My Not-So Fun Lunchbreak.
 

So I'm in the living room taking a break from the day-job, flicking through things I haven't managed to catch on Youtube yet (handily on the TV screen, thanks to X-box), when my partner comes in and says 'what the hell is this? It's awful' She sits next to me and watches for the next few minutes.

And sits, and sits. I won't repeat what she said but it's probably indicative of what most non-fans would think.

It was the footage from Newbury Racecourse. Footage that I'd thought was well filmed and quite clear, and honestly not that bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI4JSPFpzzI

:oops::(

There were a few thousand "non-fans" that stayed to watch after Red Light started at Newbury.

Does what she thinks really warrant a forum topic?

The girls sounded pretty good.:-)

Probably not the first time they've said that. :lol:

That was well-filmed and quite clear.

Looked like the weather was kind of nasty.

Only about as much as what you think warrants a reply :roll:

Yeah, y'know, I hate to say it but having watched the rest it's definitely not one of Meat's better performances, vocally. Which is a shame, as the actual performance is better than I've seen in a long time.

Got a great reception after the show :)

For the hundredth time can someone remind me, was Newbury the first or second show? I'm going with second...

Good for you!

Newmarket was the first
Rainy Newbury the 2nd ;)

It was bloody awful. :evil: :evil:

Thus why I try to avoid outdoor concerts and festivals. Indoor entertainment is far more pleasant. :twisted:

An outdoor concert wouldn't have been my first choice either but I thought that I couldn't really take the chance and lose out on what could have been my last chance to see Meat in concert.

I guess we've all become conditioned as it were ... either your partner is crazy or we're all crazy :D

Oh, she's definitely crazy. But it was odd to hear the reaction of someone who's only used to hearing Meat on the albums versus guys on here, who pretty much consume every performance we can find. And she's got a point - when you compare the Newbury performance to stuff like Storytellers, or the Bat 2 Picture Show footage, it's not pretty.

but also add it was blowing a hurricane with rain coming down so hard , so really you cant compare it

Also 20 years younger, and not filmed by someone who keeps getting the mic blocked on their camera.

I felt vocally he was pretty damn good. The reception of the people there and again a lot of people who had never seen him live before - remember this was races first Meat Loaf second - was very positive.

I think this has been said before. People, that are not fans, who just listen to the vocals will be bummed. In fact, my wife -not a Meat Loaf fan but fairly familiar with the music- makes fun of Meat's 'singing' when I listen/watch something from the last 5 or 6 years. None of the people that I know think the vocals are any good and they are not ashamed to tell me what they really think of it.

And of course I have had a fair share of heat, on this board, for stating my personal opinion on it. Even with my review on the LAB tour.

The thing is, we -fans- don't just listen at a concert, We live/feel/experience a show and everything that's part of it. We know background stories and issues that are playing. We watch the performance. We focus on so much more than just the singing.

While many of the people going to a concert just go there to hear Anything for Love or Paradise, and want to hear the version they are used to hear when they play the single or cd.

It's my believe that this is the reason that Meat Loaf gets so many 1 and so many 5 stars on Ticketmaster reviews. Apart from the bullies and fans who give 1 or 5 stars because they decided to do so before the concert there are many people who experience the show and say 'What a great performance, what an intensity... wow 5 stars' And people who say 'Saw Meat in 1994. He looks old now and his voice is complete gone. Disappointing 1 star.'

Just check those reviews. You hardly see 3 stars, there are a few 2 and 4 stars but overall it's 5 or 1 star. Everything or nothing. And it all has to do with ones expectation.

Probably not an odd reaction, just understandable. The march of time is cruel to us all.

Which is of course the way to approach a Meat Loaf concert, and always has been. You go on to say:

Which has always been unrealistic imo. Meat has never sounded like the studio version of BOOH when performing live, and really I don't think it makes sense to expect that.

I agree with your points about TM reviews .. I just think those who express disappointment may have had completely unrealistic expectations ;) Certainly true of those who complain bitterly he didn't sound like he did on their copy of BOOH.

However, a fairer comparison of Meat then and now is surely to compare apples rather than apples and oranges .. ie authorised recordings, either two studio albums or two officially recorded live shows. To compare vocals on any album he has recorded with a bootleg recording (particularly one recorded by someone in the crowd in appalling weather conditions) is inevitably going to lead to disappointment or disapproval in my view, and is hardly a reasoned or reasonable comparison.

But Caryl, you said yourself that Meat has never sounded the same when singing BOOH live versus the album, so in that respect, the quality of the recording is irrelevant, be it a bootleg or an official live recording. Besides, as we all know, official recordings, whether they be studio or live, can be and usually are edited/overdubbed to some degree, thus are not really a true representation of what the show sounded like on the night.

I know this won't be a popular opinion to some, but the quality of that video is actually quite good (for a boot). Good enough, anyway.

There's a simple solution to Caryl's fruit basket conundrum. Sit your lady down in front of the Guilty Pleasure DVD and then report back. :twisted:

Well, if you take a look at this video you'll find it's actually of a very decent quality. More than watchable, with no sign of any adverse weather conditions at all. The point for me is that we were watching an Alice Cooper video from a recent outdoor festival several weeks before - just a two song clip that helped us decide whether we were going to go and see him live - and he sounded great. Both songs were from the 70's and he owned them. And the quality of recording was arguably not quite as good as the Newbury video. I think the thing that people (non-fans, or non-super-fans at least) have a hard time with is that Meat, on the clip above at least, doesn't really sound anything like the studio recording at all.

And as for official releases - yep, what Julie said - they're overdubbed, mixed, and perfected in a studio environment - so it's never going to be a true reflection of how an artist actually sounds live.

belive me the weather was bad, i was in line the whole day braveing it

Actually I had the following conversation with my wife, while watching GP. On forehand I have to say that I am not a fan of Meat Loaf as an actor. I'm just in it for the music.

Anyway, while the BluRay was playing my wife made a comment about the vocals. Sayin' something like "I can't understand you're listening to this. It sounds terrible, He really can't sing [anymore]"

I tried to make a smart reply, avoiding any debate about it by saying "Yeah but baby, Meat Loaf himself once said -I'm not a singer, I'm an actor who acts he's singing-"

My wife: "No wonder you find him a bad actor" (after which she left the room with a big smile on her face)

What I'm trying to say is that, like my previous statement, it has nothing to do with bootleg material or original material. It has to do with ones expectation. My wife has listened to older bootlegs. Not always great quality but she prefers a bad 1987 bootleg over the 3 Bats or GP DVD any time.

Or as my wife states it "If it's the quality of the bootleg, then why do the band and the other vocals sound great?"

I believe you man - but the video doesn't capture it, so maybe the weather had died down by the time the set had started?