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SOUND GRADING
10 = Perfect Stereo 9 = FM Radio Broadcast 8 = Excellent Audience 7 = Very Good Audience 6 = Good Audience 5 = Fair Audience 4 = Poor Audience 3 = Un-listenable
LOOP CATEGORY © = Mono Creation Loop ® = Stereo Replay Loop |
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Total Time : 70 mins |
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Notes
Remastered and pitch-corrected to God Save the Queen LP Version of Red Two Scorer, God Save the Queen, Under Heavy Manners & 1983, used to enhance the backing loops of this recording.
In general this is a low quality monophonic recording with a fair amount of distortion. There is numerous bad edits that have been repaired to some extent, by using an earlier loop. Some unusual microphone feedback occurs when the performance volume is very low. Much has been removed or muted out.
Bathurst Street Theatre is a 550 seat round shaped theatre with balconies looking down at the stage area. Wonderful sound and perfect sight lines. Fripp treated these shows AS shows and not as informal Frippertronics performances, because admission was charged, the venue style and the larger than normal audiences. Not the ideal situation he was looking for, however Fripp commented that he thought the audiences at these shows were remarkably controlled and attentive, which I can attest to as I was in attendance on August 12, 1979. From what I can recall, he only spoke very briefly once about the process of the tape loops and then asked if anyone had any questions, but not surprisingly, no one responded for fear of speaking in front of 550 people ! One of the reasons why Fripp did not want so many in attendance.
Regardless, Fripp proceeded to melt the walls, including a rendition of what I believe was 1983, with Fripp ending it by adding progressively longer muted silences, allowing you to hear only his rapid solo guitar arpeggios in the gaps. I recall as the silences got longer, he also progressively lowered his solo guitar volume, until you could only hear the sound of him picking the strings with no amplification. Quite amazing to have absolute total silence with that many in attendance. When he finally stopped, he received a standing ovation, which ended the performance. He may have returned for an encore, but that was undoubtedly the highlight.
Another point of interest, at the August 12th show (and possibly at this show), a then completely unknown Jim Carrey opened the show with an incredibly entertaining stand up comedy routine. Unfortunately, it went largely unnoticed as I don’t believe many could hear or make out see what he was doing, which involved many incredible impersonations and facial contortions for which he is now so well known. But if you were too far away, I do not believe it would have translated well. Fortunately I was in the front row to enjoy it. In retrospect, a real treat.
The backing loops 1777 and 1983 were previously recorded on 1979/07/25 - Madame Wong’s - Los Angeles - Early Show
Red Two Scorer apparently recorded at Tower Records - Berkeley on 1979/07/30 - Afternoon
God Save the Queen recorded 1979/07/30 - Bear’s Lair - Berkeley - Evening
Under Heavy Manners is reportedly recorded at the Calgary Planetarium, but was not captured in the recording on 1979/08/08
Fripp plays the main theme from Hendrix’s Purple Haze during 1733 Over 1734. Also partially performs a variation on 1729 Over 1983, in the same manner as at the above mentioned Calgary performance. |
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Date : August 11, 1979 |
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Venue : Bathurst Street Theatre |
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Location : Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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TRACK LISTING
1736 Over Red Two Scorer (6:55) ® (a) 1735 Over God Save the Queen (10:12) ® (a) 1734 (10:53) © 1733 Over 1734 (11:02) ® 1732 Over Under Heavy Manners (9:27) ® (a) 1731 (3:37) ® 1730 Over 1777 (4:57) ® 1729 Over 1983 (13:21) ® (a) |
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Sound Grade : 5 except (a)=7.5 |
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AD FOR UPCOMING SHOW |
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REVIEW - THE GLOBE AND MAIL - AUGUST 13, 1979 |
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SYSTEM |
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HOME |
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FRIPP & ENO |
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FRIPP SOLO |
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REMIXES |
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RARITIES |
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WANT+LINK |
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Bathurst Street Theatre 736 Bathurst Ave. Toronto, ON M5S 2R4 |
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Pre-show photo taken at Bathurst Street Theatre - August 1979 |
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While in Toronto, Ron Gaskin conducted a great interview with Robert Fripp. A transcript of that interview can be read here |