Shadows Live at the BBC????

[MikeAB]

The 2 studio tracks are obviously so in about 2 seconds flat. The original live versions 'escaped' a while back didn't they? As did most of the others here. Cleaned up they sound better than I was expecting on the whole. I still yearn for a CD and preferably a DVD that captured them at their absolute best live - too late now unfortunately.

[JimN]

My copy delivered just now, precisely at the time predicted by Amazon's tracking app.

One thing which surprises is that The Shadows would have played a live version of Shindig on radio as late as May 1966, I'd always regarded that title as firmly in the category: "Play as a promo while it's the latest single, then forget it".

The sound quality and sound mix are excellent so far (I'm up to track 3).

[JimN]

Re: Jungle Jam and Turn Around And Touch Me...

I have a copy of the original BBC session tape (in stereo) on a DAT. I'll listen to those two tracks a bit later and check whether they were the EMI recordings all along.

{Fast Forward]

No - the "John Peel sessions" of late 1973 and/or early 1974 definitely featured live in the studio versions of both of the above tracks.

[drakula63]

Re: Jungle Jam and Turn Around And Touch Me...

I have a copy of the original BBC session tape (in stereo) on a DAT. I'll listen to those two tracks a bit later and check whether they were the EMI recordings all along.

{Fast Forward]

No - the "John Peel sessions" of late 1973 and/or early 1974 definitely featured live in the studio versions of both of the above tracks.

Yeah, I've got a couple of recordings of the Sounds on Sunday programme as it was broadcast and the versions of JJ and TAATM (as with all the tracks) are significantly different to the originals. JJ is quite a bit shorter too.

[Fenderman]

I'm off work today with a heavy cold and it's supposed to arrive but so far, nothing. Says it's 'Out for delivery'.

[alewis41]

I am confident that Turn Around And Touch Me is the same recording as the commercial release. I put the two tracks parallel in a multi-track mixer. The wave forms look the same, and I got the "phasing" effect that only happens when two identical sound sources are played exactly together.

The same is true of Jungle Jam.

Well after a twenty year wait I have to say this is very disappointing. I can't see why it would be done deliberately. If the session tracks are not of sufficient quality then just don't include them. If this is indeed an error then it needs to be corrected.

Andrew

[Arpeggio]

It does indeed seem absolutely, totally and utterly ludicrous to have issued the EMI studio versions of these tracks on a compilation of BBC recordings!!! The easiest comparison is the duration of the tracks. The Shadows did indeed record mighty fine versions of both "J Jam" and "T A A T Me" for the BBC. Allowing for minor 'lead in' / 'lead out' times (& slight differences with CD players)....on my own eqpt the timings are as follows: "T A A T Me" (EMI) - 2'54" (BBC) 2'41" "J Jam"(EMI) - 4'35" (BBC) 3'17" The BBC versions are great (& unique)...they should be issued / restored as soon as possible. I have not heard the new CD as yet.....but I have no doubt that Iain Purdon (& many of our other experts) would not be mistaken about these two tracks.

[drakula63]

There's absolutely no doubt about it. As soon as I heard Jungle Jam begin I thought, "Hello..." I must have heard that tune ten thousand times in 40 years and there was no doubting it. The mix sounded slightly different, but never the less. Jim N. says above that he has '...a copy of the original BBC session tape on DAT' which makes me think that there's one source if they needed a decent quality copy!

I'd be surprised if the Shads themselves would be unhappy with the recordings - they must have been happy enough with them at the time to let them go out - and even if they were unhappy, could they really do anything about it as they do not own the recordings. They sound fine to me - albeit very much of their time - indeed I'd say that 'Wonderful Land '73' sounds worse. It's all a mystery which may never be solved. Having said that, I have emailed Warner Music asking them if they can explain and I have at least one other avenue which will be explored (by someone else) next week. My theory - that it was a cock up - is what I'm sticking with.

As I am pretty certain that the Transcription discs of these tracks (and the ones I mentioned in the lengthy post earlier this evening) still exist (copies definitely exist) then I do think that there is at least a 50/50 chance of a Volume 2. But let's hope that we don't have to wait another 20 years for it!

[johnc]

Anyway the point IS, I hope they sound better than they did on "SATURDAY CLUB" all those year's ago,because the LIVE recordings they did on SATURDAY CLUB
sounded bloody awful. Like this example in the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_pWOWRTJOw

regards

Stephano

Do you think it sounds awful or is it badly performed or both?

Anyway the point IS, I hope they sound better than they did on "SATURDAY CLUB" all those year's ago,because the LIVE recordings they did on SATURDAY CLUB
sounded bloody awful. Like this example in the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_pWOWRTJOw

regards

Stephano

Do you think it sounds awful or is it badly performed or both?

That fact that Bruce is playing electric rhythm guitar, instead of Gibson acoustic, probably doesn't help. The all-electric instrumentation tends to make it sound pretty thin and tinny.

The radio session recording of Man of Mystery, also from 1960, features Bruce on acoustic which, to my ears, makes all the difference...



Bill

As Bruce himself said, he wasn't happy with his sound at that time, he said his electric guitar sounded muffled like an underground train passing below! The rhythm guitar sound improved when he borrowed Cliff's Gibson J200..

[Fenderman]

I've just put in on - so far sound quality is spot on - not reached the John Peel tracks yet though!
Here's hoping for a volume 2 in the near future.