Mott The Hoople + Peter Frampton @ Detroit, MI 1973-07-29

 


both at https://pixeldrain.com/l/WxWaRAA6

LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

Mott The Hoople
Ford Auditorium
Detroit, MI
July 29, 1973
Secret Origins: JEMS 8-Track Master Series Vol. Seven

Recording Gear: Lloyd's 8-Track Cartridge Recorder > Lloyd's microphones

JEMS Transfer: Master cartridge > Panasonic 8-track player > McIntosh C32 Preamp > Wavelab @ 96/24 .wav capture > iZotope RX and Ozone mastering > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Sweet Jane (Velvet Underground)
02 All The Young Dudes (David Bowie)
03 Jerkin’ Crocus
04 Just One Of The Boys
05 Rock And Roll Queen
06 Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones)


Known Faults:
Honky Tonk Women: start cut / end cut

Hello and welcome to the seventh volume of JEMS’ Secret Origins series, presenting for the first time some of our earliest recordings, captured on and transferred from the original master 8-track cartridges. It also doubles as a remembrance of our late, great friend, partner and taper of this concert, Jared Houser, who died on October 29, 2016, succumbing after a six-year battle with cancer. Just last month, Jared was joined in the great tapers section in the sky by JEMS’ other stalwart founder, Stan Gutoski. I miss them both every day.

Before he died, Jared wrote this about his earliest 8-track recordings:

Let me shine a little light on the early days of JEMS, the secret origins so to speak.

Before the hard drive recorders, before the DATs, before the many generations of Sony cassette decks, there was a guy in Tacoma recording on a Tandberg mono reel to reel (Stan), and, in the alternate universe that is Detroit, there was me and the opposite of a Tandberg, a Lloyd's 8-track cartridge recorder.

I started using the 8-track cartridge recorder because it had external mics and, most importantly, had adjustable recording levels (though oddly, no VU meters, which made things a little difficult). It took some trial and error to figure out how to set the input volume to record without distortion. Sadly, Pink Floyd at Cobo Arena in March of 1973 was the first test and I failed. But after that, I had a pretty good sense of where to set the recording level for concerts, even flying blind without meters. I only recorded about a dozen shows on this system before Sony put out the TC-152SD cassette recorder, which took its place for me and triggered the permanent retirement of the Lloyd's 8-track.

***

This release presents Jared’s 8-track stereo master recording of Mott The Hoople headlining a gig with Frampton’s Camel as the opening act. We released the Frampton show a few years ago but had never gotten around to this short but sweet Mott The Hoople tape. Though only 25 mins of the set was preserved, the tape does capture Mott in their prime, a period for which there are very few recordings.

It is also one of the better 8-track recordings Jared ever made, and, for 1973, a very respectable stereo audie. Samples provided.

Highlights include a fine version of “All The Young Dudes,” plus covers of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” and the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.” We also get three of the band’s originals, each a pure blast of rock ’n’ roll.

For years Jared wanted to transfer his original 8-track cartridges, but it is a very difficult medium to work with. The tape itself is problematic and vintage cartridges rarely play without being rebuilt. Finding a high-quality working playback deck is also not easy, and to get the most out of the transfer, head adjustment is key. Sometime circa 2015-16 Jared was finally able to restore and transfer what was left of his 8-track masters.

We post this recording to celebrate Jared, Stan and their legendary work as tapers. They were cornerstones of JEMS and are dearly missed. If you haven’t had the chance yet, I encourage you to watch the 13-minute interview we shot with Jared just a few weeks before his death, in which he shares some of his taping history.

https://vimeo.com/190021070/14a4b5b7ca

Thanks as well to mjk5510 for his invaluable post-production support to get our tapes to your ears.

BK for JEMS



Secret Origins: JEMS 8-Track Master Series Vol. One
Frampton's Camel
Peter Frampton: guitar and vocals
Mick Gabriel: keyboards
Rick Wills: bass
John Siomos: drums

Ford Auditorium
Detroit, Michigan, USA
July 29, 1973
JEMS master audience recording
runtime: 54:57 (minutes/ seconds)

    setlist:
1: it's a plain shame 5:25
2: the light 7:29
3: lines on my face 6:15
4: the lodger 8:25 (cut/ gap at :57)
5: do you feel like we do 9:24
6: band introductions > Jumpin' Jack Flash 12:38 (applause fades out)
   encore
8: white sugar 5:21 (applause fades in)

JEMS Master
Secret Origins: JEMS 8-Track Master Series Vol. One

Recording Gear: Lloyd's 8-Track Cartridge Recorder with Lloyd's external mics

JEMS 2015 Transfer: Repaired Master 8-Track Cartridge > Panasonic 8-Track player > 
McIntosh C32 Preamp > Wavelab 96/24 capture > downsample to 16/44 > Flac 8 > torrentially yours.


Notes from Tapeboy of JEMS:
When you think of JEMS (or, more humbly and surely accurately, IF by chance you think of JEMS), 
artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, U2, The Who and Peter Frampton come to mind. Wait...Peter Frampton???

Let me shine a little light on the early days of JEMS, the secret origins so to speak.

Before the hard drive recorders, before the DATs, before the many generations of Sony cassette decks, 
there was a guy in Tacoma recording on a Tandberg mono reel to reel, and, in the alternate universe that is Detroit, 
there was me and the opposite of a Tandberg--a Lloyd's 8-track cartridge recorder.

I started using the 8-track cartridge recorder because it was stereo, had external mics and, most importantly, 
had adjustable recording levels (though oddly, no VU meters, which made things a little difficult). 
It took some trial and error to figure out how to set the input volume to record without distortion. 
Sadly, Pink Floyd at Cobo Arena in March of 1973 was the first test and I failed. But after that, 
I had a pretty good sense of where to set the recording level for concerts, even flying blind without meters. 
I only recorded about a dozen shows on this system before Sony put out the TC-153SD cassette recorder,
which took its place for me and triggered the permanent retirement of the Lloyd's 8-track.
  
Which brings us to Peter Frampton. I had seen a Frampton-less Humble Pie in December of 1972 
(Roxy Music opened, with Brian Eno in the band! Sorry, no tape). 
That incarnation of Humble Pie was not the same as the band I had heard on Rockin' the Fillmore; 
the element missing was the lead guitar of Frampton.

I first saw Frampton's Camel (as they were then known) in May of 1973 at Masonic Temple Auditorium in Detroit, 
on a bill with Slade and The Strawbs. The highlight of that show was a great version of Stevie Wonder's 
"I Believe (When I Fall In Love With You It Will Be Forever)" which Frampton started on electric piano 
before switching mid-song to guitar.

A couple of months later, he came back to Detroit for this show, opening for Mott The Hoople. 
This is one of my better 8-track recordings: we had front-row seats in the loge; the mix was pretty good; 
and he played a fairly long set for a opening act. Also of note, the version of "Do You Feel Like We Do" 
here doesn't feature the "talk box," which Frampton wouldn't add until his 1974 shows. 
It was also the only time I saw him play a Humble Pie song ("The Light" from Rock On).
 
This is the first of several Frampton shows we recorded, although once Frampton Comes Alive came out, 
the shows became a less interesting exercise in replicating a live album, with too many screaming girls, 
in much bigger places.


Notes from BK of JEMS:
After a few years of false starts with both playback decks and tape repairs, 
JEMS is finally tackling some of our oldest and most challenging master tapes: 
J's 8-track master cartridges. As noted above, J recorded around a dozen shows on the format, 
before switching to cassette, the most famous being his recording of Led Zeppelin at Cobo Hall '73. 
Back in the day, J transferred the 8-track masters to cassette and whatever versions of the shows are in 
circulation came from those first-generation cassettes. The true masters have never gotten out.

We have long had transferring the 8-track masters on our to-do list, and over the years we have managed to 
get a few of them digitized, including the Zeppelin, which was posted several years ago on our behalf by 
Weedwacker67. Two other shows, King Crimson (which cannot be torrented per the NAB list) and Bowie 
(still to come), were transferred through an outside party that proved unscalable, 
The rest of the cartridges not only remained un-transferred, but were were physically deteriorating, 
with most unplayable in their original cartridges. We also wanted to find a deck on which we could adjust 
the playback azimuth to get the most out of what was likely to be their last play ever.

Earlier this year we had a breakthrough when we were able to get two 8-track decks up and running and 
find  a place that could repair and re-shell the tapes. With the tapes now restored to playing condition 
and two decks on which to attempt to get clean playback, J has commenced transferring them all. 
If the decks and cartridges continue to cooperate, Frampton will be the first in a series of JEMS 8-track masters, 
all available for the first time from the actual master recordings.

Thanks to J for having the audacity to tape on 8-track in the first place and for the persistence in figuring out 
how to get these shows transferred. And to glasnostrd19 for his assistance in post production and torrenting to 
get it into your ears.

notes from glasnostrd19:
 typically when I do these I check for level imbalances and loud claps
which are both not very common with JEMS recordings
there was too little of anything in here needing changing to be worth changing anything at all
so I've just taken the files as recieved and bundled them up for posting
after adding track and total show runtimes.
the levels are good and there isn't too much audience noise for a Frampton show
just enough to know it is an audience recording, and a pretty good one for this time
this is a very early Peter Frampton show, before "do you feel"
took on a 20 minute talkbox redundancy residency.
I did not know when I took this show on that it would be the kickoff to the JEMS 8 track Cartridge series. 
but I am happy to bring on the latest JEMS live series. maybe I'll be involved in a few more of these,
and probably some other JEMS projects to come. there are some more on the way.
thanks go out to tapeboy and butterking and the other kind folks at JEMS 
who have done so much to let us hear many previously unheard shows from the 1970's.