R.E.M.
- University of East Anglia, Norwich, 23rd November 1984
[A Clown On A Circus Mount, Dream Remaster]
Source Soundboard
Track List:
01 Femme Fatale
02 Moral Kiosk
03 Gardening At Night
04 9-9
05 Windout
06 Old Man Kensey
07 So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
08 Seven Chinese Bros.
09 (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
10 Thanks To The Lucy Show
11 Hyena
12 Swing Low Sweet Chariot/Sitting Still
13 Auctioneer (Another Engine)
14 Talk About The Passion
15 Pretty Persuasion
16 Little America
17 Moon River
18 Second Guessing
19 Bandwagon
20 We Walk/After Hours
21 1,000,000
22 Ghostriders In The Sky
23 See No Evil
24 Wendell Gee
25 Just A Touch
Remaster Notes:
Many thanks to Mike & all who shared along the way, much appreciated.
MEGA thanks to Zizi for the lovely artwork.
Outstanding soundboard source.
This remastered really well, sounds lush.
Cannot go wrong with this, sure to please!
Enjoy...
"A Clown On A Circus Mount", was Dream Remastered @ Reflecting Sound Studios,
Southampton, England, Winter 2020.
Do NOT sell this recording.
Freely given to you, so don't charge others.
Do NOT sell it on Ebay or Ioffer or any other place.
Buy the Records/CD's/Go to shows if there are any.
Support the artist anyway you can.
Failure to comply will result in the karma police visiting.
Want to share this?
That is fine all that I ask is keep these notes with your shares, thank you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
Original Notes/Review:
The Norwich show was a bit of a surprise when I first laid my hands on it.
There are two versions of this show, a more normal audience-sounding version, which
is a full version of the show,
and the Soundboard version that is missing two songs (Driver 8 and Radio Free
Europe).
This review is on the soundboard show.
When I first ran across this show in Low Yo Yo�s I had not been aware that this
even existed.
Only two days earlier the famous Nottingham show that has been shared too many
times to be counted is a comparison with this show.
While on the surface, the Nottingham sounds more bass heavy, it also sounds like a
larger venue.
This show, on the other hand, sounds like a more intimate venue and for that you
get a better sense of Stipe.
I thought that on many of the soundboards that were done during the tours
supporting Reckoning were very vocal shy.
This performance has plenty of Stipe and his mumbling.
There are a few key moments that should be cherished on this performance.
First off, it is the first time that the band performed Bandwagon,
and out of all the performances of this particular song (only 15 live) this is the
best copy out there.
The second standout performance �Wendell Gee� would definitely be one of the top 2
performances.
Wendell Gee also falls into the category with Bandwagon in that it was performed
only 12 times live!
While I would definitely recommend the �Cutting Edge� version, which should pop its
pretty little head up on the new IRS Best of DVD,
other good versions of this show exist on October 6, 1984 St. Louis show as well as
the December 4, 1984 Dublin show
although they are slightly lesser quality.
This was also performed at the Nottingham gig mentioned above
but the soundboard boot that is selling for 25 dollars does not include it on
there.
Next to the Cutting Edge performance, the Norwich copy is the cleanest version
available and the one that is most �Wendell Gee� sounding,
as the version on the �Cutting Edge� is acoustic.
It is unfortunate that R.E.M. has failed to come to terms with �Wendell Gee�,
truly one of the most beautiful and more stunning songs in the R.E.M. catalog.
From what I understand, Peter had some issues with the song and never liked it.
Mike Mills did perform it a couple years ago when he also sung the infamous �Eagle
Song�, and claimed to have written it.
Looking back on �Fables of the Reconstruction�,
I felt that the song has always been a great bookend to that album and maybe one
day we will be blessed with them once again performing it live.
Otherwise this boot contains pretty much a standard fare of R.E.M. songs for the
Reckoning Tour.
The beginning of the show starts off quite odd with "Femme Fatale" which makes it
interesting.
They also threw in ��Moral Kiosk�,
which had pretty much been eliminated from the setlists by this time of the tour,
and there is a nice rendition of �We Walk� close to the end of the show that always
is fun with Stipe doing his �Behind Closed Door� rendition;
albeit this time around I think he is spending more time in a library.
The song quickly gets transformed into the Velvets �After Hours�, before kicking it
up a notch with Chronic Town�s �1,000,000.
A couple of standard covers, the aforementioned �Wendell Gee�, and �Just a Touch�,
close out the show.
Look for this one if it ever pops up on Dime or another Bit Torrent site or scours
the Trading lists for this one,
and make sure it�s the Soundboard version.
It�s always been underrated in my opinion, and should be in every R.E.M. fans
collection.
Eric Zimmermann
