28.04.1980
UK, Newcastle, City Hall
Crimewatch Revisited
Excellent Broadcast

01. Kid Jensen Intro [1:05] [source 3]
02. Next To You [2:18] [source 1]
03. So Lonely [6:35] [source 1]
04. Walking On The Moon [5:29] [source 1]
05. Hole In My Life [3:50] [source 1]
06. Deathwish [5:25] [source 2]
07. Truth Hits Everybody [2:37] [source 1]
08. Bring On The Night [5:06] [source 1]
09. Driven To Tears [3:55] [source 1]
10. The Bed's Too Big Without You [9:21] [source 1]
11. Message In A Bottle [4:31] [source 1]
12. Roxanne [7:02] [source 1]
13. Can't Stand Losing You [9:02] [source 1]
14. Landlord [2:40] [source 2]
15. Born In The 50's [4:32] [source 2]
16. Fall Out [2:36] [source 2]
17. Next To You (reprise) [0:48] [source 2]

Total Running Time: [1:17:03]

Newcastle, City Hall, 1980-04-28, second set only, BBC FM radio broadcasts (via the soundboard), Total size: 458.7MB (flac level 5)

Contrast clause: 
This recording is a compilation of three existing sources (seemingly all from different lineages). One of these sources (source 3 below) is currently available on Dimeadozen.

Source 1: "Crimewatch" silver CD produced in 1992. Bought some 15-19 years ago and ripped (via EAC). Lineage unknown, but excellent quality. I'm guessing from a later BBC FM broadcast than the other two sources, via high quality tape. (I'm sure this has been on Dime at some stage, but I couldn't find any record of it).

Source 2: "Walking On The Moon" silver CD produced 1994. ChrisA (on Dime) had a copy which he kindly ripped (via EAC) and uploaded to me directly. This is from the original BBC FM broadcast that took place five days after the event. Sounds like a low gen (but ageing) tape, with considerable FM noise in places.

Source 3: A recent Dime torrent, uploaded by metro_cubo called "LDB Special Series #238": http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=315870. From the same broadcast as source 2 (but by a different taper on different equipment). Higher generation than source 2.

All 11 songs from source 1 are included. Five additional songs are taken from source 2. The announcer intro is taken from source 3. All sources were pitch corrected. Source 2 and source 3 were also denoised and EQ'd. The whole show was then retracked, flac'd and uploaded.

Basically, this recording is a pitch corrected Crimewatch CD with the introduction and five extra tracks blended into the mix as seemlessly as possible.

Note:
This has always been one of my favorite Police gigs. The audio quality of the Crimewatch CD is great, but I knew it wasn't the full playlist from the second set. So, when I recently learnt that there were two alternative and more complete versions, I thought it would be worth trying to put together a compilation. The aim was to recreate the full setlist with the best possible quality using minimal editing or sound processing. Initially I thought this would be a simple cut and paste job, but it turned out to be more much involved...

Since the Crimewatch CD was the best quality source I have available, I used this as the basis for this recording so virtually every second of it remains. However, it was rather slow, so pitch correction was applied and a litte extra gain but that's all. It seems to come from a later BBC broadcast than the other sources... The second and third sources both contain more or less the full gig and appear to come from the same BBC FM broadcast that took place five days after the show - there was a news interruption during Walking on the Moon in both of them.

It was a really tough to decide which sources to use for the tracks missing from Crimewatch. Unfortunately both of them had issues including FM reception noise, the condition of the recordings, and the overall lineage degradation. In the end, I decided to go with source 2 for all tracks since this generally had a fuller (though slightly duller) sound - the audio was easier to clean up without doing anything too drastic, basically some pitch correction, mid-side denoise (for the FM static) and a touch of EQ. For completeness, I included the short (but cheesy) on-stage intro by Kid Jenson from source 1 since it gives some context - the last gig of the tour, in Sting's home town - this was also pitch corrected, dehissed and EQ'd.

Notes:
Deathwish is great! One of the earliest versions of Driven To Tears. The fireworks at the end trigger Stewart's space drum.

Remaining Issues:
There is still some FM static evident at the start of Deathwish. There is still some minor FM static at the start of Fallout. Things start to deteriorate a little (minor tape phasing) during the last two tracks.

Thanks to: 
ChrisA, metro_cubo / ldb, everyone else involved in making of these recordings
Finally, if anyone has a better version of the tracks not on Crimewatch please let me know. I'd just love to do this all over again. :P
Enjoy, JamieR007, 2011-05-02.

Dimeadozen.org: Torrent 355500 (by JamieR007)