Audience

CDR

2

lineage: Audience recording. MS master via JEMS; MS Archive Series No. 2; recording gear: Nakamichi 700s > Sony TC-D5M; 2013 Transfer: Maxell UD-XLIIS and TDK SA-X master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth-adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre2 (24/96 Audacity 2.0 capture) > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone > iZotope MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > FLAC

There are no fades applied to this recording, so the disc splits above are merely a suggestion. You can split between CDs (assuming you burn to CD) anywhere you wish.

Comments: JEMS is pleased to inaugurate a new series of master transfer releases from our longtime comrade, MS.

MS started taping in the late '70s, and while he was extremely active covering the Grateful Dead out west, he branched beyond as well, recording hundreds of shows over the last 35 years. His base rig was a pair of Nakamichi 700 microphones and a Sony D5 recorder. With his years of experience taping the Dead, he worked harder than many to find the sweet spot and get his mics up and away from the audience when possible. He doubled up several shows that JEMS also recorded, but often times MS had the superior location and the better gear.

No. 2 in the series is another occasion where both JEMS and MS were in the house but his recording might get the nod. Clapton's '81 tour was cut short after just a handful of shows when the guitarist developed health problems, so this is a rare show in that sense. JEMS' Clapton master was almost certainly recorded from our favorite seats in the back of the Paramount, whereas MS says the Nak 700s were "held in armpits, 5th row center floor."

The result is a very clear and clean recording with minimal audience interference. Samples provided. I'm EC fans won't complain about another fine document of this brief slice of his touring career.

Thanks so much to MS for opening up his archive to JEMS. We look forward to presenting more of his fine work in the coming months. This is the second of five shows in Batch A.

BK for JEMS

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Additional editorial comments from ademotte:

The JEMS team asked me to prepare a newly surfaced Eric Clapton recording for public consumption from the "MS" archives, and I was more than happy to help. BK told me that the new source of Seattle '81 was done with better equipment in a better location than they were able to obtain at the time, so the recording would likely be even better. Given the outstanding quality of the original release, it was fun lending a hand.

This one is worth the 32-year wait -- a very crisp recording pulled from a good taping location, capturing a unique show. It's somewhat of a coin-flip to determine whether this or the JEMS recording (originally torrented in 2011) is better -- I think the tie-breaker may go to this one because of the better representation of the vocals in an overall excellent mix. Given that there are only a couple of documents of this tour, it's an embarrassment of riches to have an alternate source to the already-circulating JEMS version.

As referenced in the comments above, this was an unintentionally short tour -- after a few warmup dates in the U.K., Clapton kicked off a planned three month tour on March 2 in Portland and ended up scrapping the entire jaunt after only eight shows -- due to unspecified "exhaustion" and health issues (it might be worth noting that he was still battling addiction at this point in his career, so it's likely drugs and/or alcohol played a role). It's a shame, because the shows that actually occurred were quite interesting -- his old friends Gary Brooker and Albert Lee joined him for these dates, and there are a number of tracks in this show (including "A Salty Dog" - anyone know the story behind this track?) which would become rarities in future Clapton setlists. There are a number of great tracks in this uptempo, fun set -- the little-appreciated "Rita Mae," "Blow Wind Blow," and a lengthy, solo-filled "Worried Life Blues" make this one worth having even for the Clapton collector who already has many recordings across his career.

It's a shame that the North American tour fell through, although he did recover sufficiently to do a brief tour of Scandinavia and Japan in the fall (for which a handful of recordings exist). I'm glad that at least one of the 1981 shows exists in this quality.

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