Hammersmith Odeon

Esclarecimentos definitivos sobre a veracidade de “Live And Dangerous” (1978), por Stuart Bailie, do New Music Express, em minha versão remasterizada (1996):

“The band’s set of Hammersmith Odeon shows from November ’76 were commited to tape. Another nights at Seneca College Fieldhouse in Toronto, and at Philadelphia’s Tower Theatre were also preserved. Even an inspired soundcheck of ‘Southbound’ was put to use. Everybody was pleased by the flat monitor mixes they heard, but Visconti figured that they had the makings something really unique. He said they could either slam out a rough approximation of the gigs, or they could tidy it up some, give it cohesion and release something that would live forever.

This approach needed some extra work back in the studio – fixing bum notes and amending the backing vocals. Scott remembers that himself and Brian Robertson were so pumped up on stage during this era that they were stepping up to the mics, ‘screaming anything and running away again to play guitar’.

Because of this, a few begrudgers said that the whole record was a sham, that hardly any of it was taken from the stage at all, but co-manager Chris O’Donnell refutes this, stressing that it was at least ’75 per cent live’. Frank Murray, the band’s tour manager at the time, seconds the story. ‘People talk about overdubbing and what went on with that album, but it was greatly exaggerated. I heard it in its raw state and it was still a number one album. It was one of the greatest records ever made. U2 used to listen to it all the time, to try and achieve that type of excitement’“.

PS – “Visconti” era Tony Visconti, produtor do disco; “Scott”, Scott Gorham, um dos guitarristas