Rory Gallagher Irish Tour '74 Box Set Anniversary Edition

Looks like the smaller 2 CD '74 Full Cork Show is available stateside. Amazon preorder: http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Tour-Sp...qid=1412031683&sr=8-1&keywords=rory+gallagher. Most likely other US retailers.

Now put this full cork show in a nice AAA vinyl reissue and I would be good.

 

I have bought this 8 disc set and it's a big disappointment. Why? Because 4 of the 7 cd's are in mono (!). Can you imagine? Mono? The first 2 discs with the Cork City Hall concert are very much OK. Good mastering. But then: the Dublin and Belfast discs: awful sound. monolike a bootleg. I thought they recorded al these sets in proper stereo. No! I can not listen to this. Rory plays great but the sound is to bad. Disc 7, the In session cd is very good again. Nice stereo, good sounding recordings. Why not al concerts recorded in stereo. Who made this mistake? We fans are not dumb. We have ears! I think I return this set. I'm sorry.

 

I'll find out soon. My set has been dispatched from Amazon UK and for forty bucks it's worth a gamble. No where is the product description does it say that this release is in mono so I'm not sure what's going on.

 

Bummer that 4 discs are in mono but that is not too surprising to me.

Recall this info that I posted earlier:

"Audio will be two CDs each from Cork, Dublin, and Belfast, using original setlist running orders. Cork is taken from the multi-tracks, so that one should sound great. Dublin and Belfast are from soundboards recorded at the mixing desk the night of the shows, so kind of look at those as "official-bootleg" sound and you should not be disappointed."


I wasn't told if Dublin & Belfast were stereo vs. mono, but was told that all they had to work with were the already "mixed" board tapes. Guess those were just mono feeds (?).

 

This is for completists, the people who buy grey area discs so they can hear as much of an artist as possible, sound quality be damned. I was planning on ordering this but perhaps I will settle for the 2 disc version with so much else coming out. But that 7th disc In Session sounds so tempting.

 

Exactly. I've had the original double album since it was released and it sounds great but I want it all. Besides, there's a nice book that comes with the set to and for $40.00 it's a steal IMO.

 

I'm just going to get the 2 CD set.

 

I don't know, it was clear from the press release that only a couple of discs were sourced from multi-tracks. If the soundboard material sounds like crap, that is unfortunate. But, the other source material is from soundboards, so it should not shock anyone that there is drop in quality. This a celebration of a great Rory Gallagher album and a great period for Gallagher. It will be nice to have a comprehensive set at a reasonable price point.

 

I agree, I'm not expecting audiophile sound quality and the price when I pre-ordered it was too good to pass on.

 

I had a beer, pressed the order button and now have the $40 set in que to be shipped.

 

I'm getting the 2 disc with the 8 unreleased tunes.

 

Strange. Even soundboard recordings could be in stereo. These ones are not. And I forgot to say that on the Cork City hall 2CD set track no. 6 Laundromat is also strangely in mono. And worse in audio quality. All the other tracks (also the extra ones) are in nice stereo separation (Lou Martin on the left, Rory on the right). Why Laundromat (a superb Rory song) is not I don't have a clue. These are supposed to be multitracks. I'm sorry but I expected a bit more!

 

I decided to cancel my amazon order at the last moment this morning. I could see it was due for dispatch today and £27.99 was a very good deal but I'm not interested in bootleg quality, if its not to a high standard then I'd rather not have it. Kind of annoying but maybe I was just looking at the overall deal, 7cd's plus dvd, not half bad in this day and age but i'll just wait for now and go for the 2cd version. The DVD gets shown on Sky Arts 1 quite often so will catch it when its shown on there.

 

It's a bit disappointing to hear that there's some sub-par audio quality on parts of this. Is is better or worse than the Meeting with the G Man CD? I found that to be quite bad and I tend to be very forgiving in the realm of audio quality for live shows.

I'm sure I'll find out soon enough once my copy arrives. I know I'll be glad to have it, but if the sound quality is that bad perhaps the Belfast and Dublin gigs may not get as much play as I originally assumed they would.

 

So far only listened to the Cork set but that is really well done, much better than the previous remaster to my ears.

 

The complete box set is now up on Spotify. I have to agree with Larzz, the Belfast and Dublin sets are in mono and very disappointing in terms of sound quality.
Significant amount of distortion on vocals on Bullfrog Blues, for example. There's loads of energy but for me it doesn't compensate for poor quality sound.
I'll be passing on this one, a shame as it was definitely on my wish list.

 

^Agreed. Much like the Deep Purple Made in Japan box it seems this was a swing and a miss.

I just ordered the Cork 2 disc set from Amazon.

 

Yes sound quality on Dublin & Belfast is poor but the performances are very good. The City Hall in Session disc is great though.

Overall the box set is worthwhile

 

Thanks for the warning.

 

I was shocked when hearing the sessions CD, the first two tracks are instrumentals with lots and lots of playing mistakes and wrong notes. No accusation against the players, they obviously were warming up or jamming.
But how can anyone release stuff like that ? It really ruins the artist's reputation.
And the bootleg quality of the two (mono) shows is also unbelievable.

 

The Gallagher "family" and Hendrix "family" both need to show respect to the legacy of Rory and Jimi, respectively. Just my opinion.

 

I haven't received this set yet, but what else should the Gallagher estate have done for this title if the plan to was offer the fan-base an expanded release? Fans long to hear rarities and vault material; and with Rory, very little has been released up to this point. Finally, a set is produced that contains some real authentic vault material and everyone seems to be complaining because it isn't all multi-tracked and contains some loose sessions. I would love to hear live soundboard material and session material from some of my other favorite artists regardless if it was in mono or not. The fact that some prime live Rory Gallagher material is being released should be celebrated. And considering the press release made it clear that some of this material was going to be lower fidelity, non-multi-tracked recordings, I don't see what the issue is. Perhaps my opinion will change once I actually hear it.

 

I don't get the "mono" complaint. If the SQ is not good that is worth noting but stereo vs. mono for rare live (or studio for that matter) material is a non issue for me. As long as the recording is good, I'm good.

 

I have also ordered the two-disc Cork show, thanks to the candid posters above. Not really interested in rough-and-ready mono, or bootleg-ish sound. Many thanks to everyone!

 

Sadly the recording isn't good, it suffers from distortion and poor mixing, the "mono" complaint is probably more like summing up the whole situation.