Spirit
1970-02-03 Crouch End, Hornsey, London Borough of Haringey, north London, England
Hornsey Town Hall (M1-AUD *UPGRADE*)
~*~ DimeTravel MkII version WITH equalisation ~*~
~*~ Carefully remastered removing many blemishes ~*~
01. intro, tuning up & echoplex noodling ->
02. Sweet Stella Baby ->
03. 1984 ->
04. It's All The Same ->
05. Fresh Garbage
06. Jealous
07. It Shall Be ->
08. Poor Richard
09. Groundhog
10. Policeman's Ball
11. Aren't You Glad
12. ...drum solo ->
13. Mechanical World ->
14. I Got A Line On You
Encore :::
15. Dark Eyed Woman ->
16. Uncle Jack
Total Time ::: 1:19:04
::: Non hi-fi but overall QUITE consistent, edible & tasty. Check samples for outer, middle & inner ear ingestibility or preliminary pleasure eardrops.
::: Warts: Slightly muffled & distant & a bit o' hiss but it ain't too bad. Fixed many dropouts & dullspots but surely missed some. Clapping reduced but sure didn't get to them all.
::: CONTRAST CLAUSE: This MkII version is carefully remastered & then EQ was done, whereas the MkI version has no EQ.
::: COMPARISON CLAUSE: This M1 version upgrade DIMER roryglzep's M2 2009 upload (re-seeded by slashdog in 2011). Another even lesser quality version missing 2 songs also circulates. Nothing on DIME as I prepare this upload.
::: Mandrake was the opening act.
::: Touring to promote their 2nd album "Clear" which had been released in October 1969.
::: The band borrowed a PA from The Who for the gig.
::: MANY thanks to DIMER zubbid for help & DIMER bpthree for helpful commentary.
Recording Information ::: Uher portable mono reel to reel tape recorder, external microphone (unknown brand) -> master 5" mono reel to reel audience tape (tape speed unknown). Transfer circa 1983: all unknown equipment, master reel -> 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette, Dolby B on. (NOTE: Slight chance this was actually a cassette master done on a dictaphone machine).
Playback 2011-06-26 ::: 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette on Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck, Dolby B on, azimuth adjusted for individual recording, heads cleaned & demagnetized -> Tascam CD-RW900SL professional CD recorder -> CD-RW's, no track splits -> computer -> EAC secure mode (logs made) -> wav files.
Remastering 2013-06-xx & 2014-10-xx ::: wavs -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch, bump, pop, click, dropout & dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, overall averaged single pass speed fix at -5.85 after spectral analysis & with pitchpipe verification, some equalisation done to lower heavy bass & increase the high end.] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. First uploaded week of 2014-11-08.
Line-up ::: Randy California - electric guitar, vocals // Jay Ferguson - vocals, tambourine, percussion // Mark Andes - electric bass, vocals // John Locke - keyboards // Ed Cassidy - drums.
Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.
DimeTravel 068 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader, The Man In The Palace! ::: Corrections welcome ::: When my life is a rock history movie showing in my head, Spirit has a large formative segment, in great part thanks to Ena K.M.S. Whisnant, full of dreams of Sardonicus & Dark Eyed Woman & Fresh-Garbage & some Prelude –> Nothin' to Hide & so many connections to the things that made me tick as a teen. We've been promised some more early recordings exist & may appear, let us pray they don't wait too much longer to bring them out or there'll be too few left to care.
This upgrades the previously DIMED 2nd gen. version, as 'tis 1 gen better & clearly has more intact high end. When I started checking what had been DIMED before there was a huge time discrepancy (8+ minutes) between the M2 & my M1 (which hadn't been remastered at that point). I was baffled until I realised the M1 was 5.85% fast & the M2 was about 3.5 slow. I adjusted the speed with frequency analysis & a pitchpipe & this version is now pretty spot on. During remastering I decided the recording was too bass heavy & lacking high end for me, so I created 2 versions (MkI No EQ _&_ MkII EQ'd). I prefer the EQ'd version tho' it brings out a bit of original recording harshness - but it makes many other aspects MUCH more enjoyable (for my listening pleasure). You can decide what works best for you.
Thanks VERY much to DIMER zubbid for taking the time (twice! & very fast!) to get me the old DIME version for comparisons & thanks to DIMER bpthree
for being the usual fountain of information wealth when it comes to Spirit. He mentioned that Spirit's London "Lyceum" gig 1970-02-01 was taped, but so far only a few trax circulate on the "Wholly Spirit" boot. Many of us would be very pleased if the entire tape surfaced (assuming more was taped). Maybe some of you could check your recordings. The setlist may well be the same as this Hornsey gig, so some comparisons may be in order.
Here is Spirit from an era that brings me nothing but joy. Hope it does the same for you, now more than ever. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees
Support the artists and/or their families! http://www.randycaliforniaandspirit.com
Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!