Peter Gabriel @ Reading Festival 1979-08-26 (SB)

 

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Peter Gabriel
Reading Festival
Reading, England
August 26, 1979
Complete Show Soundboard via JEMS

JEMS Transfer: Low-Generation Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX10 Advanced and Ozone 9 > FLAC

01 Biko
02 On The Air
03 D.I.Y.
04 Humdrum
05 Don't Know How To Stop (Early No Self Control)
06 White Shadow
07 Mother Of Violence
08 Band Introductions
09 Animal Magic
10 I Don't Remember
11 Modern Love
12 Moribund The Burgermeister
13 Perspective
14 Solsbury Hill
15 Here Comes The Flood
16 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Known Faults: "Biko" joined in progress

For those of us obsessed with tracking down rare live recordings, there's nothing quite like receiving the message: "There's a guy in Northern California who used to tape shows with X and he was also friends with engineer Y, who used to do sound for Z, and he's got this box of cassettes he's been sitting on for 25 years."

Such was the case last year when JEMS learned of Michael "Beerman" and drove to his home in Northern California where a cache of rare tapes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and others awaited.

Having made similar treks many times before, I knew not to get my hopes up too high. Sometimes it turns out to be exactly what was advertised, a collection of audience masters or otherwise lost recordings, but just as often, if not more, what you hoped was there turns out to be lesser: not master tapes, recordings of bootlegs, inferior copies, etc. But based on information Michael shared ahead of time, his box sounded promising and it has more than delivered.

This is the third previously unreleased Peter Gabriel soundboard recording from the Beerman collection. It seems Michael was friendly with someone who did FOH for Gabriel and was able to copy several tapes the engineer made from the board. They span 1977-82 and do not appear to have turned up in collector's circles before.

Gabriel's 1979 appearance at the Reading Festival was a one-off gig between his second and third albums. He hadn't played a proper show since December 1978 and wouldn't formally start the China tour in support of the melting face album until February 1980. The setlist largely conforms to what Gabriel was doing in 1978 but includes a preview of the next album in the form of "Don't Know How To Stop" (an early version of "No Self Control"), "I Don't Remember" and the show opener joined in progress, "Biko."

The Reading set was partially broadcast by the BBC and rebroadcast at a later date seemingly with additional tracks, but never in full, omitting the last two songs of the show, notably Phil Collins' vocal guest appearance on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway." Collins also plays drums on "Mother Of Violence." This soundboard tape contains the complete show save for the start of "Biko" which is also joined in progress on the broadcast recording.

Our source cassette bears the hallmarks of being at least two generations removed from the master tape and as such is a bit rougher and less balanced than prior Gabriel boards we've shared from this collection. That being said, it is still highly listenable and supplants the audience recordings of the missing tracks. Samples provided.

Huge thanks to Michael "Beerman" for saving these tapes for so many years and graciously sharing them with JEMS to transfer and distribute, as well as to Nuff & The Pink Floyd Research Group, Walrus and everyone who helped connect with Michael and liberate the cassettes. Professor Goody handled pitch optimization and mjk5510 took care of post production. Thanks to them both as well.

BK for JEMS