David Bowie-The Wembley Wizard Touches The Dial
Wembley Empire Pool 7th May 1976 liberated bootleg
Lineage: Vinyl LP>TDK cassette>Soundforge>TLH flac level 6
This is the notorious bootleg released by the BPI in a failed attempt to entrap a ring of dealers. Pressed by one of the BPI investigators and used in their sting operation known as Moonbeam, it was in fact a copy of an existing bootleg called Don't Touch That Dial released in Japan shortly after the concert. I can't say anything about the recording quality as represented on that release but BPI's version suffers perhaps from having been copied badly. The vocals and bass tend towards distortion while the drums are quite quite and the keys and guitars are pretty clear. I would say the fault lies mostly with the taper's microphone or record levels/ equipment limitations. Having said that it is a good sounding audience recording for the era and I have done my best to transfer it (azymuth adjusted)from my TDK tape to flac with minimal alteration save a little EQ and some volume adjustment in order to balance the channels and give it more oomph. I created a custom paragraphic EQ setting in Soundforge which I felt brought out the high mids and gave the bass a little much needed tightening. No de-clicking or noise reduction was used!
Band:
David Bowie-Vocals
Tony Kaye-Keyboards
Dennis Davis-Drums
George Murray-Bass
Stacey Heydon-Lead Guitar
Carlos Alomar-Rhythm Guitar
Tracklisting:
01. Station To Station (cuts in)
02. Suffragette City
03. Fame
04. Word On A Wing
05. Stay
06. Waiting For The Man
07. Queen Bitch
08. Life On Mars?
09. Band Introductions
10. Changes
11. TVC 15
12. Diamond Dogs
The performance is excellent and is great fun to hear, with Bowie in great voice and jovial mood (drunk again!) Tony Kaye really shows his class on this too. This concert was the first large scale show I ever attended and still ranks as one of the most memorable of my life. It's a shame the intro to Station To Station is cut as Stacey Heydon was a class act and really did a magnificent job on it. Several tracks are missing but that's the way with boots of this era. I remember DB created the howling effect at the end of Diamond Dogs by standing on the edge of the stage and swinging his microphone Roger Daltry style in front of the PA stack to get the feedback on every pass. Too funny.
Share freely and enjoy the music!
Wembley Empire Pool
Vinyl LP>TDK cassette
This is the notorious bootleg released by the BPI in a failed attempt to entrap a ring of dealers. Pressed by one of the BPI investigators and used in their sting operation known as Moonbeam, it was in fact a copy of an existing bootleg called Don't Touch That Dial released in Japan shortly after the concert. The vocals and bass tend towards distortion while the drums are quite quite and the keys and guitars are pretty clear. Having said that it is a good sounding audience recording for the era.
The performance is excellent and is great fun to hear, with Bowie in great voice and jovial mood (drunk again!) Tony Kaye really shows his class on this too. DB created the howling effect at the end of Diamond Dogs by standing on the edge of the stage and swinging his microphone Roger Daltry style in front of the PA stack to get the feedback on every pass.
David Bowie-Vocals
Tony Kaye-Keyboards
Dennis Davis-Drums
George Murray-Bass
Stacey Heydon-Lead Guitar
Carlos Alomar-Rhythm Guitar