Queen + Thin Lizzy @ Seattle, WA 1977-03-13

Queen
Seattle Center Arena
Seattle, WA
March 13, 1977
JEMS Tandberg Master Transfer
Radical Remaster
1644 Edition

Contrast Clause: This is new transfer and remaster made from our master reel to reel recording. The original version is still on the tracker at http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=255414

Recording Gear: Tandberg Model 11 R2R deck, Sony ECM-22P mic

JEMS 2023 Transfer: Master Reel > Otari MX-5050 w/full track mono head stack > > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX8 (stereoize plus other tweaks) > Unfilter > iZotope Ozone 8 > MBIT+ resample to 1644 > Audacity > xACT > FLAC

01 Tie Your Mother Down
02 Ogre Battle
03 White Queen (As It Began)
04 Somebody To Love
05 Killer Queen
06 The Millionaire Waltz
07 You're My Best Friend
08 Bring Back That Leroy Brown
09 Brighton Rock
10 '39
11 You Take My Breath Away
12 White Man
13 The Prophet's Song
14 Bohemian Rhapsody
15 Stone Cold Crazy
16 Keep Yourself Alive
17 Liar
18 In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited
19 Now I'm Here
20 Big Spender
21 Jailhouse Rock Medley >
22 Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting >
23 Stupid Cupid >
24 Be-Bog-A-Lula

Known Faults:
-Now I'm Here: start slightly cut

Tale of the Tapes and the Tandberg

JEMS originally posted this essential Queen show in June 2009 as part of a series of transfers of full-track, mono master tapes recorded on a Tandberg Model 11 portable reel to reel by Stan Gutoski, the late, great patriarch of JEMS who passed away in 2020.

If you don’t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS, but in full-track mono. I won’t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of Stan’s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs around ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

The original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, but after years of making transfers from it, I had noticed that playback on the Model 11 introduced a lot of noise. Not surprising considering the age of the unit (now 50 years old), but an issue just the same. I used software to help address the noise it introduced, but I wanted a better solution.

The obvious answer would be to transfer the tapes on a different reel to reel, but because the Tandberg recorded in relatively uncommon full track mono, transfers done on any standard open-reel tape deck, be it 1/4 or 1/2-track, would still not capture the full fidelity of the master tapes.

As luck would have it, I was taking another reel to reel deck in for repair at the one place in Southern California that still specializes in them and has for decades, Adrian Proaudio Services in Canoga Park. I told Adrian about the Tandberg issue and my primary reel to reel, which is an Otari MX-5050. He said, “Why don’t you get a full-track mono head stack for the Otari?” Before I even had a moment to ponder why I had never thought of that, Adrian pulled out a brand new, dead stock full-track mono unit which I could plug and play into my Otari. Needless to say I bought it on the spot.

Back in the mastering studio, I swapped out the Otari heads with the new mono head block, and the full-track playback was a revelation. The noisiness I had come to expect from any Tandberg transfer was gone. The fidelity was everything I had always hoped we could extract from Stan’s master recordings.

SG made a point of attaching his microphone to arena seating infrastructure and with his long microphone cord, he moved it away from any close-up audience. You’ll notice that here as there is really nothing in the way between the PA and the recorder on what for my money is a rather remarkable recording.

Queen Seattle 1977 Radical Remaster

In addition to being able to make a superior transfer of the original Queen master tape compared to the one we did in 2009, the software we use to master our recordings has improved dramatically and we've developed new techniques for improving lower-fidelty sources. Stan's Queen tape in its original incarnation was very good to be sure, but the instrument separation and overall fidelity were limited.

This is what we call a radical remaster. It breaks a few cardinal rules, such as turning a mono recording into a faux stereo one, and involves turning a lot of other dials to extract more from the original recording than we did the first time around. If you're a purist, the original JEMS release version is still on the tracker, no need to grab this one.

But if you're interested to hear what a 2023 Otari transfer and years of software progress and new approaches can do, take a listen. Instrument separation, richness and overall fidelity are markedly improved. It's almost as if a layer of gauze was removed. The new edition has also been pitch adjusted (the original wasn't) and we've included a before and after sample in the comments so you can hear the difference.

We are quite pleased with the results of this radical remaster and we hope you will be too. Our hat goes off again to SG for his remarkable work in the ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond capturing these shows in the first place. Thanks as well to mjk5510, for his steadfast support of JEMS’ releases and Professor Goody who helped get the pitch corrected.

What follows are the original notes from the first release of the Queen show back in 2009.

Original Notes:
Yet another in a long line of JEMS master recordings. This recording captures Queen touring in support of the A Day At The Races album in superb sound quality. Unless our research is incorrect this is the first time this recording has ever been circulated complete (previous known versions are missing Tie Your Mother Down, Stone Cold Crazy and Keep Yourself Alive), in the correct running order and from a non bootleg LP source.


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dzhiplEs_4Qk_0Q4Cxcfvj72JaR8Rjyl?usp=sharing

+

Artist: Thin Lizzy
Date: 1977-03-13
Location: Seattle, WA
Venue: Seattle Center Arena
Source: Audience
Lineage: Master Reel @ full track mono @ 3 3/4 ips(Tandberg Model 11)>cdr(Marantz CDR-610 CD recorder)>single wav file>flac(tracked out using cdwave)
Taping Gear: Tandberg Model 11 R2R deck, Sony mic
Taped and transferred by: JEMS

Band Lineup:
Philip Lynott - Bass, Vocals
Brian Downey - Drums
Scott Gorham - Guitar
Gary Moore - Guitar

Setlist:
01. Introduction
02. Jailbreak Intro
03. Jailbreak
04. Massacre
05. Emerald
06. Still In Love With You
07. Warriors
08. Don't Believe A Word
09. Cowboy Song
10. The Boys Are Back In Town (incomplete, end cut)

Notes:
An excellent sounding but incomplete JEMS master recording. This show captures Thin Lizzy touring in support of the Johnny The Fox album as an opener for Queen. Unfortunately the recording is incomplete because only one reel was put aside to tape the opener this night and once it ran out that was it. This is one bad ass recording and balls out performance that captures the energy and passion of a live Thin Lizzy show during what later was coined their classic era.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kFXv4KK2zJrzVnTVRJKiVPI66uUYsRgy?usp=sharing