• Soundboard 9.4 - Crisp, with incredible detail on drums, A very tight punchy sound that is quite exhilarating. Wonderful!
  • Audience 8.9 - A sort of mid-rangey tape without any kind of high end to speak of but because it is clean and warm, it is perfect to season to taste. It’s a recording that begs for personalization, because it is actually quite good, and could benefit from just minor EQ here and there. I like this one!
  • BBC Sessions...As expected, excellent pro sound!
  • Audience 9.0 and Audience 8.6 - The Fillmore West show is a revelation. This has been floating around mislabeled as Winterland 69, and in horrible quality. This is the actual venue, and comes from the original master and sounds incredible! The Boston show is also real nice sounding, with an immediate sound, with some minor tape artifacts present. A great two-fer here, vintage ’69. Free never sounded so good!
  • Audience 9.0 - Rated very high for the excellent mid range punch where the guitar tone is magical.
  • Audience 8.6 - A very clear, surprisingly so, open air recording made with what sounds like really decent gear. Every now and then the volume fluctuates but it sounds to me like they are fiddling with the levels, it usually gets back up to proper levels after a second or two and it’s not on every song.
  • Audience 8.3 - This is your standard “decent” sounding 70’s audience tape. It does not offer a wide dynamic range, although it is pretty clear and you hear every instrument and vocals above all of it  in good clarity (important when it comes to Free where vocals are a huge component). Nothing about this tape offends the ears sonically speaking. It could be argued by this time Free was sounding maybe a little tired, but that is subjective. FREE New York May 6, 1972 Live In New York '72 1. Be My Friend 2. Travellin' Man 3. Hold On 4. Little Bit Of Love 5. Heavy Load 6. Mr. Big - false start 7. Mr. Big 8. All Right Now 9. Crossroads 10. The Hunter 11. Fire And Water Paul Rodgers - vocals Paul Kossoff - guitar Andy Fraser - bass Simon Kirke - drums
  • Audience 8.4 - This is a great remaster here, this is a full point and a half better than you’ve heard before.
  • Audience 9.1 - I am always surprised when I hear such good recordings from this time period and then I remember that mics and P.A.’s and acoustics were all relative to the capture in that if the combinations were good, the result would also be good. This recording presents excellent separation of instruments with great live sound mix of the instruments, so much so that Free convinces you they could have soldiered on as a stadium act rather than dismantle and reform as Bad Company. Either way, I’ll enjoy what we have left of this venerable band in the form of live tapes like this. FREE Santa Monica Civic Center Santa Monica January 22nd 1971 Disc 1 1 -Intro - Tune up 2 -Be My Friend 3 -The Stealer 4 -Woman 5 -Ride On Pony 6 -Don't Say You Love Me 7 -All Right Now 8 -Fire And Water Disc 2 9 -Heavy Load 10 -The Highway Song 11 -KUSC DJ Elliot Mass - My Brother Jake 12 -Soon I'll Be Gone 13 -I'm A Mover 14 -Mr. Big with bass solo 15 -The Hunter 16 -Rock Me Baby THE BAND Paul Rodgers  lead vocals keyboards Paul Kossoff  guitar Andy Fraser   bass Simon Kirke   drums  
  • CD 1 - FM Radio Broadcast 8.8 - A bit of tape hiss is present but this is a great great show! Lovely performance and decent sound. CD 2 - Audience 7.9 - A tape that went from a dismal 7.2 rating to a very decent 7.9 thanks to some painstaking mastering and restoration work. It was unbelievably hissy but that was mostly removed without sacrificing anything. Comparison was made and the results speak for themselves.
  • Bracknell - Audience 8.8 - A touch of tape saturation but it’s so clear and loud and energetic you won’t hardly notice. Excellent! ~ Coatham - Audience 8.7 ~ Tampa - Soundboard 8.9
  • Audience 8.6 - A great job by taper to get center mic placement and not too distant from the stage. Good presence, good atmosphere, good tight show.
  • Audience 7.8 and Audience 6.9 - The second gig is for historical reference as the sound is not great.

Title

Go to Top