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GENESIS - LONG BEACH 1980 [MILLARD TAPE]

April 1, 2023 – 6:13 am

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GENESIS
Long Beach 1980 [Mike Millard First-Generation Tapes via JEMS, 2CD]
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 156. Live at the Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA; May 24, 1980. Very good audience recording.

Thanks to Mike Millard; Rob, Jim R; Barry G; JEMS; BK; Goody; and mjk5510 for sharing the show at Dime.

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Welcome to JEMS’ Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike the MICrophone, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77.

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millard’s original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millard’s master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1992.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that we’ve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mike’s mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFE’S WORK. There’s also a version of the story where Mike’s family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mike’s masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millard’s friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mike’s work.

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Genesis - Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA; May 24, 1980

Known Faults: Some tape drag in “Duchess > Guide Vocal”

As we mentioned in last week’s Peter Gabriel notes, Mike “The Mike” Millard and Jim were deep fans of Genesis. As such, it seemed like a fitting idea to release this superb Genesis show from 1980 on the heels of Gabriel at The Roxy in 1978.

Speaking of the famed West Hollywood venue, this performance at the Long Beach Arena comes one day before Genesis would play a special club show at The Roxy, available as Volume 44 in, and one of the true highlights of, the Lost and Found series.

The Long Beach show offers a subset of the Roxy setlist, missing the special tracks added for that occasion, but by no means a show to sleep on. While Genesis at The Roxy is an outstanding recording for a club show, Mike’s Long Beach pull is a full-bodied arena grab of excellent quality and documents another strong performance. Impressive how many great recordings Millard made in this building.

The only issue with this transfer is some tape drag that hits at the end of Side A during “Duchess.” We don’t know if this is on the master or not, but you’ll notice it here. If down the road we find a different source to work from, we’ll issue an upgrade.

Genesis is on tour in support of Duke, released in May 1980, the album which began the trio lineup’s ten-year run of growing commercial success. Duke spawned a couple of hit singles in “Misunderstanding” and “Turn It On Again,” the former going Top 20 in the US; the latter Top 10 in the UK.

Mike recorded all four of the band’s 1980 shows in SoCal, but unfortunately the May 26 show in San Diego and the May 27 show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles are currently on the MIA list of concerts we know Mike recorded, but verified copies or masters of which have yet to be found. Hope springs eternal!

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Here’s what Jim R recalled about seeing Genesis at Long Beach Arena in 1980:

I went with Mike Millard to the Genesis concert at the Long Beach Arena on May 24. 1980.

This show was the night before the famous Roxy show, which we also recorded. Two days later Genesis played The Greek Theatre where we sat in the Pit, Row BB. The Greek is a very intimate outdoor venue and was the only gig where I took pictures of Genesis in 1980.

All three concerts were played in smaller venues compared to The Forum, where they could have easily sold out multiple nights. So in a sense the tagline they used for the special Roxy gig, “Give Back to the Fans,” really applied to the entire week in Los Angeles.

The capacity of Long Beach Arena was around 4000 less than The Forum, and more importantly, security in LB was not as tight as Inglewood, so we got Mike’s rig in without a lot of hassle.

We sat on the floor, Section A, Row 12. If I could have pulled out a tape measure to figure out our distance from the stage at Long Beach, that same distance at The Roxy would be outside the building, maybe on Sunset Blvd. Still, 12th row in an arena is nothing to sneeze at and also provided more protection from the prying eyes of security.

Tickets for the Long Beach Arena meant going through Troy Tickets and their maddeningly high prices. The 12th row was all we could afford.

Fun Fact: You can hear Mike during the booing section of the tape just before “The Lady Lies.”

Genesis Long Beach was a great show. I hope you enjoy it as much as Mike and I did.

Cheers to my buddy Mike. RIP

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JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G and many others to release Millard’s historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We can’t thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mike’s precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jim’s memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mike’s incredible audio documents.

As always, we couldn’t maintain the Lost and Found series without the help of JEMS’ extended family. Thanks to Professor Goody for always helping out on pitch adjustments and to mjk5510 for post production and cover art. It was great to see you and J a couple of weeks ago.

Some of you have written to ask how close we are to the end of the Lost and Found series. Not close. There are still many DIME friendly shows to get to as well as a trove of shows best released elsewhere due to NAB-list artists (I’m looking at you Guns N’ Roses) or official release conflicts. All in due time, though with the uncertainty surrounding TTD, it is a good reminder that we live in a golden age of live recording collecting. Thanks to the DIME leadership and mods for keeping this extraordinary platform going for the benefit of deep music fans. Please consider donating AS JEMS DOES to make sure DIME continues to be the greatest directory of concert recordings ever.

Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

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Lineage:
AKG 451E microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 cassette recorder
JEMS 2022 Transfer: Mike Millard First-Generation Cassettes > Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

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Disc 1
Track 101. Deep In The Motherlode 6:22
Track 102. Dancing With The Moonlit Knight 1:51
Track 103. Squonk 7:33
Track 104. One For The Vine 11:04
Track 105. Story Of Albert 3:55
Track 106. Behind The Lines 5:36
Track 107. Duchess 6:50
Track 108. Guide Vocal 1:26
Track 109. Turn It On Again 4:38
Track 110. Duke’s Travels/Duke’s End 11:55
62 mins

Disc 2
Track 201. Say It’s Alright Joe 10:35
Track 202. The Lady Lies 8:19
Track 203. Ripples 10:02
Track 204. Band Introduction 2:35
Track 205. Misunderstanding 3:59
Track 206. In The Cage 8:44
Track 207. Afterglow 4:47
Track 208. Follow You, Follow Me 4:28
Track 209. Dance On A Volcano 4:45
Track 210. Drum Duet/Los Endos 6:49
Track 211. I Know What I Like 9:35
75 mins

Lineup:
Phil Collins - vocals, drums, percussion
Daryl Steurmer - lead guitar, bass guitar
Mike Rutherford - bass guitar, lead guitar
Tony Banks - keyboards, piano
Chester Thompson - drums, percussion

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