U2
Sports Arena
Los Angeles, CA
April 12, 1992
KeithM Master via JEMS Recording Gear: Sony ECM-939 Stereo Microphone > Sony Walkman D6C
JEMS 2018 Transfer:
master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2
> Audacity 2.0 (24/96 capture to .wav) > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 6 mastering >
iZotope MBIT+ resample and dither to 16/44.1 > Adobe Audition CC (edit & track split)
> Frontend FLAC (7) > .flac
TRACK LISTING
01 Zoo Station
02 The Fly
03 Every Better Than The Real Thing
04 Mysterious Ways
05 One
06 Until The End Of The World
07 Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
08 Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
09 Angel of Harlem
10 Satellite Of Love
11 Bad > All I Want Is You
12 Bullet The Blue Sky
13 Running To Stand Still
14 Where The Streets Have No Name
15 Pride
16 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Known Issues:
- Left channel dropouts in multiple places throughout the show, especially the last 30 mins.
Patched with solid right channel.
- Encore of “Desire,” “Ultra Violet (Light My Way),” “With Or Without You” and “Love Is
Blindness” not recorded.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Introduction To The KeithM Masters
JEMS is pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM to U2 fans the world over. We take
a break from Keith’s original Joshua Tree tour masters and leap ahead to ZooTV.
KeithM recorded hundreds of concerts in, around and beyond Southern California starting in
the early ‘80s, including what can only be described as a series of essential recordings from
April 1987, the start of the Joshua Tree tour. Of the tour’s first 16 performances, incredibly
KeithM recorded nine of them using a Sony ECM-939 stereo microphone and Walkman D6C.
In my opinion, they range from really good to excellent and offer a striking balance in that
they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, but somehow little to no up-close chatter
or talking.
Some of KeithM’s recordings have circulated before (though perhaps not all?) and the lineage of
what is around ranges from an analog generation or two removed to “unknown.”
This series presents the first proper digital transfers ever made from KeithM’s master tapes and
as such we believe each and every one of them represents an upgrade to circulating copies of his
recordings.
===
Los Angeles, April 12, 1992
First night of ZooTV in Los Angeles and one of three known recordings of the show. BIGGIRL will
explain all that below.
Keith was not as close as he was for his JT Tour recordings in the same venue, but the result
here is still very good and perhaps the best document yet of this night. It is however, incomplete.
Keith was having issues throughout the show with left channel dropouts, seemingly caused by movement
of a frayed mic cord. You can tell some are initiated when he has to move himself and the tape deck
to let someone down the aisle.
Because of the dropouts and missing encore, it seems Keith may not have shared this recording before.
Using RX I was able to repair the dropouts, patching in from the good right channel when the left
dropped out, preserving as much of this as a stereo recording as possible. You’ll easily hear the
difference when the patches kick in, but they are clean.
I’d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and
allowing us to share his work. He enjoys reading your comments so please keep them coming.
Special credit goes to DIME member bitrate for helping me connect to KeithM and remaining persistent
as the months went by before we finally got things going with the tapes. Thanks to BIGGIRL for
handling post production on this show and clearing up some of the confusion about the circulating
recordings. Her explanation follows.
BK for JEMS
===
BIGGIRL Comments
After comparing Keith M's recording with other known sources of this date, it seems that there are
three unique tapings now in circulation.
1. The MH recording (transferred by JEMS in 2007) - this one is virtually complete (apart from 30
seconds of BTBS and a few static drop-outs "at the end of Pride and at the end of ISHFWILF," as
noted in the 2007 transfer.
2. The recording that is known as "Over the Hills and to the Sea" and "Live From Los Angeles -
April 12, 1992" - this one circulates with the encore + ISHFWILF from April 13 (2nd night in L.A.).
3. Keith M's recording (this one: new to circulation in 2019) - missing the encore (but with ISHFWILF).
The "Over the Hills and to the Sea" source has an unknown taper. Mauricio Ferrusca made a remaster of
a 1GEN copy on metal tape. The master presumably was a DAT. It was passed on to Mike Duchek who traded
this on CD-R as "Over the Hills and to the Sea". "Live From Los Angeles - April 12, 1992" is from the
same source, but different (and in my opinion lesser in quality).
This source is incomplete and has ISHFWILF + the encore taken from the second night (April 13, 1992).
These are the notable differences between the two nights in what Bono says, or sings:
LA1 (as known from the MH recording - JEMS 2007 transfer)
ISHFWILF : "Noisy bastards, let me tell ya" + "a lot of trouble to get tickets (1000 dollar - out of
your mind, or very rich)"
UV : Standard, "Sometimes I feel like i don't know...Sometimes I feel like checkin out"
WOWY: "Let's go to Vegas - let's get married ...forever"
LIB: whispering at the beginning
LA2 (as known from the JEMS 4/13 master)
ISHFWILF : big mouths - call the president ->
after Desire: phone call with White house
UV : 2x "Sometimes I feel like checkin' out"
WOWY : "Let's go to Vegas - let's get married ...for a while"
LIB: start with "Thanks a lot!"
Keith's master confirms that ISHFWILF of the 4/12 show starts with Bono remarking "Noisy bastards,
let me tell ya" and the talk about the trouble to get tickets.
Back in 2017 I did a remaster of the MH source where I patched the missing 30 seconds of BTBS and
by-passed the static drop-outs. In addition I did some cleaning with iZotope RX05. I shared this
as mp3-only download on U2Start but I don't see need to put a flac version of it into circulation.
Concerning Keith's master, especially the first four songs are a real pleasure to listen to. It's
amazing how beautiful the bass was captured (also in TTTYAATW!). JEMS did a great job of patching
the drop-outs and because the start of this show is so great, it is easy to keep listening to this
show even though the sound alternates between brilliant full stereo and two-channel mono.
Still, the encore of this show is only available from the MH source, but that one surely makes
good company with Keith's patched recording.
BIGGIRL 2019