Barry Rogoff

Thursday, August 12, 2021 7:39 PM

The matrix is now available for download at The Traders Den. There are instructions for anyone unfamiliar with using BitTorrent. Spread the news far and wide that there's absolutely no reason to buy a bootleg of this concert ever again.

Barry Rogoff

Tuesday, August 10, 2021 3:02 PM

The matrix is done and it's a truly unbelievable recording, much better than any previously available bootlegs or remasters. I'm not going to make it available via YouTube videos because they're low-resolution. Email me at brogoff@protonmail.com for a download link using the subject "YES 1974-12-11 MATRIX". (If you're a spammer don't waste your time. Everything else is filtered out.) I've also sent the matrix to Remy Menting to add to his "SONGS OF THE EARTH" site.

Barry Rogoff

Saturday, July 24, 2021 11:44 AM

The two-source matrix is underway. It will be the complete concert, including Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil), side four of Tales From Topographic Oceans, which was omitted from the FM broadcast, infuriating countless Yes fans for decades. I streamed Ritual from Wolfgang's Vault and recorded it in 48kHz 24-bit FLAC format using Jaksta Music Recorder 7. It's ostensibly from the King Biscuit tape archives, which were acquired by Wolfgang's Vault in 2006.

I opened the file in Adobe Audition and compared it to the version of Ritual in the Lampinski audience recording. I've heard enough to convince myself that it's real. At 24.24.431 you can hear Jon say, "Thank you all very much... Take care of yourselves, thank you." It's identical in both versions although difficult to hear in the Lampinski version.

Barry Rogoff

Sunday, July 11, 2021 11:58 AM

The guy who made the legendary PRRP recordings is interested in creating a two-source matrix of 12/11/74 using the best "pre-FM" broadcast source I can provide and the 24-bit/96kHz version of the Dan Lampinski audience recording. Optimally, the matrix would include Ritual, which was omitted from the FM broadcast, angering thousands of Yes fans for decades.

I've been to the Wolfgang's Vault website, which ostensibly has the entire concert, and I still can't find a way to download Ritual in a lossless format. In any case, I'm not convinced that the streaming sample there is actually the Ritual from 12/11/74. I tried to find it for years after the broadcast. I pleaded with the King Biscuit Flower Hour to sell me a copy but never got a response. I finally became convinced that it doesn't exist, or if it does exist it's in a King Biscuit Flower Hour vault where no one will ever hear it again.

If anyone has downloaded Ritual from Wolfgang's Vault and can send me a copy, I can verify its authenticity by opening the waveform in Adobe Audition and comparing it to the low-quality, mono copy I made at the concert. No two live versions of a Yes songs are note-for-note identical and have the same audience noise. In the unlikely event that the Wolfgang's Vault version of Ritual is genuine, I'll be happy to credit you with having provided it in the information included in the matrix.

Barry Rogoff

Thursday, April 29, 2021 10:24 PM

It's been about eight years since anyone posted a review of this concert, which may be one of the most widely bootlegged FM broadcast recordings ever made. I've seen dozens of them over the years. Some were made from off-the-air recordings and some from the broadcast disks that were sent to FM radio stations. I bought one from from EIL, a collector's store in England. It was actually a rebroadcast with different commercials the week of 7/15/2002.

As I mentioned previously, the show was broadcast as the Best of the King Biscuit Flower Hour over two nights. It included the entire, insipid Gryphon set and omitted Ritual from the Yes set, which thoroughly pissed off tens? hundreds? of thousands of Yes fans, myself included, for decades afterward. I had taped the show from the audience and had the only recording of what became known as "The Missing Ritual" but it was made with a mono recorder from the nosebleed seats and was of such poor quality that none of Yes remastering experts wanted to bother with it.

It was in 2014, if I remember correctly, that the complete concert, including Ritual, surfaced as part of a treasure trove of superb audience tapes made by Dan Lampinski of Providence, RI. The audience recording is actually substantially better than the FM broadcast (even the pre-FM disks) because the mix is much better. You can hear Patrick Moraz! He's buried in the FM broadcast mix. It's rare that an audience recording is better than a professional soundboard recording but this proves that it can happen.

You can get a copy of the Lampinski recording from any number of BitTorrent tracker sites including dimeadozen.org. I don't know whether or not it's streaming anywhere. If you don't know how to use a BitTorrent client app and can't find a copy anywhere else, post your email address and I'll send it to you via WeTransfer.

A note about the remasters: I recommend either the raw recording or the Lestat remaster. There's another remaster in circulation made by someone I'm not going to identify but it gives me what I call "listening fatigue." Many years ago I sold stereo equipment. Rather than pushing whatever was in stock as so many other salespeople did, I'd demonstrate systems for customers and then ask them whether or not they wanted to hear more. If they said something like "that was nice but enough for now" I'd know they had "listening fatigue" and would move on to something different. I have the same reaction to that particular remaster. I could never listen to the whole show.

By the way, among the Japanese bootlegs of this concert are some mislabeled "New Haven" (Connecticut). I suspect this was an intentional ploy intended to sell more copies. I've done a careful comparison and it's definitely Boston Garden so don't waste your money thinking that you're getting an FM-quality recording of a different show.

Lastly, with respect to the 2013 post by Anthony David, I spent hours trying to find and download Ritual from "Wolfgang's Concert Vault" and was never able to get access to it. A URL for the download or even just the address of the website would have been infinitely more useful.

Anthony David

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 1:45 PM

A 26 minute plus version of Ritual from this show (?) has been added to the King Biscuit recording available from Wolfgang's Concert Vault.

Tom S.

Thursday, February 21, 2013 10:12 PM

This was my first Yes show. I'm a bit confused at the set list as I can swear I remember hearing Heart of the Sunrise - still my favorite Yes song. I can still hear Patrick Moraz playing Wakeman's piano breaks.

JPrisco

This show is special to me in that I heard it *before* hearing the studio recordings from RELAYER; as you might imagine, this made the album seem rather tame by comparison. This was finally fixed by loaning out my live recording to a good friend, which as we all know means never seeing it or the supposedly good friend ever again.

All the RELAYER songs are perfect. CTTE is tolerably decent, though denying Patrick any real chance to shine (possibly because of his low profile in the mix). "And You & I" would be difficult to mess up, though they do manage to miss the vocal mark for much of "Roundabout". Since the non-RELAYER tracks are already well-represented on YESSONGS, this show (being widely available as bootleg) mainly represents an excellent chance to hear the RELAYER material in concert, and Patrick learning to fill Rick's shoes. By 1976, he'd be proving he could do so to capacity & then some -- but that's another post :-)

D. A. Payne

Hello Mr. Rogoff,

I'm not a member of Yes Swap or the other. Started to join Yes Swap once but got so busy I couldn't follow up. My selection of Yes audience recordings is quite small and something suggests most or all items can already be found in your collection, but I'd be happy to trade any or all of them for a copy of this audience recording you describe. All have been or are being professionally archived on gold CDs and a few are 1st generation from original masters of spectacular sound capture.

We've all heard the King Biscuit originated board recordings so know what an amazing night 12/11/74 was. To have an audience recording of this performance would be wondrous. I've said it here and elswhere many times before, but even a C-grade audience recording beats mixed to death, monitor board sourced industry live releases.

If interested, please e-mail! Either way let's hope the coming Rhino live boxed set, which I've ordered in advance, sounds more live than previous releases have.

Sincerely,
reem@mindspring.com

Barry Rogoff

Yes, I am planning to share it but my last review was deleted. Apparently Pete has a problem with me posting a link to my website. You can find me on YesSwap and YesFans.

Scott Eden

This is a great show, with the band firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, all circulating recordings are missing Ritual. Which brings me to...

Barry Rogoff wrote: "I recorded the show from the audience"

So Barry, any chance of your sharing this recording??? I think we all would like to FINALLY hear Ritual from this show.

Barry Rogoff

The set list is correct except that Yes did not play South Side of the Sky. I know this for a fact because I recorded the show from the audience, not knowing that it would be broadcast on the "Best of the [King] Biscuit [Flour Hour]". By the way, the broadcast, which was split over two nights, included the entire Gryphon set but skipped Ritual. Go figure.

Mike Borella

Sound Chaser - Includes the Firebird opening. Alan plays percussion during the classical intro. As it gets to that critical moment where the band is about to come in, instead of hearing the guitar riff of Siberian Khatru or the familiar chords of Parallels, the cha-cha's of Sound Chaser are followed by Patrick's quick keyboard intro, Alan's drums and Chris's bass run. The song is just about note-perfect to the studio version, including Steve's "solo" at the 3 minute mark. His distortion is heavy and high on presence, similar to the Relayer album. This holds true for the entire recording. Jon's voice is strong, but his timing is a little off when he doesn't have Chris and Steve singing backup. Nothing major though.

Jon announces that they are going to play the whole Relayer album, then introduces 'To Be Over'.

To Be Over - I've always had trouble figuring out which parts are played on the electric guitar and which are played on the steel. Some are obvious, some are not. Oh well. This one is pretty much the same as Sound Chaser - perfect.

The vocals at the beginning are beautiful. Timing is exact. This version puts a bit more emphasis on the bass and keyboard parts, and listening closely I can hear a few notes and fills that I'd never noticed before.

Close to the Edge - A direct segue from the last song. I was interested to hear how Patrick played Rick's keyboard parts. Unfortunately, the keys are mixed down a little in this one. I know he's doing something different during the first four minutes, but I'm not sure what. Whatever it is, he sure is moving! Jon's voice is right where it should be and Steve just never stops with the fills. The soft part is from about 10 minutes into the song until the 16 minute mark. Alan makes interesting sound effects with cymbals and other percussives. Again, the keyboards are overshadowed by Steve's harmonics, but they can be heard if you listen closely. The explosive keyboard part is played very Wakeman-esque and so is the solo, but once again, mixed a little too low to really hear what Patrick is playing. As far as I can tell, he doesn't play the same exact part, but it's so close it doesn't matter.

And You And I - I can't say too much about this one. I've heard many live versions of this song from the 70's, and they are all similar. The keyboards take a much larger role once again. During The Preacher The Teacher, someone (Chris, I think) throws in a quick harmonica. Like the others, this version is very precise. The steel guitar/keyboard theme is majestic.

A quick drum roll, then Jon mentions that he wants everybody dancing and singing.