The Rolling Stones, ‘LA Forum 1975 2nd Night’ (No Label)
Disk 1: Honky Tonk Women / All Down The Line / If You Can’t Rock Me – Get Off Of My Cloud / Star Star / Gimmie Shelter / Ain’t Too Proud To Beg / You Gotta Move / You Can’t Always Get What You Want / Happy / Tumbling Dice / It’s Only Rock N’ Roll (But I Like It) / Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) (77:02)
DISC 2: Fingerprint File / Angie / Wild Horses / That’s Life / Outta Space / Brown Sugar / Midnight Rambler / Rip This Joint / Street Fighting Man / Jumpin’ Jack Flash / Sympathy For The Devil – fade out (76:51)
Live at the Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA 10th July, 1975.
The Rolling Stones shows at the LA forum caught the band at some of their post-Mick Taylor best. It’s a good bet you’ll have some of these shows in your collections already – The dates 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th captured by Mike Millard, all baring the 10th of July, which thankfully was captured from other sources.
Step in Ed F, released from his 5 night collection and mastered by JEMS, this good to very good audience recording first showed up in 2021 and put straight up on to the internet (Dime). From the text that accompanied the upload – “Ed F recorded all five of the Stones’ shows at the The Forum in 1975 and got remarkably consistent results. To be sure he wasn’t recording with Millard-quality gear, but his tapes capture the atmosphere of the occasion quite appealingly and offer good, perhaps even very good sound for the era and equipment.
His recorder was an inexpensive portable (believed to be a Panasonic) that Ed recalls ran on six AA batteries, likely giving it long battery life and perhaps even improved performance compared to most cheap decks. He paired the recorder with what he calls a cheap Radio Shack microphone that he would stick to the armrest of his seat with tape. The results have little immediate-vicinity audience noise, relatively up-close sound, and while not as sharp or clear as Millard’s efforts, are potent just the same. Ed was also good about his tape flips and didn’t miss much of the show”.
There have been previous releases of this show but mostly they’ve been partial recordings – from the CD age – on ‘1975 Tour Of The Americas’ (Dragoman Sunbird) and (Vinyl Gang 284), ‘The Complete LA Friday Tapes’ (Dandelion) and ‘The Complete LA Sunday Tapes’ (SODD). It finally found a full release on ‘1975 Nervous Breakdown’ (Vinyl Gang 302) as a ‘good audience recording’. It has been noted however, that is a better recording if a marginal upgrade. Compared to the ‘best’ version I have in my own collection (the SODD title), this title is muddier, more distant and in mono – It is though, complete and at over 75 minutes a disk, good value for money.
This mono recording is not a ‘must have’ unless you want everything or your bootleg ears have been suitably adjusted to ‘not official’. Is sounds like it was recorded a few rows back but is stilll clear enough to pick up pretty much everything but generally at selective times – Billy’s organ playing isn’t always discernible in the mix but does quietly creep up from time to time. The show is a brilliant gig – The Stones were on fire this evening and while Mick Taylor’s absence would still be keenly felt, there are many reasons why Ronnie’s appearance was the right choice.
It’s also notable for Mick’s piss-take of ’Sweet Lady Jane’ prior to ’Tumbling Dice’ (If they weren’t going to play ’Satisfaction’, they certainly wouldn’t be playing THAT!)
The No Label crew have done a great job with the artwork as usual – There’s a fantastic image of Mick Jagger in motion on the front with the ’Tour Of The Americas’ logo gently placed in. The rear features a gods view image of the band on stage – a shame about the ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Wan’ typo – This show will fill a gap in your collection as opposed to being your immediate go-to but there’s something about it that’ll make you tune in more than once, I’m sure. Take it or leave it.
