Waso - UK (Sevenoaks), March 1982

TonyRees

Hi all, I have located my audience recording of Waso (Fapy Lafertin, Koen De Cauter, etc.) from Sevenoaks, UK, 22 March 1982 and will attempt to upload it here for the benefit of interested persons. Have not attempted any fancy re-EQing other than a slight tweak when I did the digitisation 10+ years ago - it started life as a stereo cassette recording, 2nd generation (I gave the original to Ian Cruickshank in the early 80s and just kept a copy for myself - with hindsight, should have done it the other way around!) and quality is quite listenable. The gig was acoustic in a largish venue (club room), no PA as there were problems with the latter and the band said, no worries (or similar), we'll just play acoustic... Anyway this has probably not been heard by anyone else in the past almost 40 years, definitely time to share it!

Hopefully the tracks come through OK (changed from .wav to .mp3 files for this upload)...

Enjoy - Tony

Waso - St Julians, Sevenoaks, UK, 22 March 1982 (Tony Rees stereo recording from audience)

Fapy Lafertin - guitar, violin on tracks 8-13; Koen De Cauter - clarinet, saxaphone, vocals, guitar on tracks 8-13, intros; Vivi Limberger - guitar; Michel Verstraeten (?) - double bass

Track list - as near as I can get it - is:

1. Micro
2. I'm in the mood for love
3. Some of these days
4. Sweet Chorus
5. After You've Gone
6. Verte Campagne
7. Topsy
8. Sweet Sue
9. Tears
10. I've found a new baby
11. Blues en mineur
12. Minor swing
13. [gypsy tune #1]
14. [gypsy tune #2 - song]
15. [gypsy tune #3 - song]
16. [gypsy tune #4 - song]
17. Swing guitars
18. Love me or leave me
19. Cavalerie
20. Summertime
21. Honeysuckle rose
22. Les feuilles mortes
23. Les yeux noirs
24. Nuages

01 Track 1.mp3

02 Track 2.mp3

03 Track 3.mp3

04 Track 4.mp3

05 Track 5.mp3

06 Track 6.mp3

07 Track 7.mp3

08 Track 8.mp3

09 Track 9.mp3

10 Track 10.mp3

11 Track 11.mp3

12 Track 12.mp3

13 Track 13.mp3

14 Track 14.mp3

15 Track 15.mp3

16 Track 16.mp3

17 Track 17.mp3

18 Track 18.mp3

19 Track 19.mp3

20 Track 20.mp3

21 Track 21.mp3

22 Track 22.mp3

23 Track 23.mp3

24 Track 24.mp3

TonyRees

There seems to be a piano on one of the gypsy tunes (#13) - maybe Vivi switched to this, I cannot remember...

Also the version of "Les Yeux Noirs" is pretty epic - almost 11 mins!

- Tony

WmTBallard

I saw them in Cambridge of that year, I was blown away by the band and the sound. It was that gig that got me into this shit!

Fapy tells me there is a BBC recording of a television interview the band gave in 1982. I'm in the process of tracking it down. Will keep you updated.

billyshakes

Tony,

Is this the same St Julians? http://www.stjulians.co.uk/st-julians-history/#next

Looks like a neat venue.

Track 14 is Tschawo or Chavo. Transliterating the language will always give you slightly different spellings depending on which system you use. Tcha plays this song and you can find several recorded versions on youtube. One is w/@dennis where he says it was popularized by Schnuckenak Reinhardt. In fact, Dennis might even know the names of the other tunes.

Thanks a ton for sharing this.

Buco

The quality really is good. Every instrument is there in the mix. Tape hiss is there only during quiet passages and with volume way up. That in itself is amazing. Thank you for this Tony!

Noto

Thanks Tony!

BillDaCostaWilliams

Great stuff!

Many thanks Tony for sharing this (and the others previously posted) and for having recorded it in the first place.

Sound quality is impressive, especially as it was audience-recorded and an acoustic gig.

TonyRees

Thanks! Sound quality might have been better again if I had kept the original tape and not a rapid-dub copy - maybe it is around in Ian Cruickshank's late holdings, you never know what might surface one day... By the early 80s my facility for location recording was improving somewhat, having progressed to a mains powered hi-fi unit with manual level control and a long cable, and handheld stereo microphone (but still not as good as later...) - the hardest part was resisting the temptation to talk to one's neighbour in the vicinity of the microphone (and grimacing when others did that) since it would likely override the band sound. But as you say, pretty good all things considered!

I think it is good to share these recordings, not only for others to enjoy, but also maybe to ensure some archival function - who knows what may happen to the original eventually, if I am not around, or in the event of fire/flood/burglary/loss in transit/etc., as well as simple tape deterioration. LOCKSS rules! (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe!) Best - Tony

Buco

I was just thinking earlier "poor guy couldn't move or even shuffle his feet". You deserve a medal man!

By the way if you don't mind I'll create mp3 tags and reupload.

TonyRees

Hi Buco: "By the way if you don't mind I'll create mp3 tags and reupload." Yes that would be fine - I had them spread across a couple of CD-Rs (and a bit out of sequence) after the initial digitisation and the mp3 metadata (track labels) got a bit mixed up via that previous process - now in original order again, but the track labels look odd from 13 onwards. Cheers Tony

TonyRees

It looks like Koen could play piano as well so perhaps he is the mystery pianist on track 13 - as per my photo here from a year later... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fapy_Lafertin,_guitarist_on_stage_in_London,_1983.jpg Cheers - Tony