The Archive.
Last updated June 2021
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Jeff Baxter and Pat Simmonds © Art Tumelo |
Doobie Brothers Knebworth Festival ( the Bucolic Frolic ) Hertfordshire UK. 1974 July 20th setlist Tuneup. Announcement Listen to the Music Announcement Black Water South City Midnight Lady Rockin' Down the Highway Don't Start Me Talkin' Without You Clear as the Driven Snow Eyes of Silver Long Train Runnin' China Grove Down in the Track Road Angel Jesus Is Just Alright China Grove reprise A great 60 minute show,I actually preferred this to the Allman brothers which followed as it was so high energy from start to finish, the band are blazing and really on top form aided by Jeff Baxter who is phenomenal. Unfortunately there is some talking , mostly during Blackwater, but also more towards the end of the set , which one would have thought would have been the time that people would be dancing and having fun, but sadly there are some guys near the taper who talk quite a lot, not constantly, but enough to be a nuisance. As the chat is on the same frequency as a lot of the music this cant be removed without also removing musical information , I've toned it down where its possible to make it less audible. How anyone can talk during a show with Jeff Baxter totally shredding it is beyond me , but I send the talkers a much belated fuck off for their efforts. Although it was lovely sunny day, there were were wind gusts on occasions, something that plagued almost all recordings from this festival. Fortunately most of these have been repaired as much as possible, and as the show goes on there are fewer of them , this does however mean that bass response has had to be toned down as that extenuates the wind noise :-( For all that probably 85% of this is without talk and wind noise and its not by any menas for completists only. Many thanks to JK the taper who provided me with a copy of his digital master to try and improve, its a very good recording for the era ,especially given it was outdoors and in a field of 70,000 noisy hippies. Lineage BST electret condenser mics and Her CR210 deck > 16 bit digital file> mac hard drive > audition and acoustica 7 premium edits , tone down applause ,improve levels where there were major fluctuations , repair wind noise, take out/tone down other noises and chat > x)> xact flac transfer Recorded by JK to whom we should all be eternally grateful , remastered and transferred by GGB. JK writes " That's what I call total dedication to the cause of retrieving musical documents. You've made it thoroughly enjoyable to listen to even after people got on their feet and built a human wall that dampened the sound so much you could hardly hear anything. Knebworth and most of my recordings during the 70's and 80's were made using Uher CR210 coupled with two BST electret condenser mikes (those were easy to conceal in your boots with the cables running up you legs and stuck under your belt)There was no searching in Knebworth and Crystal Palace as far as I remember ; things were a bit tougher in Chicago and some of the french concerts were a real nightmare because the security guys were bouncers or goons working for the local (political) mafia, or generally both." |
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The Doobies strut their stuff as the sun goes down ... © Tony Brigg |
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Photo courtesy of Henry Cobbold , Knebworth House.
The
Doobie Brothers were
something of a mainstream band , at least if one judged them by their records,
but live they were another matter, on stage they were an extremely funky and
soulful outfit . They were billed above Van Morrison on
the strength of a few hits such as Listen to the Music
and Jesus is Just Alright . I never owned all that
many Doobies albums, but I had friends who were
real fans , and we spent a fair few hours laid back listening to their albums,
the best of which are probably Toulouse Street and
The Captain and Me.
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Photo courtesy of Joseph Kolmansky.
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Photograph © Bazza.
To view a close up of the band click the main photo
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View of der Doobs from just about where the Archive editor was sitting © Tony Brigg |
I
was expecting to be mildly entertained , but the band were top notch . Not an
outfit who were going to go in any different directions on any given night,
but still a highly professional band of talented musos who were capable of stirring
up a crowd and giving them a good time, mainly driven by the twin guitars of
Pat Simmons and Tom
Johnston, their eminently soulful vocals and a
rhythm section that was as tight as a latex glove. They also had more than a
few damn good songs and the combination of the twin intermingled guitars and
spot on vocal harmonies was hard to resist. This show was hot and featured most
of their big hits. By the end of their set they had most of the crowd on their
feet and dancing madly to their music.
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Excellent photos of a Doobie
Brothers concert in Arizona in 1974 can be seen here
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Set list Listen To The Music |
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At
least one audience tape exists of this show . Big thanks
to the intrepid J K - who taped the show - for this set list . As he says "
a
highlight of this show was Tom Johnston's " put your hand together " routine
which worked so well and still gives me a thrill after all this time"
Contents .
or
you can read the individual
Band reviews
which also contain recording details, set list and band line up info as well
as links to each artist where available..
Can we get a witness ?
We have been endeavouring to collect as many recordings of the artists that featured at these concerts as possible, so we can effectively review the performances, provide set lists and band line-ups. Any info displayed on these pages or which is sent to us for review remains the copyright of the contributor and the Archive makes NO PROFIT from its use. The intention is to also display as many personal histories of the festival as possible for the benefit of readers of the site and we welcome all written contributions, no matter how long or short.
If you can contribute in any way, with tapes, reviews , photos or personal histories, please Contact us.
Knebworth Concerts 1974-86
Knebworth links
