This disc
presents the New Barbarians Knebworth concert, this show featured a different
version of the band with regards to the one that played on the USA tour, the
line up was: Ron Wood on guitar, vocals, harmonica, sax, pedal steel guitar, Keith
Richards on guitar, vocals and
piano Ian
McLagan on piano, organ and backing vocals, Phil Chen on bass, Bobby Keys on sax,
Joseph ‘Ziggy’ Modeliste on drums with special guest Sugar Blue (harmonica) on Breathe
On Me, I Can Feel The Fire and Worried Life Blues. Recordings of this concert appeared
in several releases with 3 different sources. The most complete one is the recording
used on one side of this release, supplemented by the best sounding one on the
other.
Another recording,
not very good, can be found on Disc Two of Barb Wired Tour (EVSD 204). The 3rd
one came from GodzGolfBall was the same as the one in The Last Time (Hot Lips
Rec. HLR-RS 009) and had the best sound but much stage banter was edited out
and there were lots of defaults in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. At first it was decided
to keep two versions:
- Version
#1: which was almost complete (only a 30 seconds gap in Come To Realise missing)
that was not circulating widely.
- Version
#2: which is reviewed here is a mix between the first version on the right
channel and GodzGolfBall’s version (GGB) in the left channel. For this mixing it
was required to work with little segments lasting from 30 seconds to 1 minute
because of the slight speed variations present in the tracks. The first source
had to be de-clicked and amplified in the musical parts, phased and the
transitions reworked and decelerated by -0,4% to be in synch with the other one.
The
beginnings of Come To Realise and Am I Grooving You come only from the first
source since they were missing in the GGB source. Doing the mix it was
discovered that a 30 seconds segment was missing in the first version on Come
To Realise (from 2’35 to 3’05) but that is now complete in the mix with a GGB
mono patch. For Jumpin’ Jack Flash it was more difficult because on the GGB
version some seconds from the beginning were lost and there were lots of gaps
after 2’58 that made the task of a synchronization between both sources
impossible. So, it was decided to do a shortened version, a real Frankenstein
work, with at first the reconnection of two segments at 9 seconds and another
one at 3’32. This track is now 2 minutes shorter but that was the only
solution.
Now, a
fter finishing
this series the maker was contacted by two generous collectors who offered to
send their recordings; a
s both of their sources turned
out to b
e very interesting it was decided to add them
to this series: so there are 4 versions of this concert... which even for our
standards is quite exceptional. The 3rd source was taken from
“
30th Anniversary of 1976 - Freddie
Bannister commemorative box set - New Barbarians Knebworth 1979”; concerning it’s
origin,
here it is in the words of the sender: “I
bought a box set from the promoter Freddie
Bannister in 2006 - it was a 30 year special box set limited to 200 copies. It
contained cds of all the bands that played at Knebworth on the 21st August
1976, with the option to swap one CD for the New Barbarians set of 1979. I
chose to have the New Barbarians CD at the expense of 10cc’s. The box also
contained a program, 12 highly glossy photographs and a book called There Must
Be A Better Way plus posters.” Tis is a nice mono recording, while the 4th
source
came from a cassette:
it’s a little distant but a very good lossless recording. There is also a video
of this show, but not mentioned here, most likely a rip of its audio would not
have been superior. Here reviewed is the second version that is the most complete and better
sounding one and indeed it sounds as the one with the fullest sound.
