group Beast was recognized for their first-ever Grammy nomination in the category of Best Short Form Video for “Mr. Hurricane”. The band is in good company with industry heavyweights Coldplay, The Black Eyed Peas and Depeche Mode populating the category. The video was directed by Ben Steiger Levine and produced by Sacha Baylin-Stern at Nu Films; “Mr. Hurricane” appears on the band’s self-titled debut, released on Verve Forecast earlier this year'.

Having listened to album I have to say they have ticked the vitally important 'refreshingly different' box, and clearly I am 'doing different' at the moment. Hailing from Montreal via France, Beast’s music has been described as Portishead meets Rage Against The Machine with elements of rock, trip-hop and jazz thrown in for good measure. Their self-titled debut has won over the critics and fans alike, with The Globe & Mail calling the album “One of the best albums of the year” and The Toronto Star referring to it as “One of the most strikingly original and swaggeringly bad-ass Canadian albums to rear its head in recent memory”. Hey don't say Beehive Candy doesn't do attitude sometimes!

Listen:
'Finger Prints'



Website: MySpace.
Buy MP3: Beast

OK it's my warped English sense of humour but the promo that introduced Standing Shadow to me has to be read in the a deep growling movie promotion voice over style, see if you get what I mean or should I up my medication?

From the streets of Los Angeles comes the powerful, energetic, and driving sounds of Standing Shadows, and with the release of the EP, High Rise on January 5th the combination of longtime friends David Miltenberger (lead vocals, guitar) and Dan Silver (lead guitar, vocals) have hit the sonic jackpot.

Having already earned placements in television shows such as the new 90210, The Cleaner, and The Shield, among others, Standing Shadows is taking your television screen by storm. The band is also featured in the in-game trailers of Guitar Hero 5, backing the interviews with Matt Bellamy (Muse) and Shirley Manson (Garbage).

Over five years in the making, Standing Shadows is the product of the long distance collaboration of Miltenberger and Silver. The group could be defined as electro-obscura-shoegazer-rock, while conjuring audio reminders of groups like Silversun Pickups and My Bloody Valentine. The EP is a precursor to the band’s full-length album, “Five Years of Darkness,” set to be released on March 9th.

Anyhow excusing my strange imagination for a moment the good news is that this band sound just great, and I will add them to my January list of bands to watch out for in 2010.

Listen:
'High Rise'



Website: MySpace.
Buy MP3: itunes or Amazon UK Standing Shadows

That's all for the moment, Beehive Candy have received quite a few demos and intros in recent times, we are trying to work our way through them and we will mention any material that captures our imagination or ticks some of those 'virtual' boxes, so please bear with us...

Boomtown Rats - North London 1978

This is the Boomtown Rats live in concert at the Middlesex Polytechnic in Hendon, North London, back on the 16th September 1978.

This recorded version has been circulated as 'Dont Believe What You Hear' and is reckoned to be the best audio quality boot of the show, however it unfortunelty misses the last song of the gig (Do The Rat).

BBC TV recorded the concert, and from distant memory I think it was shown 'live', I remember watching it, and from Bob Geldof's comments it would appear to be the case. The sheer energy and the incredibily professional performance from a 'band of the time' bring back great memories.

Source: BBC TV Broadcast (audio).

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@320kbps.

Genre: Rock, pop, New Wave.

Set: Broadcast element of concert.

Set List:

1. Mary Of The 4th Form
2. Me & Howard Hughes
3. I Never Loved Eva Braun
4. Don't Believe What You Read
5. Rat Trap
6. Kicks
7. Joey's On The Street Again
8. Living On A Island
9. She's Gonna Do You In
10. Like Clockwork
11. She's So Modern
12. Looking After No. 1

Length: 00:49:45.

Links: Official site HERE.

Comments:

All six members were originally from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. Formed under the name "The Nightlife Thugs," the group agreed on the name change to the "Boomtown Rats" after a gang that Bob Geldof read about in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory. They became a notable band, but one whose accomplishments were in part overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof, a former journalist with the NME magazine.

The group moved to London in October 1976, and became associated with the punk rock movement. Signing a recording contract with Ensign Records, they released their debut single, "Looking After No.1", in August 1977. It was the first of nine straight singles to make the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album, The Boomtown Rats, was released in September 1977, on Ensign in the UK and on Mercury Records in the United States, and featured another single, "Mary of the 4th Form". As music journalist, Martin C. Strong noted, "Bob Geldof's moody charisma helped to give the band a distinct identity".

The Rats' second album, A Tonic for the Troops, appeared in June 1978 in the UK. It featured three hit singles, "Like Clockwork", "She's So Modern" and "Rat Trap". A Tonic for the Troops was released in the U.S. on Columbia in February 1979, with two tracks from The Boomtown Rats substituted for tracks on the UK version. Mutt Lange produced "Rat Trap", which became the first rock song by an Irish band to reach Number 1 in the UK, and the first of any description by an Irish band to top the official chart used by the BBC. (The Bachelors had topped the Record Retailer chart in 1964 with "Diane", but only reached Number 2 on the UK Singles Chart). In addition, "Rat Trap" was also the first new wave song to claim the number one spot.

Download link in comment below or click on the picture.

Genesis - A Trick Of The Outtakes 1975

This set of Genesis outtakes have been given some very real care and attention by the 'Progressive Rock Remasters Project', and rather than duplicate effort I have taken the release notes to provide the background details.

On a personal note I have always felt that the era after Peter Gabriel left the band was as creative and inspiring with the albums from 'A trick Of The Tail' through to 'Duke' remaining firm favorites of mine, although if I was pushed for my all time favorites I guess 'Foxtrot' and 'Selling England By The Pound' would be two of the 'top three' along with the album these outtakes are associated with.

From the release notes: The Sheffield brothers built Trident studios at No. 17 St. Anne’s Ct. Soho in 1967. This studio was the recording site for many rock albums of the 1960’s and 70’s
including David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and many tracks from the Beatle’s White Album.
The Genesis sessions captured on this CD were recorded there in October of 1975 and
then remastered to enhance the listening experience.

The CD begins with Beloved Summer which was the working title for the B-side
release called It’s Yourself. It is one of the few songs on the CD that includes vocals.
This is followed by an instrumental version of the song Ripples. Mike Rutherford can be
heard counting the tempo at the beginning. A second version of the song follows.
Robbery, Assault and Battery is next and is also in the instrumental mode. Just before
the next song, Los Endos, Phil Collin’s can be heard counting the tempo. This song is
separated into two tracks detailing different segments of the song. Mad Man Moon is
then presented with piano, drums and some bass. It is, again, an instrumental version
and suffers from poor recording but is still quite impressive. Trick of the Tail
is then offered with vocals in a version very similar to the official release.

Two versions of Entangled follow, again devoid of vocals. The accentuation of the
guitars is particularly impressive during the first take while the second take is
more involved and includes alternatives to the studio mix. Dance on a Volcano is
the next track followed by Squonk. Both are presented without vocals and provide
an interesting opportunity to really study the instrumentation of these songs.

Source: Studio tapes.

Sound Quality: Good stereo mp3@128kbps.

Genre: Progressive Rock.

Recording: Outtakes.

Track List:

1. Beloved Summer (It's Yourself) 5:40
2. Ripples (part 1) 4:40
3. Ripples (part 2) 4:11
4. Robbery, Assault & Battery 6:25
5. Los Endos 3:06
6. Los Endos 2:47
7. Mad Man Moon 4:14
8. A Trick Of The Tail 4:35
9. Entangled (inst. 1) 4:36
10. Entangled (inst. 2) 6:33
11. Dance On A Volcano 6:05
12. Squonk 6:54

Recorded at Trident Studios, England October, 1975.

Tony Banks - Keyboards, 12 String Guitar
Phil Collins - Vocals, Drums, Percussion
Steve Hackett - Electric Guitar
Mike Rutherford - Bass, 12 String Guitar

Links: Official site HERE.

Comments:

Remastering Notes: Most of the recording suffers from a great deal of Hiss. This was removed from
each track separately.

Bass levels were found to be excessively high on many tracks leading to a muddy sound quality. Bass was cut and both treble and mid range frequency ranges were then raised to bring out the detail within the recording.

Many of the peaks within the songs were clipped and required software restoration. The whole recording was then normalized to a consistent volume level.

Download link in comment below.

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hammersmith Odeon, 1979.

Much has been said and written about Ian Dury and come to that, about his band The Blockheads. Indeed Ian Dury and The Blockheads live in concert were one cohesive unit that took the recorded material and rather than just replicate the songs seemed to breathe additional life and dimensions into everything.

Ian Dury had a stage presence that was affected in part by his disability caused by polio as a youngster, but more because of his humour, artistic capabilities, and connection with the audience. The Blockheads added with skilled musicianship that seemed to be effortlessly delivered and yet so powerful and uplifting. OK it is obvious I was a fan of Mr Dury and have great respect for the Blockheads, not only because of what I have mentioned so far, but as an aside in an earlier form as The Loving Awareness Band, the Blockheads had very strong links with Radio Caroline.

This is probably one of the most circulated bootlegs of the band and a fine reminder of just how good they were in concert. This then is Ian Dury and The Blockheads live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London back on the 8th August 1989.

Source: FM Broadcast

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@160kbps.

Genre: Rock and roll, punk rock, new wave.

Set: Broadcast element of concert.

Set List:

01 Clever Trevor
02 Inbetweenies
03 Don't Ask Me
04 Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3
05 Sink My Boats
06 Waiting For Your Taxi
07 This Is What We Find
08 Mischief
09 What A Waste!
10 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
11 Sweet Gene Vincent

Links: Official site HERE.

Comments:

From Ian Dury's official web biography regarding the time around this concert: In October 1977, Ian Dury signed up for the Stiff Live Stiffs Tour, alongside Elvis Costello And The Attractions, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis. Dury's new combo, now augmented by guitarist John Turnbull and pianist Mickey Gallagher, was christened Ian Dury And The Blockheads and the group became the surprise hit of the tour.

To capitalise on this, Stiff Records launched a concerted Ian Dury marketing campaign, resulting in the Top Ten hit WHAT A WASTE. NEW BOOTS AND PANTIES continued to sell in greater quantities and in November of that year, Dury released the memorable HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK, a UK Number One. Dury was now a bona fide pop star and, with The Blockheads, toured to great acclaim, conquering a number of European territories.

Whilst NEW BOOTS AND PANTIES headed towards its remarkable 90 week chart run, the group commenced work on the follow up, to be entitled DO IT YOURSELF. Another Top Ten single, REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, kept Dury in the public eye during this arduous period of recording. The album was eventually released in June 1979 in a Barney Bubbles-designed sleeve of which there were over a dozen variations, all based on samples from the Crown wallpaper catalogue.

Reloaded August 2015 see comments.