"KeithM Master via JEMS"
Recording Gear: Sony ECM-939 Stereo Microphone > Sony Walkman D6C
JEMS 2017 Transfer: master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96 capture to .wav) > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 6 mastering > iZotope MBIT+ resample and dither to 16/44.1 > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.37 > FLAC
01 Where The Streets Have No Name
02 I Will Follow
03 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
04 MLK
05 The Unforgettable Fire
06 Bullet The Blue Sky
07 Running To Stand Still
08 A Sort Of Homecoming
09 Sunday Bloody Sunday
10 Exit
11 In God’s Country
12 Gloria
13 Bad
14 October
15 New Year’s Day
16 Pride
17 With Or Without You
18 I Shall Be Released
19 40
Known Issues:
-Where The Streets Have No Name: splice
-The Unforgettable Fire: splice
-Sunday Bloody Sunday: splice towards end
Introduction To The KeithM Masters
JEMS is pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM to U2 fans the world over and restart our series from the original Joshua Tree tour now that the 2017 edition has ended.
KeithM recorded hundreds of concerts in, around and beyond Southern California starting in the early ‘80s, including what can only be described as a series of essential recordings from April 1987, the start of the Joshua Tree tour. Of the tour’s first 16 performances, incredibly KeithM recorded nine of them using a Sony ECM-939 stereo microphone and Walkman D6C. In my opinion, they range from really good to excellent and offer a striking balance in that they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, but somehow little to no up-close chatter or talking.
Some of KeithM’s recordings have circulated before (though perhaps not all?) and the lineage of what is around ranges from an analog generation or two removed to “unknown.”
This series presents the first proper digital transfers ever made from KeithM’s metal master tapes and as such we believe each and every one of them represents a substantial upgrade to circulating copies of these nine incredible shows. In other words, 30 years later, we get to hear some of the formative shows of the original Joshua Tree tour in best-ever quality thanks to the remarkable preservation and generosity of KeithM.
Los Angeles, April 17
The first show of a high-profile, five-night stand in Los Angeles that is one more step in cementing U2’s position is the biggest band in the world at that moment. I suspect KeithM’s recording is the source of an earlier release of the show titled Rock ’N’ Roll Noise In Los Angeles (there’s also a second recording, done by our compatriot BrotherKM, which is missing a few tracks). Some of Bono’s comments strongly suggest he recognizes the moment himself.
The crowd this night sounds absolutely bonkers which might explain why the recording has some minor cuts in it (noted above), which I’m guessing may have been caused by KeithM being jostled in his very close taping position. Cuts aside, it is another mighty fine recording that runs a little hot in the volume peaks, as KeithM preferred. Samples provided.
Set wise, the only material change from San Diego 2 is the return of “40” to end the show. But there’s no doubt the band is getting tighter and the set stronger. This period the tour is hard to beat and the nights that follow only build from here for the most part.
I’d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and allowing us to share his work. He is enjoying reading your comments so please keep them coming. Special credit goes to DIME member bitrate for helping me connect to KeithM and remaining persistent as the months went by before we finally got things going with the tapes. Lastly, there’s no one JEMS trusts more to handle post-production of this series than our esteemed colleague mjk5510. Thanks to him for his continued critical support of our efforts.
BK for JEMS
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