I Strand Corrected...

Horrid pun intentional, as I've only yesterday found (and dutifully re-mastered, encoded, and otherwise buffed) an audience recording of Roxy Music's amazing performance at the Summer Garden Party 4 fest at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London on July 29, 1972.



The event occurred a week prior to the release of their epochal "Virginia Plain" single (which vaulted them into UK stardom and out of dismal gigs supporting the likes of Loggins & Messina and Arlo Guthrie), and only a few weeks after the release of their brilliant eponymous debut album. (For Your Pleasure was even better, but that's another, as yet discovered, bootleg...)



Audio quality is far from ideal, but your labors will yield naught but bliss. The band were in ferocious form, especially Bryan Ferry. His vocals here are absolutely perfect.

(Messieurs Mackay and Thompson were also quite crazed...)

Fuck knows what the audience thought of them; partisan maundering is audible. Of course, Roxy were to Stone the Crows what Metalux are to Dave Matthews, so skepticism was likely the order of the day.

As it's perhaps the earliest (near-)complete RM show yet unearthed (their closer, "Re-Make/Re-Model," unfortunately fades out after a minute), I'd recommend one ignore the ambient hiss and low-end muddle and take the plunge.

01 Virginia Plain (fades in)
02 The Bob (Medley)
03 Would You Believe?
04 Ladytron
05 2HB
06 Sea Breezes
07 If There Is Something
08 Re-Make/Re-Model (truncated)

Roxy Music:

Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry, Rik Kenton, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, and Paul Thompson.







(Illustrations pilfered from Phil Manzanera's invaluable Roxy Music archive site.)

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(92.8 MB, ripped at 320 kbps, re-mastered upon acquisition; insanely good, despite the audio miasma.)

Here.

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Cheers,

Tom

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