Japan: 1985 – The Perfect Strangers Tour visited Japan in May of ’85
Matrix: V (Z)(B) ETS-2575A 121+ E Z ETS-2575B 111+ Z V (Z)(B) ETS-2576A 111+ E Z ETS-2576B 111+
Auctioned no less than 23 times already this decade, which did not help the achieved final prices.
Source: Audience recording from Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, 9 March 1985
2575 A: Intro / Highway Star / Nobody’s Home / Strange Kind Of Woman / Who Do You Think You Are / Blues / A Gypsy’s Kiss 2575 B: Perfect Strangers / Under The Gun / Lazy / Ian Paice / Child In Time Part 1 2576 A: Child In Time Part 2 / Knockin’ At Your Back Door / Difficult To Cure / Jon Lord / Space Truckin’ 2576 B: Woman From Tokyo / Speed King / Burn / Smoke On The Water
The Perfect Stranger Tour, heavily mined by bootleggers in Europe, US and Japan stopped in Japan in May of 1985
Matrix (Side A): Z G V 〄Ⓑ XL-1609A 111+D – (Side B): Z XL-1609B 111+ (Side C): Z V 〄Ⓑ XL-1610A 111+D – (Side D): Z XL-1610B 111+
Source: I have found no website refuting that this is in fact not as stated on the back cover, the first night at Long Beach Arena on 01 February 1985. The only mystery here being mystery track “Who Do We Think We Are” on side one. So, until we have proof that this is incorrect, we are going with that.
1609 A: Highway Star / Nobody’s Home / Strange Kind Of Woman / Who Do We Think We Are / Blues / A Gypsy’s Kiss 1609 B: Perfect Strangers / Under The Gun / Lazy / Child In Time Pt. 1 1610 A: Child In Time Pt. 2 / Knocking At Your Back Door / Difficult To Cure / Space Truckin’ Pt. 1 1610 B: Space Truckin’ Pt. 2 / Woman From Tokyo / Speed King / Smoke On The Water
Quality ratings: “Although the sound is distant feeling, it lacks a little force” – Ëxs” in HOTWACKS
Deep Purple February 1, 1985 Long Beach Arena Long Beach, California, USA Tour: Perfect Strangers
Recording type: Audience Total running time: 116:49
Track listing: Highway Star Nobody’s Home Strange Kind Of Woman Blues A Gypsy’s Kiss Perfect Strangers Under The Gun Lazy (w/Ian Paice Drum Solo) Child In Time Knocking At Your Back Door Difficult To Cure (w/Jon Lord Keyboard Solo) Space Truckin’ Woman From Tokyo Speed King Smoke On The Water
Show comments: Great show and recording from the Perfect Strangers tour. The recording is excellent but it does have a few flaws but nothing major.
The only previous (bootleg) release of Deep Purple’s appearance at the California Jam Festival in 1974 had been the inclusion of one song – “Space Trucking” – on the first release on Contraband’s King Kong sub label, 1974/5 (KK001-A/B):
“Lenny Stogel, former Music manager & ABC Television executive Sandy Feldman decided to sponsor two huge outdoor Rock n Roll Festivals, one in 1974 and the next in 1978 and both Festivals were held at Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, California just outside of Los Angeles. The Festivals became known as CAL JAM and CAL JAM II. Both Festivals were Televised on ABC Television on its “In Concert” series. CAL JAM I in 1974 generated the largest gross income of its time $2,000,000 and drew in 200,000 fans.”
“Most of this concert was broadcast over 4 weekends in April 1974 on KLOS-FM ABC-TV Stereo Simulcast, along with other California Jam artists.” [wikipedia]
The first official release of this performance was on video in several countries from 1981 onward.
The California Jam part of the UD bootleg featured the missing track “Lay Down Stay Down” for the first time, which was not included on any of the later official releases until the remastered version of the official California Jamming CD in 2003. As the complete concert runs over 80 minutes, I suspect that UD made some cuts, most probably in the originally 25 minutes long “Space Trucking”. They also did some reshuffling, as the show started with “Burn”.
6555 A: Space Trucking / Burn / Might Just Take Your Life / Lay Down Stay Down 6555 B: Smoke On The Water / Mistreated / Space Trucking (Reprise)
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The California Jam material was bootlegged on vinyl at least one more time on this four track LP (H-300 A/B) on the European Laughing Clown label, ca. 1983, most likely taken from the video soundtrack (I am not sure I trust the source description given on the back and this label appears to have had a tendency to utilize available video soundtracks).
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Ritchie playing with fire “The fire Marshall said it’s OK – really”
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The second disc featured a copy of the TAKRL bootleg PERKS AND TIT (1930 A/B), featuring four tracks from the final show on the U.S. leg of the tour ‘three days after’ but also repeating “Smoke On The Water” from California Jam. Still, it makes a nice companion piece and shows an above average effort by UD.
This double LP appeared more frequently in past eBay auctions than other UD titles. A recently recorded auction in August of 2014 ended at $100.
Source: Audience recording from the Budokan in Tokyo on 25 June 1973
Side 1: Lazy / Child In Time / Highway Star – Length: 31’42”
Side 2: Space Truckin’ – Length: 26’35”
Notes: ‘Lazy’ edited onto the ending of ‘The Mule’. very good quality recording.
“Well, whatever energy and inspiration the band displayed in Europe and North America was fading fast when they reached Japan. Unlike the show in Osaka on the 27th, where the band is just going through the motions, they seem to tap into that magical resevoir for the last time here. This is a very professional sounding show, with everyone doing exactly what they need to do, when they need to do it. There’s just not as much passion or emotion in the songs as the earlier legs of the tour. It’s almost a “paint-by-number” performance. Apparently the audience felt the same way, because when the band didn’t re-appear after Space Truckin’, the crowd went berserk. The title is an apt description of what transpired. For whatever reasons, the band played a very short show, then refused to return for an encore. Chaos ensued and the rest is history. Probably the best sounding of the 1973 tour boots. “
Set list: 01 Introduction 02 Highway Star 03 Smoke On The Water 04 Strange Kind Of Woman 05 Child In Time 06 Lazy (Intro: America) 07 The Mule 08 Space Truckin’ (Intro: Also Sprach Zarathustra) 09 End of concert announcement
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The crowd was rather unhappy not to get an encore and photographer Didi Zill documented the aftermath of the audience’s reaction:
This article talks from German Bravo magazine about DP Mark II’s last gig in Osaka using an image from the Budokan aftermath.
The band has since used this incident to boost their legendary status. The “Woman From Tokyo” video uses quite a bit of the existing footage and their now out of print LISTEN LEARN READ ON CD box set takes its cover image from one of Zill’s photos.
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DP – Japan Tour 1973:
23 June 1973 Hiroshima, Shiei Taikukan [Shi Kokaido (City Hall), was a tiny venue, with a capacity of less than 1,500.] 24 June 1973 Nagoya, Shikokaido 25 June 1973 Tokyo, Budokan
26 June 1973 Tokyo, Budokan *** forced cancellation ***
27 June 1973 Osaka, Koseinenkin Hall
29 June 1973 Osaka, Koseinenkin Hall (some sources claim two shows were played on the 29th)]
Any bootleg collector seeing the labels of this release would wonder who really produced this, due to the labels, which are not the ones used by Ken’s ZAP releases. These fake Idle Mind labels were found with the above blue insert version. And below one can find the same title, also with a blue insert with Cartoon labels as well:
More variations:
Japan: ca. 1977/8
So, did the fake Idle Mind label re-issue this title or were the producers of the Cartoon and the’ fake Idle Mind’ label (which will be presented in the next post) plus the fake ZAP label titles the same people?
Side 1: Highway Star / Speed King / Wring That Neck Side 2: Never Before / Child In Time / Free Form Part 1 (Wring That Neck) / Free Form Part 2 (Mandrake Root) / Lucille (30:42)
Side A-1, Side B-1,5: London, BBC Paris Theater, 9 March 1972, Sounds Of The Seventies Side A-2,3: London, BBC Studio, 19 February 1970, The Sunday Show Side B-2 to 4: Granada TV, 14 July 1970
Total play time of 58 minutes. All of this material, except B-2 to 4 would be officially released in 1980 as the DEEP PURPLE IN CONCERT double album.
Google has never heard of an official record with this title and if it ever existed it has either remained in total obscurity or was shelved at the last minute and the labels were lying around at an L.A. pressing plant. The third and most favored theory is that this is an invention/meant as a smoke screen and deterrent for closer scrutiny by the bootleggers (Ken?) who reissued (mostly double) TMOQ titles in California around the second half of 1976 / early 1977, reminiscent of the Von Grossenschuss paper label used on Wizardo re-issues I have blogged about before.
It seems that the JL crew liked this label so much, they decided to copy and use it as well.This allows us to date JL 1004 and JL 529 to 1977.
Rolling Stones: GIMME SHELTER / AMERICAN TOUR 75 VOLUME 1, 2 (single volumes of the last bootleg Dub ever released: L.A. FOG (TMOQ 8207/8 – ca. 2nd half of 1976)) / EUROPEAN TOUR 1973
The Beatles: LAST LIVE SHOW
The Who: TALES FROM THE WHO
[There are probably more out there]
Above: White version of the label found on the Zep Blueberry Hill double
Were there any brown U.S. originals? I have yet to see one.
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JL 530: The BEATLES – ABBEY ROAD REVISITED
Quite a change from the original: The copied version of a WIZARDO REKORDS [sic] label.
I have also found these picture labels on a Japanese blog. Does that mean there was a first pressing perhaps that used these?
Deep Purple’s last night of their AustralAsia tour live at the Budokan, 15 December 1975
The official multi-track recorder was running backstage to capture material for yet another Japan only live album (to be released March 1977 as Last Concert In Japan, the 1985 31 minute video compilation Rises Over Japan and finallyupgraded and including the full show in 2001 as This Time Around: Live in Tokyo ) while recorders were running in the audience as well. Apart from the person taping the source that ended up on GET IT WHILE IT TASTES, Mr. Peach also attended this show and his much better recording was released by Tarantura in 2010 as Made In Tokyo (making it the second recording of an already officially released concert among his tapes, his Cheap Trick capture being the other one).
It looks like Marc released this LP around the early summer of 1976, beating the official album comfortably, although lacking in the fidelity department.
“In a 1995 interview, Glenn Hughes calls Last Concert in Japan an “awful record,” and says that it “should never have been released” because “Tommy couldn’t play.” “
Side 1: Burn / Lady Luck / Love Child / Smoke On The Water / Wild Dogs Side 2: I Need Love-Soldier Of Fortune / You Keep On Moving / Stormbringer / Highway Star
The set list:
Burn
Lady Luck
Love Child
Gettin’ Tighter
Smoke On The Water
Wild Dogs
I Need Love
Soldier Of Fortune
Keyboard Solo
Lazy (incl. Drum Solo)
Owed To ‘G’
This Time Around
Guiter Solo
Drifter
You Keep On Moving
Stormbringer
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Highway Star
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Vicky Vinyl must have gotten hold of this title around the same time as MARC’s Suzi Quatro release – 1977, I would guess:
Apart from “Stormbringer”, the bootleg and the official LP selected the same tracks.
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Deep Purple fans must be among the least shy to stick a bootleg under an original member’s nose and ask to have it signed:
