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Chicago 1979 Soundboard 8.8 - A little bit on the “ragged” side mix-wise, with strong kick drums and guitar, vocals next. Sound quality is decent due to it being a soundboard but some instruments are placed well behind such as keyboards. It is a high energy sound, a real sonic blast to be sure. Denver 1979 Soundboard 9.3 - A refreshing and bright board tape, mixed well and everything is heard pretty clearly. Keyboards still mixed lower down the chain of command but now I think I understand this idea – while the band is playing it’s simply keyboard accompaniment, and when it’s keyboards time, he’s brought up louder. Works for me. Long Island 1979 Audience 8.7 - A pretty decent tape for this hall, the bass sounds very nice, full and round, guitars are a little back, vocals are present and up front more or less. So, all in all unless you have to have Ritchie blasting full on into your eardrums, which he is during his solo bits, this one will sit nicely in the collection and I even think it will find a repeated listen or two. Rainbow USA 1979 Disc 1 International Amphitheatre Chicago, Illinois 12th October 1979 1. -Introduction 2. -Eyes Of The World 3. -Love's No Friend 4. -Bach Brandenburg Concerto - Over The Rainbow 5. -All Night Long 6. -Keyboards Intro 7. -Lost In Hollywood 8. -Guitar Solo 9. -Beethoven 9th 10. -Keyboards Solo 11. -Drums Solo incl. 1812 Overture 12. -Long Live Rock 'N' Roll 13. -Kill The King incl. Guitar Crash 14. -Long Live Rock 'N' Roll (reprise) Disc 2 Rainbow Music Hall Denver, Colorado 16th November 1979 1. -Introduction 2. -Eyes Of The World 3. -Love's No Friend 4. -Since You Been Gone 5. -Guitar Solo - Brandenburg Concerto - Over The Rainbow 6. -All Night Long 7. -Keyboards Intro 8. -Lost In Hollywood 9. -Beethoven's 9th 10. -Keyboards Solo 11. -Drums Solo incl. 1812 Overture 12. -Lost In Hollywood (reprise) 13. -Guitar Solo 14. -Man On The Silver Mountain 15. -Blues 16. Long Live Rock 'N' Roll 17. -Over The Rainbow Disc 3 Hempstead Calderone Concert Hall Long Island, New York 30th November 1979 1. Introduction 2. -Eyes Of The World 3. -Love's No Friend 4. -Since You Been Gone 5. -Guitar Solo - Brandenburg Concerto - Over The Rainbow 6. -All Night Long incl. Happy Birthday Roger 7. -Keyboards Intro 8. -Lost In Hollywood 9. -Guitar Solo - Beethoven 9th 10. -Keyboards Solo 11. -Drums Solo incl. 1812 Overture 12. -Lost In Hollywood (reprise) 13. -Guitar Solo 14. Lazy 15. -Man On The Silver Mountain 16. -Blues 17. -Long Live Rock 'N' Roll 18. -Over The Rainbow Ritchie Blackmore - Guitar Graham Bonnet - Vocals Cozy Powell - Drums Roger Glover - Bass Don Airey - Keyboards -
Soundboard 9.5 - A lively board tape that suggests the band was thinking of a live release. This is not a reference mix to my ears. Rainbow 1983-09-14 St. David's Hall Cardiff, UK Disc 1 101 Over The Rainbow 102 Spotlight Kid 103 Miss Mistreated 104 Fool For The Night 105 I Surrender 106 Can't Happen Here 107 Difficult To Cure 108 Bass Solo 109 Keyboard Solo 110 Difficult To Cure (Reprise) 111 Guitar Solo 112 Drum Solo Disc 2 201 Death Alley Driver 202 Catch The Rainbow 203 Lazy Intro 204 Drinking With The Devil 205 Power 206 Blues 207 Stargazer 208 Stranded 209 All Night Long 210 Maybe Next Time 211 Since You've Been Gone 212 Woman From Tokyo - Smoke On The Water Intro 213 Long Live Rock 'N' Roll - Hey Joe -
Audience 7.7 and 7.5 - The Gaelic Park show is an outdoor show and the band struggles at times to tune up but it is the better of the two in terms of clarity and sonics, with maybe just a bit of extra treble boost present which puts guitar into the forefront. The Academy of Music gig is not as present and bright but it is perhaps more even, with a broader spectrum of instruments in the mix although guitar is now downplayed. I would say both recordings deliver different characteristics which help the listener get a better sense of the rare live Ramatam experience -
Audience 7.4 - Missing some dynamics but clear and strong. Maybe not from a master source, but it's not as if there are bunches of Rare Birds out there! -
Hard blues rock band formed in 1975 in Houston, TX. Featured vocalist BB. Watson who left Houston to pursue a career in Nashville as a C&W singer. He had some fleeting success, eventually came back to Houston and worked with Michael Knust (Fever Tree) and Keith York (Albatross, Rare Breed) for a stint and also attempted to reunite the Rare Breed (those sessions contained on this CD). Rare Breed also featured the guitar of Robert Hampton before he joined Hooker. These are all the known recordings. -
Ratt Monsters Of Rock, Pforzheim, Germany 1987.08.30 Tracklist: 01. -Lay It Down 02. -You're In Love 03. -Wanted Man 04. -Sweet Cheater 05. -You Should Know By Now 06. -The Morning After 07. -Dance 08. -Drive Me Crazy 09. -Slip Of The Lip 10. -Walking The Dog 11. -Round and Round 12. -Body Talk Stephen Pearcy - Vocals Robbin Crosby - Guitar (RIP) Juan Croucier - Bass Warren DeMartini - Guitar Bobby Blotzer - DrumsSoundboard 9.3 - A great recording of a great hair metal band (I mean, they could play!) in their prime. I used to brush it off when I was a young man, but now I appreciate great musicians not matter how they dress or act. Good is good. -
MOR 1985 Audience 8.6 - A strong recording that gets off to a funky start (at one point a mic jack unplugs and one channel drops but it lasts only a minute). I prefer this to a dry soundboard to be honest. It’s not a perfect audience recording but it sure does deliver on energy and atmosphere! I like it. Tokyo 1987 Audience 8.7 - Nice atmosphere on this tape, and the audio comes through especially vocals and bass actually has a nice round sound to it. Guitars are not super distinct, but thankfully the solos are really soaring above and captured pretty well. I like the snare drum here, whoever was mixing this show really must have had a hard-on for the drummer ha ha! Ratt Monsters of Rock 1985 Donington Park Castle Donington Derbyshire, England August 17, 1985 1. -U Got It 2. -Wanted Man 3. -You Think You're Tough 4. -You're In Love 5. -Lay It Down 6. -The Morning After - Never Use Love 7. -Round And Round 8. -Sweet Cheater Nippon Budokan Tokyo, Japan 1987-05-14 9. -Intro 10. -Looking For Love 11. -One Good Lover 12. -Wanted Man 13. -Back For More 14. -The morning After 15. -Dangerous but Worth the Risk 16. -Lack of Communication Disc 2 1. -7th Avenue 2. -Lay It Down 3. -You Should Know by Now 4. -Guitar Solo 5. -You're In Love 6. -You Think You're Tough 7. -Drive Me Crazy 8. -Slip Of The Lip 9. -Walkin' The Dog 10. -Round & Round 11. -Body Talk 12. -Dance -
Brand New - Soundboard -Ratt Live at Monsters Of Rock, Pforzheim, Germany, on 30th August '87. A Must for any Ratt fan! This band has no other official live album from their "hey day". -
Brand New - Sealed -
Audience 7.6 - Don't confuse this with anything they committed to vinyl back in the day. Not what I would call restrained Italian progressive music here - more like power prog pre-metal heavy riff bashing Italian flavored rock! Killer killer killer. While it is an aud with limited dynamic range due to tape limitations, certainly the power and glory comes across well enough. What a revelation for me to hear this band live. I certainly have a new appreciation for them! Hells yeah! -
Audience 7.3 - While not quite as good as the Messina show, this still presents a powerful representation of the live Il Rovescio Della Medaglia. A little of the distinction and separation of instruments not coming through as well but I found plenty to appreciate on this one as well as the other -
Audience 8.5 - Good levels, not the best separation of instruments but it is very live and active, really kind of sounds accurate to what you may have heard if you were sitting center about 20 rows back. -
Audience 7.5 -
Soundboard 9.2 and Audience 9.0 -
FM Broadcast 9.6 - This recording is beautiful, but not without a fair share of hiccups, and I don’t mean in the recording itself, but in the happenings on stage. This was a large and complex production (featuring an orchestra) and there were bound to be some technical problems. Now, if you can appreciate that, and you understand shit happens, then I highly encourage you to dive into this one because when it is good, it is extremely powerful and intoxicating. I will say that even though sometimes the equipment fails (bad mic cable, etc.), it just reinforces the appreciation for the efforts that go into a live stage production and broadcast. Renaissance Academy of Music, NYC 1974.05.17 Disc 1 01. -WNEW-FM intro 02. -intro music 03. -Can You Understand 04. -Black Flame 05. -Carpet of the Sun 06. -Cold Is Being 07. -Things I Don't Understand 08. -Intro To Running Hard Disc 2 09. -Running Hard 10. -Ashes Are Burning 11. -Mother Russia 12. -Prologue -
Various sources ranging from 9.0 to 9.7 - High quality live and studio.