A new
recording of the 1986 Ron Wood-Chuck Berry Ritz 1st show has recently
popped up; apart from its nice quality it also had nice artwork and long and
detailed liner notes which we just report:
‘Between
1983 and 1999 there was likely not a taper or taping duo more active than Two
Of Us. For the better part of a decade and a half they taped over 250 artists
with an array being taped multiple times. If you collect Springsteen then you
are already familiar with some of their work, about half a dozen were posted of
their "Tunnel Of Love" tour shows by fmcleanboots butr then decided
to pass the baton. What you don't know is their passion was not just for
Springsteen but for music and that passion runs deep. It is astonishing how
many artists they taped.
They
followed tours taping club shows, theatre shows, arena shows, big artists,
mid-level artists and local artists. If they were following a tour and the tour
had an off night they'd see who else was playing that night to tape. Always
focused on enjoyment of the show as the priority, tickets were for the most
part acquired outside of the venue as they worked to obtain the best possible
seats, continually trading up until the correct seats were acquired.
The results
of this were that the captures are uniformly excellent but on occasion the
start of the show was sacrificed as a trade-off for the seats. The heavy lifting
was done by Sony WM-D6C and an external Shure Mic before moving to DAT for the
last couple of years.
None of
their masters have ever been circulated and have been safely stored for the
past three to four decades in a climate controlled environment. Tapes
transferred so far are in pristine condition.
Though we
may do some mini releases of a series of shows in order for one portion of a
tour for the most part shows will not be released in order, there are just too
many of them.
This will
be a very exciting series and we hope along the way we upgrade existing
circulating audio and offer up shows that do not have any circulating audio.
This is volume
4 of this series, as mentioned in the introduction notes Two Of Us taped all
levels of artists at all sizes of venues and amongst those are many shows that
I'd call only in New York shows. This show is a perfect example of that. In
1986 The Ritz was celebrating its 6th Anniversary with a special 6th
Anniversary Party.
Featured
for one night were Chuck Berry & Ron Wood, Chuck was headlining with Ron
supporting throughout his set. The master tapes did not note if this was the
early or late show and Two Of Us mentioned that unless something else was going
on that night they probably taped both shows. I've come to the conclusion,
based on the presence of a circulating setlist and recording of the late set,
that this is the previously uncirculated early set.
Ron Wood
opens the show with five songs ranging from Faces to Stones to his solo
releases. This is apparently two songs longer than the late show. All are absolutely
brilliant with a highlight being the extra bluesy with killer guitar work
version of Love In Vain that comes off as an impromptu version with Ron singing
at one point “what's the next verse".
To close
his set we get what appears to be another impromptu playing of Outlaws, well
it's sort of Outlaws, with Ron opening the song singing "well if you wanna
here some music like Chuck will play, you'll have to wait just a few
moments", he only sings the chorus of Outlaws once and it's more of an
impromptu blues so saying it's even a loose version of Outlaws is probably an
overstatement. Chuck joins at the end of Outlaws.
Chuck's set
is all business and his playing complimented by Ron is spot on, we don't get
any of the campiness that marks other Chuck Berry performances, there is not a
10 minutes audience participation version of My Ding-a-Ling. Chuck opens with Roll
Over Beethoven just like the late show and though similar to the late show we
do get a few different songs and a different order.
The Uptown
Horns are featured on an instrumental loosely based on Night Train. Quality is
very good to excellent with no cuts. As you can imagine at a show like this the
crowd was extremely vocal but a couple of hours scrubbing extreme whistles and
screams near the recorder have been spent. This one is best listened to with
some extra volume to it, don't be afraid, no severe whistles to blow your
speakers or ears any longer. This is a special event that we are fortunate to
have such a great recording of it. Three big thank you's here, first to Two Of
Us and their dedication to capturing all these great shows. Also, a big thank
you to fmcleanboots for laying the groundwork that has resulted in what you
hear today and in the future.
Last but
not least, thanks to Goody for his continued support making sure his and so
many of our other releases running at the right speed...’