Neil Young: The 1989 Amsterdam Project (Soundboard*) FLAC

"The Neil Young in Amsterdam 1989 Project" by Magnix.
To my knowledge here's the most complete version so far of Neil Young's performance at the Muziektheater Stopera in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on Sunday December 10th 1989.

On stage was:
Neil Young - vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards, harmonica
Supported by:
Frank Sampedro - guitar. mandolin, vocals
Ben Keith - dobro, keyboards, vocals

Disc 1 (47:43)
01. Hey Hey, My My
02. Rockin' In The Free World (1)
03. The Old Laughing Lady
04. Don't Let It Bring You Down
05. Someday
06. Crime In The City
07. Eldorado
08. Too Far Gone

Disc 2 (43:57)
09. This Note's For You
10. The Needle And The Damage Done
11. No More
12. F^ckin' Up
13. After The Gold Rush
14. Hanging On A Limb
15. Heart Of Gold
16. Ohio
encore
17. Rockin' In The Free World (2)


Complete OU notes on the recreation of this wonderful show and recording can be found below. But first ... a little (personal) history on this recording ...
This show was originally broadcast in two parts on Dutch KRO radio on January 14, and February 11, 1990. These broadcasts ended up on the "Amsterdam '89" bootleg (hence the fade-out and fade-in half way that disc; between "Crime In The City" and "Eldorado"). Both the orginal broadcasts and that CD were/are missing "No More" and "F^ckin' Up".
Back in 1990 I taped the two FM broadcasts, but deleted them (something I wouldn't do anymore nowadays, being the completist I became) when I bought the "Amsterdam '89" CD sixteen years ago (in my pre-trade and pre-download years, buying bootlegs was one of only few options to get recordings of shows).
When I got on the internet somewhere in 1995 and after I got a copy of Pete Long's "Ghosts On The Road", I learned that the original broadcasts and the CD were missing the two mentioned songs, and that ten songs, including "No More", have been rebroadcast in October 1995.
Thanks to the internet I got in touch with many fellow collector's, and I started trading tapes. Eight years ago I got a tape with "No More" from the October 1995 (VPRO) broadcast from a(nother) Dutch Rustie. Thanks again Michiel!
In the years to follow nothing happened. Once in a while I thought about the last missing track, but never was able to lay my hands on it. Although I heard/read about an audience recording of this show, I never came across a copy of it somehow. And maybe there have been other rebroadcasts ... if so, I missed them ...
In the Fall of 2005 a combination of the "Amsterdam '89" CD and the audience recording was made availabe through the 'Hempsall' trees site. I signed up as a leaf to get this complete recording, and in December that year I received a copy of those discs. Unfortunately it had two seconds gaps between the tracks, so before having a good listen I had to correct that ... Anyways, this set used the complete "Amsterdam '89" CD plus it had the missing two tracks added from the audience recording as well as the stage banter between "Crime In The City" and "Eldorado". This complete 87 minutes set has also been torrented on Dime twice (#74475 and #121362).
Also, almost a year ago a pre-FM tape was torrented on Dime (#123220). This same recording is currently available on The Traders' Den (#48524). This pre-FM tape was a huge upgrade, it has the missing track "Fuckin' Up" and lots of stage banter which is missing on the original FM broadcasts (and therefore the "Amsterdam '89" CD). Unfortunately the track "No More" is still missing. As the seeder wrote: "it faded out on the DAT after a couple of seconds. I removed this snippet and some of the inter-track silence to fit the show on one 80min CDR - they were still expensive when I transferred this show!"
Then it was April 19, 2007. A co-worker asked if I had listened to NPS Radio 6 (Dutch radio channel) the night before. I hadn't, and he told me that they aired the Amsterdam 1989 show! Thanks to Dime, and uploader Willem1947 who captured the broadcast, I was able to get it after all within a week after the broadcast (torrent #144140).
The radio DJ announced the show as being complete without any cuts! However, "No More" is still missing! It seems as if that track got lost somewhere down the line of time, as the pre-FM recording is also missing that track! **see for updated information below**
While I still had this tape with "No More" from the October 1995 broadcast I decided to give it a try and mix this into either the pre-FM or the new FM recording. I was able to do so with both recordings quite well.
Again another rebroadcast took place last August 27, 2007 as part of the Dutch Radio 2 Zomerfestival. This was incomplete (10 out 17 songs), and the running order was completely shuffled. A torrent for this recording (#160168) was banned from Dime because the torrent of the April 18 broadcast was/is still active on the tracker, and that one is almost complete.
After the succesful mixing of "No More" between "The Needle And The Damage Done" and "F^ckin' Up", I also started comparing all different sources, especially to hear the differences in stage banter and tuning between songs. It turned out to have a few differences, with the latest FM broadcast as the most complete one. I then decided to use that recording as the basis for my own recreation of the complete show. And that is what you will find right here!
Used sources:
- "Amsterdam '89" bootleg CD (from FM broadcast January-February 1990)
- Combination of "Amsterdam '89" bootleg CD and audience source
(from 'Hempsall' tree; also torrented on Dime)
- Pre-FM tape (as torrented on Dime)
- FM cable broadcast April 18, 2007 (as torrented on Dime)
Used software:
EAC v0.95b4, CoolEditPro 2.0, CDWave v1.94.5, and FLAC v1.1.2 as build in Traders Little Helper v1.1.1 (build 90).

Notes on the combination of sources:
Start
- Disc 1, track 1 has the first six seconds from the "Amsterdam '89" boot added;
- Disc 1, tracks 1-6 are taken from April 2007 broadcast (more complete than other sources; pre-FM tape misses a few bits and pieces of stage banter, but the original seeder edited it down to fit on a 80 mins. disc - see notes above and the original torrent);
- The April 2007 broadcast misses Neil's remark about a 'sound' between disc 1, tracks 6 and 7 (the cut is audible). Approx. 16-17 seconds from pre-FM tape have been added/mixed in;
- Disc 1, tracks 7-8, and disc 2, track 1 from the April 2007 broadcast (more complete than other sources; pre-FM tape misses a few bits and pieces of stage banter, but the original seeder edited it down to fit on a 80 mins. disc - see notes above and the original torrent);
- The recording of the April 2007 broadcast misses the first 38 seconds on disc 2, track 2. The torrent included this track with the missing piece included from another source. Also another edit was posted as part of the comments (thanks to Mike). However, in all cases the switch between sources remained audible. I have also spent a lot of time trying to get a good transition between the two sources. At one point I nearly got it right, but somehow it still didn't feel/hear right. Therefore I have replaced the complete track with the version from the Amsterdam '89 boot. It only has been slightly filtered and amplified, and the audience noise before the track has been mixed with the fading audience noise from the track before from the April 2007 broadcast (disc 2, track 1 was disc 1, track 9 on the April 2007 torrent, but I have moved that to disc 2, track 1, because there was a break in the show just before that track - as audible with Neil saying "Thanks, I see you guys in a little while" after disc 1, track 8);
- Disc 2, track 3 has become a sort of holy grail when it comes to this Neil Young show. There has even been some discussion if this song has been performed at all that night. However, it has always been beyond doubt that this was played, not only because of reports from people who attended the show, and because it's on an audience recording of the show, but ALSO because it has been broadcast on FM radio once (in October 1995 according to GOTR)! Strangely enough it is missing (it fades out after a couple of seconds) on the circulating pre-FM tape, which probably has been the basis for all later rebroadcasts. See also the notes above.
Included here is "No More" from a 2nd gen. tape of the 1995 (VPRO) FM broadcast, mixed in as good as possible between disc 2, tracks 2 and 4. Compared to the audience recording I know of this part of the show (I only have disc 2, tracks 3 and 4 from that recording), there's 'only' some guitar tuning missing between the two tracks when combining the two FM sources. This part has been mixed in from the audience recording, although it's of lesser quality soundwise, it makes the transition more 'logical'. Another short piece of the audience recording has been mixed to get a (slightly) better transition between disc 2, tracks 3 and 4.
- From here the April 2007 broadcast continues: disc 2, tracks 4-9. Note that the pre-FM tape/torrent does not have the audience shouting for an encore. The April 2007 broadcast has all of that (more than 3 minutes). Also, the "Amsterdam '89" boot has a little extra crowd noise at the end of the show, and that has been cross-faded with the shorter piece of crowd noise on the April 2007 broadcast/torrent.
End.
Please note that this was made for my own use and pleasure in the first place. I have spent many hours listening, comparing and mixing the various recordings, and this is what came out. As explained I used the April 2007 broadcast as the basis for this recreation. Purists may prefer the pre-FM tape, and my intention at first was to use that as well, but the FM broadcast was the most complete recording available, including (almost) all stage banter. And because I was also going to add "No More" from FM, I decided that mixing FM with FM makes more sense soundwise. And besides all that, the April 2007 broadcast simply sounds awesome! Anyways, if someone wants to recreate this show with the pre-FM tape as the basis for a complete show (including ALL stage banter and tuning spliced in from other sources), please drop me a message, and I will send you the 'raw and unmixed' recording of "No More" from the October 1995 broadcast straight from my tape.
And finally ...
At the time of finishing up this project (early September 2007), I also received information that "No More" most probably never has been available on the tapes made by KRO Radio, as Neil wanted the show to be recorded on 24-track tapes, and that they had to give up one song to make a tape switch. I have been assured that "No More" definitely is not on the master tapes which have been used for the April 2007 broadcast! Because "No More" was broadcast by VPRO Radio (instead of KRO who lent their tapes to NPS for the April 2007 broadcast), it is very well possible that they used the audio from their own recordings, which were made for TV. Maybe time will tell if VPRO (still) has the complete show or at least "No More" ... and maybe it will be aired one day (although not likely I think).
Magnix (Near Amsterdam, September 2/November 12, 2007.)

acceptable art
http://geetarz.org/reviews/neilyoung/1989-12-10-amsterdam-front.jpg
http://geetarz.org/reviews/neilyoung/1989-12-10-amsterdam-back.jpg

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Comments welcome.