I would like to get the opinion of the regulars on this site, clearly better informed than me, on something I stumbled upon, on the internet, relative to Roxy Music.
It is a double C.D. of the Roxy concert from the Newcastle City Hall. 1974. It has arrived, wonderfully presented, with the "Island" logo, as a promotional C.D. Emblazened in a cover, that is mostly in black and white, with "Roxy Music" written, on the cover, in pillar box red, along with the track listings and an "extra" version of "Ladytron". live in Oakland Calafornia, 20.4.97. Never heard such a version of this concert with such clarity and presented in such a way, with all the obvious signs. New or old hat? Can't get beyond Beauty Queen.

(I tried (but I could not find a way) to get the expert opinion of others elsewhere however, they all seem to be pre-occupied with baby related duties, and quite rightly so!)

Sadie's Fine.

I saw that on Ebay. I can't believe it's an offical Promo, but still a great item. Out of the Blue, Dream Home, If there is something and Do the strand all turned up on Viva from this show. I think Viva was originally meant to be a double album but ended up as a single albums with songs taken from a few different shows. The Viva versions of these songs have been tweaked a bit, with overdubs and Jobsons violin solo on If there is something has been cut short as well. But it is a truly fantastic recording of Roxy at their best.

Here it is:



To my knowledge, the circulating bootlegs of this show are all lossy-sourced from the Wolfgang's Vault stream. An official Island promo would not be. Therefore, the easiest way to tell if this is a genuine promo is to rip a track to your computer as a WAV file (NOT an MP3) and test for lossiness using EAC, TLH, or Audacity. If you need help testing the file, send me a PM and I'll be happy to oblige.

Am I alone in (being a Grumpy Old Man and) finding it irritating when the bonus material has little or nothing in common with the main album?

In this case, if they had nothing else from the '74 tour, why didn't they at least find something else from "Jobson era" Roxy or, better still, just leave the Newcastle gig to stand on its own merits?

It really is awesome. Sound quality could not be bettered. It could and should have been released rather than Viva in that, the highlight(s) on Viva are here included. It also tells me, by process of elimination, where the rest of the tracks on Viva came from. B.E.B., obviously, from the Empire Pool and Pyjamarama from Glasgow. Ferry interacts wonderfully with the crowd as well. Have e-mailed the girl that sent it to see if she can un-earth any other hidden treasures, of which she seems to have many from other artists. Curiously, this concert is not one of them, presently.

So, you've tested it for lossiness, then?

Could you post the results, please?

What's really frustrating is that they recorded so much stuff but will not release it. The OGWT session in 1972, The John Peel stuff from 1972 and 1973, Wembley 1975 was recorded and videod. Glasgow 1973 was recorded as well. I realise that it all needs a load of production work on it , but surely one guy could do it in a year. iIf Bryan's not happy with the quality they should put it out as a download or something similar and not a general release.. Let's hope.

Peanut, havn't a clue what lossiness, uploads, backloads, sideloads MP3's are about. Simply, in layman's terms, i'm saying the quality is as good as buying a C.D. over the counter in any reputable record store. Dizzyness? I'm a total authority on that subject. I'm thrilled to bits at the gamble I took buying the item.

My point is that you cannot know this for sure unless you have tested the files. Full CD quality extends to 44.1kHz, or 22.050kHz per channel. Audio files created from lossy sources, such as the Wolfgang's Vault stream, will still sound very good, but will exhibit tell-tale signs of their origin, as detailed here:

http://wiki.dimeadozen.org/index.php/DimeFAQ:How_to_analyze_an_audio_file_for_lossiness

If you want to be sure, test it. Like I say, I am willing to help, if you can extract one song as a WAV file and upload it via one of the many free file-sharing websites on the Internet. You may have something really special, or you may have the same bootleg that everyone has. If it were me, I'd want to find out.

I ran the discs through Traders Little Helper:

auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.

Detect mode (0..40 with 0 = most accurate): 8 (default)
Disc 1

Track01.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track02.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track03.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track04.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track05.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track06.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track07.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track08.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track09.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.

auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.

Detect mode (0..40 with 0 = most accurate): 8 (default)
Disc 2

Track01.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track02.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track03.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track04.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track05.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track06.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track07.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.
Track08.wav: track looks like MPEG with probability 95%.