TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
most likely:
Saturday, 5 July 1980
The Palladium
126 East 14th Street
New York, New York 10003
USA
FLAC master, 29 April 2020, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (stereo) {probably recorded by Mike C}: unknown mics > probably Panasonic recorder > analog audio cassette master > home stereo playback > unknown mics/recorder > 90-minute analog audio cassette {from the Gene Poole collection} > Sony TC-WE435 (azimuth adjustment) > Roland R05 (24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (audio cleanup, convert to 16/44) > SHNtool (fixed SBE) > CD Wave (track splits) > TLH (WAV > FLAC8).
Created this text file.
Total running time [46:58]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
01 The Best of Everything [5:50]
02 Breakdown [8:10]
03 Too Much Ain't Enough [5:07]
04 Shout [10:19]
-- encore 1 --
05 Strangered in the Night [4:49]
-- encore 2 --
06 Somethin' Else [2:04]
07 Century City [3:43]
08 Dog on the Run [6:53]
Band line-up:
Tom Petty – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica, percussion
Mike Campbell – guitars
Benmont Tench – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
Ron Blair – bass guitar, backing vocals
Stan Lynch – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Phil Jones - percussion
Notes:
THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 86
Here's the latest installment of the Gene Poole Collection, a random wellspring of recordings which have recently surfaced. To paraphrase Lou: This is gonna go on for a while, so we should get used to each other, settle back, pull up your cushions, whatever else you have with you that makes life bearable in what has already been the start of trying decade...
Some of Gene's handiwork has probably been heard by your very ears before, for the most part via the Stonecutter Archives, but this is the first major unearthing of tapes direct from the legend himself. As promising as that may seem, it's best to let the surprises hit as they are shared. The trade-off to the prolific taping on Gene's part is that the expectations for a perfect track record would be unrealistic and unfair. There will be instances of incomplete recordings, caused by late arrivals to gigs, recorder and mic malfunctions, and other assorted foibles as would befall any mortal taper. There will be times where a master from another source exists which could be superior. For the most part, Gene recorded with a variety of mics and recorders, and many shows suffered from wire dropouts, so that only one channel was extant in the capture. Due warning about the past imperfect given and out of the way, credit should be given where due as well -- for many shows thought lost forever, it's exciting to discover that many of these even in incomplete form have now cropped up.
The transfers, the audio fixes, and the research all have required some lead time -- many tapes had scant info (sometimes just the name of the artist/band, with no date listed for the performance). Needless to say, gear documentation is virtually nil -- if we wait around for that precise detail to be forthcoming, nothing from the collection would probably see the light of day.
This time we're going to join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers over July 4th weekend for the end of one of their shows at the Palladium. Tommy Tutone opened. Tickets were $10.00 and $12.50, a substantial jump up at the time from the $7.50 and $8.50 prices for the single show they played at the same venue the previous November.
There are other sources of the first two nights of the three shows over this weekend, and the setlists were identical. Without access to those shows, the date here is an educated guess. There's a chance this could be the first night's show, from July 4th, but it seems unlikely with no reference being made to the holiday on this recording. Until someone shares the full sets of both those shows again, we're running with this being the July 5th show for now. Opened in 1976 and in operation until 1999, the Palladium had a capacity of 3,800. These shows were promoted by Ron Delsener, and gross receipts over the three-night stand was $112,000.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were riding high at this time, with the triple-platinum "Damn the Torpedoes" album. Post-lawsuit tour, they were back in 1980 after months of inactivity and the band could be seen aplenty on TV. In fact, if this is the July 5th show, NBC-TV was airing a repeat episode of "Saturday Night Live" from 1979 where the band were the musical guests as this show was taking place.
Concerning the quality of the recording itself, it is very stable with seemingly balanced sound. However, it was probably throwaway filler meant to be taped over, unlabeled as it was on side B of a cassette. The recording is all good until the final song where suddenly Gene's voice popped up on the tape, testing the mic by reciting the alphabet right on top of the music, and then it became apparent, he wasn't doing the test at the Palladium but in his living room! Which probably explains why this tape was never labeled -- for whatever mad scientist experiment Gene was running at the time, it appears he probably played back this tape on his home stereo and then re-recorded the show with his mics aimed directly at his living room stereo's speakers. Be that as it may, this less than appealing lineage doesn't render the recording unlistenable. The other source of this show even though complete, purportedly has CDR in its lineage, replete with TAO gaps and skips. Most likely taped by Gene's friend Mike C (more on him in an upcoming TGPC volume), this meta-audience recording might not be anything other than an alternate source, with Gene redacted from the end and therefore sustaining mid-cuts in "Dog on the Run" before tape side runs out, but it's surprisingly clear, and worthy of scavenger mentality if this is in fact the only way this source has survived.
Enjoy,
elegymart
Many thanks!
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