Do not sell this recording. Share or trade freely but only in lossless formats. Convert to lossy formats (mp3, ogg vorbis, wma, etc.) only for your own personal use.
James Live - The System Club, Temple Street, Liverpool, UK - 23rd of August 1985
Uploader's info: Soundboard recording on an "ear to the ground" bootleg tape picked up a local record fair a few weeks after the gig.
Two tracks (the first and last) are unfortunately cut, I think this is down to a dopey sound guy not pressing "record" in time and also the tape running out (the show is just over 45 mins, i.e the length of side one of a c90).
There is also some high frequency noise present throughout which is also likely to be on the master.......dopey sound guy again?. I am loath to use any noise reduction as you often lose more than you gain unless you really know what you are doing. Just adjust your Graphic EQ if its annoying.
Whatever, it was a top gig and great to hear again. The System was a pretty small basement club that hosted loads of alternative gigs/nights in the mid eighties.....its now an accountants I think.
Right tracklisting, this excellent site (http://www.oneofthethree.co.uk/gigs/liverpool230885.htm) has the tracklisting as:
So Many Ways, Uprising, Just Hip, Ya Ho, Summer Song, Hup-Springs, Johnny Yen, Fairground, Skullduggery, Vulture, Bright Side, Are You Ready?, Doubts, Discipline
BUT my tape, memories and the fact Gavin Whelan? says something like "back to normality" after swapping intruments for Discipline (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wA3ugO1mko8) suggests the actual order was like this:
1-(Intro cut) Hup-Springs 2-Johnny Yen 3-Fairground 4-Skullduggery 5-Vulture 6-Bright Side 7-Are You Ready? 8-Doubts 9-Discipline 10-So Many Ways 11-Uprising 12-Just Hip 13-Ya Ho 14-Summer Song (Outro cut)
Uploader's info: This is transferred from a low generation cassette via minidisc to a Sony standalone CD recorder.
James in late 1986 were at a bit of a stalling point in their career. They'd launched their debut Stutter earlier in the year to mixed critical reviews and a general lack of interest by the record company to promote it properly. Live, their shows were getting more exciting and they were playing to audiences increasing in size and fervour. They set off on a three date of Germany in November 1986, of which this show was the last.
The set of 16 songs includes 10 as yet unreleased tracks, 4 of which were to end up on their next album Strip-Mine, two b-sides to the accompanying singles and the remaining 4 which didn't see a studio release (Might As Well Be Friends, Mr Ex-President, Wonderful and Stutter), although the latter appeared on the classic live One Man Clapping album and as a live b-side on Come Home and She's A Star singles as well as being played on the recent 2008 winter tour of the UK.
Recording sounds excellent for its time, may be a soundboard.
