| Marillion - So Here We Are Once More (PRRP012) |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes |
| Recorded at the Reading Festival, Reading, UK. Great recording, mostly taken from a radio broadcast. From the info file: PRRP012- Marillion SO HERE WE ARE ONCE MORE AUG 27, 1983 (Reading Festival, UK) 1-1. Radio Announcement #1 0:26 1-2. Grendel 17:27 1-3. Radio Announcement #2 0:13 1-4. Garden Party Intro 0:29 1-5. Garden Party 6:49 1-6. Script For A Jester's Tear 8:55 1-7. Assassing Intro 0:30 1-8. Assassing 7:28 1-9. Charting The Single 5:14 1-10. Forgotten Sons Intro 0:40 1-11. Forgotten Sons 10:33 1-12. Market Square Heros 4:19 1-13. Margaret (incl. Jean Genie & The Web 6:35 1-14. He Knows You Know 5:36 'So Here We Are Once More' The Reading Rock Festival is one of the most important annual rock music events in Brittain. It began in 1961 as a jazz event at Richmond Athletic Ground in Surrey, England. Artists performing at that time included Mike Cotton, Tubby Hayes and the Clyde Valley Stompers. Each year the festival grew in popularity and attendance. By 1963, there was a shift towards a Blues style with Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones highlighting that event. In 1964, the festival was renamed the National Jazz & Blues Festival. In 1965, even the Beatles’ John Lennon and George Harrison were seen to attend, though they did not perform. As the event grew in size and importance many of the most popular rock bands of the time were drawn to perform at the annual event. The Who in 1966, Jethro Tull in 1968, and both Pink Floyd and Yes in 1969. As it evolved, new sites were used to host the festivities. In 1968 it was held at Kempton Park Racecourse. 1969 saw it was moved to the Plumpton Racecourse in Sussex, and finally in 1971, the festival was moved to Reading England. Despite the continued inclusion of more and more progressive rock and rock bands, the festival was renamed once more in 1972, becoming the National Jazz, Blues, and Folk Festival. In 1975 posters advertised the event as The National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival. By that time, Genesis and Yes had both appeared twice and audiences had grown to an impressive 25,000. In 1978 the title of the event was finally changed to “The Reading Rock Festival”, but some thought it should be the Reading Mud Festival. 1971, 1977 and 1979 were marred by mud and rain but fortunately for Marillion in 1983 the skies were clear. “Reading Rock 1983” was the second time that Marillion had played the festival. Just one year before, the band not only performed there, but announced their new record contract with EMI; a fact that Fish reminds the ’83 audience during this performance. By 1982 the English music scene was clearly moving away from progressive rock and more to the beginnings of heavy metal. At the time, Marillion shared the stage with Iron Maiden, Michael Schenker and Blackfoot. 1983 was no different as the line-up listed below demonstrates. Yet Marillion’s performance along with Pallas, Pendragon, Twelfth Night and The Enid shows that progressive rock was still an important force in the music of England at the time. Most of Marillion’s set was broadcast over the radio by the BBC. Only 'Market Square Heroes' and 'Margaret' are missing. This performance also marks the very last complete performance of “Grendel”, one of their most famous and popular songs. But Marillion was on the rise. Playing this prestigious event two years in a row symbolized their increasing popularity and was a springboard to many important events to come. Fish once commented, “Playing the Reading Festival was one of the greatest days of my life.” Notes from the Re-Master This concert came from three sources. We were told that it was broadcast in England over two different nights. Only 'Market Square Heroes' and 'Margaret' are missing from the broadcast. These two songs were included from an audience source recording we obtained. The first nights broadcast included the first two thirds of the show. The second broadcast included the last two thirds. Clearly there was overlap. The best of both sources was used to reconstruct that part of the show but the radio announcements from the first show were left in. During this commentary the announcer makes reference to the 46 minute broadcast which only applies to the first night’s broadcast, not the full length of the performance. At the beginning of Grendel, some music-sounding noise is heard during the first minute of the slow guitar introduction. We believe this was actually at the concert because the audience seems to react favorably when it stops. The audience recording of the two missing songs was patched into the proper chronological location. The baseline quality of all three recordings was quite good. However one source had a prominent hum throughout. This required a frequency specific inversion and subtraction technique to eliminate. Once removed, the rest of that recording was full spectrum with audible music signal up to 14,000 Hz. A small amount of noise reduction was needed for the second half of the show. Radio transmission interference disrupted the music only briefly and only a couple of times. Pops and clicks were minimal and tonality required no alteration in the radio broadcast section. The audience recording section did need hiss reduction and tonality adjustment to match the radio broadcast sections as well as possible. |