R.E.M.

Coasters Ballroom, Edinburgh, Scotland
June 25, 1985

soundboard recording (quality Ex--; judging by the great sound, I’m guessing this is from the master tape or a first-gen. copy; the punters get rowdier after the first 4 or 5 songs, so you folks who like crowd noise hang in there — it’s coming…)

The performance? Smokin'...

MUCHOS GRACIAS to the original taper & sharer (whoever you are)

There are a few brief anomalies in the set. The most noticeable is track 2 switching from stereo to mono & back in a handful of places. The latter was necessitated by the repair job I did to replace intermittent dropouts in the left & right channels on that track -- which is still quite listenable.  

01 - feeling gravitys pull (cuts in)
02 - harborcoat
03 - green grow the rushes
04 - laughing
05 - driver 8
06 - so. central rain (i'm sorry)
07 - have you ever seen the rain? (j. fogerty / ccr cover)
08 - can't get there from here
09 - maps and legends
10 - 7 chinese bros.
11 - hyena
12 - (don't go back to) rockville (end cut, fades out)
13 - just a touch

14 - auctioneer (another engine)
15 - old man kensey
16 - little america
17 - life & how to live it
18 - pretty persuasion
19 - this day (? – extemporaneous ditty)
20 - talk about the passion
21 - see no evil (television cover)
22 - second guessing
23 - theme from two steps onward
24 - gardening at night
25 - 9-9
 
TT: 1:24:12 (suggested disc split: between #13 & 14)

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**************end original text*************

Notes:
-MS before Driver 8 "Well everybody has a house and everybody has a train thay goes by it and this is a song about that".
-Before Maps and Legends MS "Time to turn your shirt around".
-Before Hyena MS "Every town has an ambassador [band starts song].  This is one of them".
-Before Just A Touch MM "Thank you, that was fun".  MS "All right, chestnut time.  This is a song that we wrote aout 600 years ago.  Very seldom heard by anyone.  Starts off with a harmonica [laughing, replying to someone]  It does now".
-Track labled This Day is kind of a vocal doodle, started by MS but soon joined y all of his bandmates.  After the song PB or BB "This is for Cot(?) and Patty, ok?"
-MS before See No Evil "This song kind of has some kind of thematic line, along with the last one you just heard.  Maybe from the other side of the fence.  Think about it".
-After Theme From Two Steps Onward one of the guys in a weird voice repeats several times "Didn't like that one eh?"

Grade: A
-has some hiss
-couple spots of brief tape weirdness but really nice dynamics