roio

ELTON JOHN - LOS ANGELES 1979 [MILLARD TAPE]

April 6, 2023 – 7:35 am

Fifty years ago today, Beatle George told us that All Things Must Pass. Then he told us about Living in the Material World. For 36 years, BigO has been trying to keep the spirit and history of the music alive. Before all things pass, we still need your help to live in this material world. You can help us to do this with a kind donation. Please give what you are happy to give…

HOW TO DONATE
Our costs will always be there. So readers who can donate towards the cost of the site, please open a Skrill account. Readers who wish to contribute to BigO will now have to use Skrill (click here). We are no longer able to use PayPal to receive donations. Register an account at Skrill. To make a payment, use this e-mail address as recipient’s e-mail address in Skrill: mail2[at]bigomagazine.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW
To reduce spamming, the BigO website is going through Cloudflare. What it does is scan your browser to ensure the visitor is not a spam. Do not be alarmed as this usually takes only a few seconds.  Email us if you still have difficulty accessing the BigO site; or playing or downloading the tracks. If you know a better way of reducing spam, do let us know.

+ + + + +

PROBLEM DOWNLOADING
If you encounter access or downloading issues, try using Firefox [as the track is playing, you can download it as…]. You can also try Avast Secure Browser.

+ + + + +

Click on the panels for a better view or to download jpg artwork.

ELTON JOHN
Los Angeles 1979 [Mike Millard First-Generation Tapes via JEMS, 2CD]
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 179. Live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA; October 6, 1979. Very good audience recording.

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

+ + + + +

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.

+ + + + +

Elton John - Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA; October 6, 1979

Our recent theme of companion titles continues with this week’s release: Elton John performing the final night of a ten-show stand at the Universal Amphitheatre. The Back In The U.S.S.A. tour saw John perform solo for the first time in years, joined later in each set by percussionist Ray Cooper. Interestingly, Elton had not played Los Angeles since he wrapped his 1975 West Of The Rockies tour with two legendary nights at Dodger Stadium. This is the companion to Vol. 153 in our series, which presented the September 26 show, the fourth show in the stellar run.

The set lists between the two shows are similar, but Mike “The Mike” Millard is in a superior taping position on October 6 and his work on night ten doesn’t have the minor technical issues that we had to fix on Vol. 153. The result is an outstanding capture of an outstanding show, one of Millard’s best Elton recordings and surely among the best captures of the tour.

A recording of this show is available for streaming on YouTube but a quick comparison suggests it is an alternate pull, which leads us to believe this may be the first time Mike’s recording of the October 6 show has ever circulated.

As we wrote in Vol. 153, if you’re a deep Elton fan, there is so much to like about the deep cuts in the setlist and the spirit of the overall performance. We’re thrilled we were able to expand our Millard archive to include this historic recording.

+ + + + +

Here’s what Jim R recalled about Elton John’s closing night at the Universal Amphitheatre 1979:

Mike and I saw Elton John at the Universal Amphitheater on Oct 6, 1979, where we sat in row F of the Orchestra Pit. Obviously great seats. It was the final night of a ten-night stand at Universal. We also attended the show on September 29, where we sat in the first row behind the Orch Pit. See Vol 153.

For this show we sat in the sixth row on the left side directly in front of Elton’s piano bench, perfect seats. With Elton you have to pick and choose your seat location wisely. We learned this over the course of seeing Elton several times leading up to this tour. In those days, his piano was on the left side of the stage. If you got seats close up on the right, all you would see is the piano and his feet, maybe the top of his head if he stood up. Not good. But Mike and I played it smart for this show.

With Universal being near Hollywood, the LA ticket brokers controlled most of the choice seats for this run. Even with ten concerts, choice seats were expensive. As such, we could only afford to go to two shows. Elton had loads of devoted fans, many of whom would go multiple times, so they scooped up a lot of the good seats increasing ticket demand.

Elton John was performing solo and with percussionist Ray Cooper instead of a full band, so Mike and I were thinking, “How is this going to work?” They pulled it off. Ray Cooper was quite the entertainer. He and Elton were playing off each other and their banter was quite funny at times. The arrangements had a different sound to them too but it worked.

The stripped-down approach allowed Elton’s piano-playing skills to be on full display. If memory serves, Ray Cooper did not appear until well into the set during “Funeral For A Friend.”

Despite going to two shows, I only shot a couple rolls of 36 slides total, keeping a low profile so Mike would not get busted.

I hope you enjoy the sights and sounds of this one.

Cheers to my buddy Mike. RIP.

+ + + + +

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.

Our copy of this essential Elton John recording is again courtesy of Jim Ri and we’re deeply grateful to him for sharing his first-generation, Millard-dubbed cassettes of several of Mike’s shows we were missing. Professor Goody took care of pitch check and mjk5510 handled post production and artwork. Much appreciated across the board.

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

BK for JEMS

+ + + + +

Lineage:
AKG 451E Microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 Cassette Recorder
JEMS 2023 Transfer: Mike Millard First-Generation Cassettes > Nakamichi RX-505 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture 2496 > iZotope RX10 > iZotope Ozone 8 > MBIT+ resample to 1644 > Audacity > TLH > 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.

Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later.

Kindly email us if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files. Also email us if you have any rarities you’d like to share with our readers.

+ + + + +

Disc 1
Track 101. Your Song 5:00
Track 102. Sixty Years On 6:08
Track 103. Daniel 4:03
Track 104. Skyline Pigeon 4:00
Track 105. Take Me To The Pilot 6:32
Track 106. Rocket Man 10:19
Track 107. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me 5:19
Track 108. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 5:37
Track 109. Roy Rogers 3:29
Track 110. Candle In The Wind 4:45
Track 111. Ego 3:59
Track 112. Where To Now St Peter 4:36
Track 113. He’ll Have To Go 3:48
Track 114. Elton’s Song 2:48
Track 115. I Heard It Through The Grapevine 9:24
80 mins

Disc 2
Track 201. Funeral For A Friend 4:27
Track 202. Tonight 5:39
Track 203. Better Off Dead 3:21
Track 204. Idol 3:44
Track 205. I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself 3:32
Track 206. I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford) 3:32
Track 207. Scott Joplin Rag/Bennie And The Jets 10:37
Track 208. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word 3:28
Track 209. Mama Can’t Buy You Love 3:30
Track 210. Part-Time Love 2:51
Track 211. Crazy Water 8:39
Track 212. Song For Guy 6:57
Track 213. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting/Pinball Wizard 10:59
Track 214. Whole Lotta Shakin’ 1:19
Track 215. I Saw Her Standing There 2:12
Track 216. Twist And Shout 1:29
Track 217. Crocodile Rock 1:07
Track 218. Back In The USSA 1:16
79 mins

   Click here to order Elton John releases.