Fabulous Poodles - 1979-03-28 - Denver, CO

Fabulous Poodles
1979-03-28
Rainbow Music Hall, Denver, CO
FM Broadcast recording (Rob Bishop), very good quality
from his master cassette
mp3 @ 320 kbps
Custom artwork

And now, for all you Fabulous Poodles fans out there, here's another rare treat. This is an exclusive concert recording, only available here, and comes to us thanks to a friend of the blog that sent this in to me. My new friend Rob Bishop was at this concert back in 1979, then rushed home to catch (and record) the delayed broadcast of the show on the radio. The resultant tape, as heard here, although missing the first couple songs (he must not have made it home in time to catch the beginning) of the show (for this tour they usually started with 'Suicide Bridge', then 'Chicago Boxcar'), provides us with another glimpse of the Fabulous Poodles Live. Once again, they are full of shenanigans and hi-jinks between songs, but put down some great Rock 'n Roll, prominently featuring Bobby Valentino on various instruments. Some new additions to this set include a sly re-working of 'Twist Again' as 'The Wrist', and more of their playfulness in their request segment where they ask the audience what was the first record they ever bought, and then attempt to play it. This time, it results in a hilarious country version of The Sex Pistols 'Anarchy in the UK' and a quick turn at Hendrix with 'Purple Haze'. The rest of the set features their usual mix of great songs from their first 2 albums. The recording, although suffering from limited dynamic frequency range (not much at the very low or high end, probably due to the equipment used at the time), is otherwise very good, with a nice clear sound and mix from the FM broadcast. Overall, a fantastic find and wonderful addition to the so few available recordings of this fine band. BTW, I know that Fabulous Poodles recordings are very scarce, because after the last one I posted (2/13/79 My Father's Place here), I was contacted by the former Road Manager for the Fab Poodles themselves (Barry Bartlett), and he was delighted to get that recording (he didn't have any). He also then contacted former Poodles band members Tony DeMeur and Bobby Valentino, who also did not have this recording (and they also were very happy to get it). If the band themselves don't even have live recordings from their days as the Fabulous Poodles, these recordings must be pretty rare. Anyway, enjoy this. Thanks again to Rob Bishop for recording this and making it available here. And Barry, Tony, and Bobby, if you're still out there, this one's for you - Thanks for all the entertainment you provided back in those days as the Fabulous Poodles! Truly classic stuff.

Tracklist:
01. B Movies
02. Rum Baba Boogie
03. The Wrist
04. Work Shy
05. Tit Photographer Blues
06. Pinball Pinup
07. Mirror Star
08. Anarchy in the West
09. Purple Haze
10. Mr. Mike
11. Bike Blood
12. (encore) Toy Town People

New Link! (Updated 06/07/21)
Fabulous_Poodles_1979-03-28_Denver.rar

 

The Band - 1976-08-25 - Los Angeles - 'Tears of Grief'

THE BAND
August 25, 1976
Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Tears Of Grief
Audience recording, good quality
Available in both Lossless (Flac) and mp3 (320k) versions


Here's one more show from The Band that I wanted to post, this one coming from their final tour before The Last Waltz later that year. Now, there are certainly better sounding recordings from this tour out there, most notably the excellent FM broadcast recordings from Washington DC and New York (which are widely available at other sites, like TUBE and QualityBootz, and worth having if you don't already), but this one from the Greek Theatre in LA is one you probably don't have, and is not widely available elsewhere (so, it is just the thing to post here). This is a good (but not great) quality audience recording, with another great performance featuring a full set of 18 songs, including all the greats as well as a few songs not heard on any other shows featured here ('Forbidden Fruit', 'Twilight', 'Tears of Rage'), so this is well worth getting to round out your Band collection.

Tracklist
1. Don't Do It
2. The Shape I'm In
3. It Makes No Difference
4. The Weight
5. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
6. Forbidden Fruit
7. This Wheel's On Fire
8. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down / Across The Great Divide
9. Ophelia
10. Up On Cripple Creek
11. Twilight
12. WS Walcott Medicine Show
13. Tears Of Rage
14. Stage Fright
15. Acadian Driftwood
16. Genetic Method / Chest Fever
17. Life Is A Carnival

Robbie Robertson - guitar, vocals
Rick Danko - bass, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, drums, vocals
Garth Hudson - organ
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals

New Links! (Updated 07/03/20)
mp3 - The Band_1976-08-25_LA_mp3.rar
flac - The Band_1976-08-25_LA_FLAC.part1.rar
         The Band_1976-08-25_LA_FLAC.part2.rar

The Band - 1973-08-01 - Roosevelt Stadium, NJ - Across the Endless Highway

THE BAND
August 1, 1973
Roosevelt Stadium, New Jersey
Across The Endless Highway
Stereo soundboard recording, Excellent quality
Available in both Lossless (Flac) and mp3 (320 k) versions

Here's more from The Band, and although this show is already fairly widely available (there are several different versions floating around), it is probably the best quality recording, as well as one of the best performances, from this middle period of The Band, and so I had to include it here for all to enjoy. Like the other Band shows I have posted, this is a real treat, a great show and performance, and a great recording, too. A must for fans of The Band.
 
Tracklist:
1. Back To Memphis
2. Loving You (Has Made My Life Sweeter Than Ever)
3. The Shape I'm In
4. The Weight
5. Stage Fright
6. I Shall Be Released
7. Don't Do It
8. Endless Highway
9. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
10. Across the Great Divide
11. This Wheel's On Fire
12. Life Is A Carnival
13. Share Your Love
14. Up In Cripple Creek
15. Chest Fever
16. W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
17. Saved (from 7/31/73 show)

Link Updated! (10/8/21)
mp3 - The_Band_1973-08-01_NJ_Across_Endless_Highway_mp3.rar

Flac - The_Band_1973-08-01_NJ_Across_Endless_Highway_FLAC.rar
       

The Band - 1974-01-31 - Madison Square Garden, NY

THE BAND
January 31, 1974 - evening
Madison Square Garden, New York

Stereo soundboard recording, excellent quality
Available in both Lossless (Flac) and mp3 (320 k) versions

Here's more from the Band, this time from their 1974 Before the Flood tour with Bob Dylan. This is an excellent soundboard recording. I had planned on posting the shows from both nights of their NY - MSG shows (1/30 &31), but when I listened to the recordings I had, it was clear that both were the exact same show (which I believe is from the 1/31 late show), so I guess I don't have the 1/30 show after all. Even though I had 2 shows from different sources claiming to be from that night, they both were identical to the 1/31/show. Since the setlist was pretty much the same every night for the Band's portion of the show, it sometimes is hard to determine which recordings go with which show, but it was clear that all the recordings I had were from the same show. Anyway, this is what I have for the MSG shows, and it is great stuff (just wish I had known earlier that I didn't really have both shows, or actually all three, since they played 2 shows on 1/31). Oh well, that is one of the frustrating things about bootleg recordings, you can never trust them to be what they claim to be. But enjoy this classic Band performance, whatever the actual date.
 
Tracklist
1. Stage Fright
2. The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down
3. King Harvest (has surely come)
4. This Wheel's On Fire
5. Up On Cripple Creek
6. Rag Mama Rag
7. When you Awake
8. The Shape I'm in
9. The Weight

Robbie Robertson - guitar, vocals
Rick Danko - bass, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, drums, vocals
Garth Hudson - organ
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals

New Links! (Updated 08/31/21)
mp3 - The_Band_1974-01-31_NY_mp3.rar
Flac - The_Band_1974-01-31_NY_FLAC.rar
       

The Band - 1971-06-30 - Central Park, NYC

THE BAND
June 30, 1971
Schaefer Music Festival,
Wollman Skating Rink, Central Park, New York
Audience recording, very good quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (320 k) versions

Sorry about the lack of new posts lately, but with trying to restore some of the old files, just haven't been able to get much new stuff ready. But anyway, since previous Band posts have been very popular, I thought I'd put up a few more of some of their not so widely available shows, for all to enjoy. This is a very good audience recording of a show in Central Park in 1971 that features most of their classics as well as a few lesser known songs. I'll put up more from The Band in a few days.

Tracklist:
1. W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
2. King Harvest
3. Time To Kill
4. The Weight
5. I Shall Be Released
6. Stage Fright
7. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
8. Across the Great Divide
9. Unfaithful Servant
10. Up In Cripple Creek
11. Loving You (Has Made My Life Sweeter Than Ever)
12. Genetic Method
13. Chest Fever
14. Rag Mama Rag
15. The Shape I'm In
16. Baby Don't Do It

Robbie Robertson - guitar, vocals
Rick Danko - bass, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, drums, vocals
Garth Hudson - organ;
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals

New Links! (Updated 08/31/21)
mp3 version - The_Band_1971-06-30_NY_mp3.rar

Flac version - The_Band_1971-06-30_NY_FLAC.rar
                     

Firefall - 1976-05 - Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH - FM

Firefall
May 1976
Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
FM Broadcast (WMMS-FM), excellent quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (320 kbps) versions
Custom artwork included

Here's another Firefall show, this one from 1976 early in their tour promoting their first album, or almost a year later than their 'Other End' debut show (available here). By this time they had added David Muse on keyboards and wind instruments to their lineup. This is another one I got from our friend David M, although he did not tape this himself, he got it in a trade way back in the '70's and it evidently has had very limited circulation. This one is unique because it is a high quality radio broadcast recording. As is typical for these radio shows, it has a much shorter setlist  than usual (such as than their other available show from this period, Paul's Mall, Boston 1976-05-05) but higher quality audio than the previously available audience tapes. So, enjoy this Firefall show, once again courtesy of David M. 

Tracklist:
First set
01 - Introduction - WMMS
02 - It Doesn't Matter
03 - Cinderella
04 - Livin' Ain't Livin'
05 - Love Isn't All
06 - No Way Out
07 - Sunny Day
08 - She Is A Song
09 - You Never Know
10 - Colorado
11 - Two Lovely Women

Rick Roberts - vocals, guitar
Larry Burnett - vocals, guitar
Jock Bartley - lead guitar, vocals
Mark Andes - bass
Michael Clarke - drums
David Muse - keyboards, saxophone, percussion, flute, harmonica

mp3 version - Firefall - 1976-05 - Cleveland - mp3 link here

Flac Version - Firefall - 1976-05 - Cleveland - FLAC link here
New link (Updated 10/8/21)

Firefall - 1975-06-06 - The Other End, NY

Firefall
1975-06-06
The Other End, New York City, NY
(Firefall debut concerts)
Uncirculated Audience (David M.) Recording, Good Quality
Available in both lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (@ 320 kbps) versions

Remember the story of how Firefall got its record contract (from previous Chris Hillman post) by performing in place of an ill Chris Hillman, and being signed immediately? Well, here is the very show (actually, one of a few shows at the Other End in NY) where that happened. This is another of David M's personal uncirculated audience master recordings (actually, one of the very last I have to share), and a great document of this historic show. So, once again, so much thanks to David for making this available for sharing here on this blog. For further info, I'll just leave you with David's own comments he sent to me regarding this recording. 
David's comments: "We went to New York expecting to see Chris Hillman. When we got there it was explained that Chris Hillman had gone home sick, but his backup band had brought out it's other members, as they were a new group on their own, and would play. So this was Firefall's debut in New York. It just happened that there were some record execs there, saw the band, and gave them a contract. Some notable things about the show is the number of unreleased tunes they did, some old Burrito songs, and Roberts solo stuff. Just into the 2nd set we got "battery fatigue", so I've only included a few tunes, you may or may not want to use. The rest of the set was unusable. Too bad, too, because there was some good stuff there. I recorded this a few tables back from the stage; decent sound. Traded it a bit years ago, but pretty much uncirculated now."
So, here is Firefall, at the very beginning, nearly a full year before the release of their first album. But, you'll note that they play 7 of the 10 songs from that first album here (so they already had just about everything written), as well as a good half dozen other never released early Firefall songs. Great stuff, and a historic show. Enjoy.

First Set
01 - It Doesn't Matter
02 - Do What You Want
03 - Tell the Truth
04 - Wedding Song
05 - Falling in Love
06 - No Way Out
07 - You Never Know
08 - Deliver Me
09 - Sad Old Love Song
10 - She Made Me Lose My Blues
11 - Mexico
12 - Colorado
13 - Give

2nd set (partial)
14 - In My Own Small Way
15 - Livin Ain't Livin (variable speed problems due to dying recorder batteries)
16 - Cinderella (fragment)
Note: rest of set unusable due to recorder battery problems.

Rick Roberts - vocals, guitar
Larry Burnett - vocals, guitar
Jock Bartley - lead guitar, vocals
Mark Andes - bass
Michael Clarke - drums

Taken directly from a previously very limited-circulation audience master recording by David M. This version prepared exclusively for The BB Chronicles by BBKron (http://bbchron.blogspot.com)

mp3 version - Firefall - 1975-06-06 - NY link here

FLAC version - Firefall - 1975-06-06 - NY FLAC link here
New Link! (Updated 10/8/21)

Also, get this previously posted David M-recorded Firefall show from a year later, recently re-uploaded with new link