I have uploaded the DVD "LA Sports Arena Master (Video)". If you want it, PM me, as direct links are not allowed in the forum. The links are valid until June 15, 2013. Note that I only uploaded the DVD files, not the audio.
Zitat von info textPink Floyd L.A. Sports Arena, Los Angeles CA 1975-04-27 Master AUD reel-to-reel (first time in circulation) + NTSC DVD video
Please note: The following liner notes include material that may be extremely offensive to some people. Or, it may just be that they are offensive to me. Either way, if you think you might be the sensitive kind , please read no further and just get the music. OK?
It has taken me several months to get a good transfer of the audio portion of this recording. That was a much easier job than it was for me to recapture the circumstances surrounding this particular weekend...
First of all, with apologies to Harvested: This is the full master audio tape of this show. A copy was used for the source material of the 8mm torrent referenced in the contrast clause, and the 8mm torrent is a DVD from S-VHS. Thus, the stated lineage for the Harvested copy is:
LA Sports Arena 27 April 1975 (16:26) Video: 8mm > S-VHS > NTSC DV (avi) > Vegas (CBR 6) MPEG-2 Audio: Master > DAT > CDR > Vegas (PCM Stereo)
The actual lineage for the audio of 8mm should be: Master > Film Run Copy >DAT>CDR>Vegas (PCM Stereo). The sync and transfer of this material was done professionally in the early to mid 1980's, and was widely circulated at one point in time. I have a copy of the '8mm' material on VHS, also.
The audio portion of my torrent is of a much higher quality, IMO. The video portion of my torrent is another matter entirely. Although I believe it can be much improved by someone with the knowledge to do so (anyone want to tackle black levels?), it's presented for quite another reason. It's to prove that my version of events is true, and is the only version of events, and that there is no other version of events.
The audio master used in the Harvested torrent is in fact a poorer quality copy of the original reel. How do I know this to be fact? I actually know the original filmer and taper, and the method by which the films were made, plus he gave me the master of the audio. Hold on, I'll tell you the whole, depraved story as to how we met... but first you have to promise to remove the kiddies from in front of the computer because some of the stuff following is truly awful. If you *are* under 18 and you choose to read further, well, yer uncle Doinker warned you - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Over Valentines 1988 I went with my pregnant ex-wife out to California to visit a work buddy of mine. He is a big-time lover of the Blues, and supported starving musicians by allowing them to stay in his house. There were some great jams at the time, including a couple with the Delgado Brothers (I think I have a soundboard tape somewhere of one of them... hmmm.) I had sent my friend some live recordings, and I was actively looking for live masters at the time, especially masters on reel tape. He had this friend (Mr. S.A.), whom he had known for a long time. This person had gone into concert halls in the Los Angeles area, mostly from 1970-77, and had made 8mm movies and live audio recordings of the shows. Much of the West Coast 8mm video now circulating from this time period has come from him, and many of the reel-to-reel masters I have previously circulated have or did have companion 8mm films as well.
On my friend's suggestion, we went to the place of a mutual friends of theirs, where S.A. would also be. Walter (RIP) and his wife Suzy owned a gas station and general store near Springville, California (it's close to Porterville, and about 60 miles north of Bakersfield). Behind the store was a large field, which was used as a camping ground. The property then sloped downward for several acres. There was a stable with a barn, a discontented horse and an old pony in a corral, and a pond or a lake behind that. It's all long gone now, and the place is abandoned and covered with weeds. Suzy was definitely the more serious of the two. The business was more hers than it was his. She was constantly chasing all of us out of the store so as to not scare the locals away, as the store was their main means of support. Walter was a biker, and a real hell-raiser. He didn't look the part, though. He looked like a prospector - you know, those guys you see in antique pictures who panned for gold in the 1840's. He was truly one of a kind. He was thin, wiry, muscular, and had a long white beard and moustache. He wore a cowboy hat, and boots, and his hair was still black under the hat. He was fascinating: He could be completely repulsive in a likeable sort of way, and altogether quiet and friendly in another. He was probably somewhere in his 40s at the time.
Suzy had an eight-year-old daughter, whom Walter called Magpie . The morning after the following events occured, we went to a local restaurant for breakfast. He showed up late blind drunk, and very loudly at that. He was wearing a real Nazi stormtrooper helmet, complete with swastika and topcoat. He kept shouting to the patrons Heil Hitler . He kept giggling and falling over the furniture on his way to the table. He duck-walked and saluted every other group in the restaurant in this manner, some more than once if they caught his attention. This was in front of his daughter and his wife. Magpie was completely amused, but Suzy got really upset. She started yelling back at him in a total rage while the place quickly cleared out, mainly stuff about him putting them out of business. I think my ex and I were too completely overcome with shock to say very much. It was truly offensive, and we were completely embarrassed over their daughter seeing this. I have to tell you, she didn't seem to care. It seemed this sort of thing had happened several times before, and she now found it to be funny. For this short period of time only, I got to know Walter. A short time after these events occured, he took a dirty needle and died from a form of AIDS. The store and gas station were repossessed by the bank, and then abandoned.
The store stood at the edge of the road at the top of the hill. Behind the store, there was a large field. In the middle of the field was sort of a small stage with a roof that stood on wheels like a trailer. A table was set up on the stage, and an 8mm projector was put onto it. I had carted a reel-to-reel recorder/player system, complete with speakers with me from New York. It was set up alongside the projector to use as a sound system. The passenger van we arrived in was pulled lengthwise in front of the projector. A bedsheet was hung over the side of the van to use as a screen. The -film run copy- of the audio was played through a guitar amp from the player system.
There were two sets of reel-to-reel tapes. One set were the masters, and the other set were film run copies. During the concert, S.A. had gone in with a recorder, a Super 8 film camera, a helper, and two microphones taped to a broomstick. When he wished to film, he would announce filming and then cut when he stopped. A copy was made of the sections of the master tape that were relevant to the films, and those copies were used when the films were projected. The copies used incidental cues - an unrelated bit of sound that were used to know when to start the projector and the sound at the same period of time. It was much more efficient to reproduce just the filmed sections of the audio, as the entire master tape did not have to be gone through in order to find the sections that were filmed.
Meanwhile, while the setup was happening, many bikers were coming in from all over the state for a campout. By this time they were already setting up tents around the edges of the field. There were perhaps a hundred in all, maybe more. Me, I come from a protected middle-class background, and my ex was brought up on another plane of existence in Germany. At first, we felt that we could have been visiting Mars, and for some of them, the feeling was definitely mutual about us. But, for the most part, we got used to them, and once they found out who we were with (and some of them required proof of that in the form of loud, angry discussion), they started tolerating us and even talking to us on somewhat of a friendly basis - just like *you would* if an unwanted foreigner were in your midst. Factoid: Bikers are a different breed. Since that weekend, I treat them better on the road.
Some of the films were videotaped on VHS as they were projected, and this is one of them. This was done by my friend as sort of a present for me. The sound wasn't always in sync as the projector did not always operate properly.
Hope you like it.
Lineage (audio) master reel-to-reel ->Akai GX-400D SS tape deck ->Sound Forge 6.0 ->FLAC via Flac Frontend, level 6, sectors aligned and verified. Lineage (video)-> Original Super 8 film projected onto a white bed sheet, laid across the side of a van at night, filmed with VHS camera with built-in microphone. Audio for video: unsynched -film run copy-reel ->Realistic reel to reel player system ->Baby Marshall guitar amp.
Setlist for full concert:
CD1 Raving And Drooling (small splice in beginning) 12:20 You’ve Got To Be Crazy 13:19 Shine On You Crazy Diamond Suite (including 'Have A Cigar') 31:11
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Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:28 pm
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