The Members - End of Term - Lost Masters скачать видео бесплатно

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/at-the-end-of-term-single/id666074382

Nicky Tesco, JC Carroll,

Chris Payne , Nigel Bennett, Adrian Lillywhite

How a chance conversation at a suburban car boot sale led to the discovery of the Holy Grail of Member-O-Bilia And a digital remastering of a Lost Master piece  

Those of you who know me well will be aware that I collect musical instruments. To get the sound that I need in the studio it's sometimes necessary to use old instruments. In 2012 I was at a car boot sale buying an old 60s Farfisa organ (think Percy Sledge or Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs). Derek, the seller, asked me if I was in a band. Yes I said, I was in The Members. I bought the organ but Derek had left the pedal at home so I gave him my phone number and asked him to call me so I could arrange a time to pick it up. When I went to Godalming to collect it, Derek surprised me, "My son in law's got a big tape of the Members - a master tape." He then explained to me that his son-in-law's father used to own a recording studio in London. A few phone calls and months later I found myself looking at two 1 inch, eight track, Ampex master tapes of The Members recorded in June 1979.  

What was exciting about these tapes is there was an unreleased track on them a track called "End of Term" that was due to be a follow-up to Sound of the Suburbs. I had found the Holy Grail of Member-O-Bilia. The other three tracks were Normal People, Muzak Machine and a song called Gang War. The last three songs were recorded on the second Members album.

But the tapes were any good? One inch, 8 track Ampex would be difficult to convert as there are very few machines left serviceable. After a long search I found somebody that was willing to transfer the contents of the tapes to digital media. This process was further complicated by the fact that the tapes needed to be baked before the transfer could take place. So finally I had the tapes transferred onto a hard drive and opened them in my studio. It was a perfect time capsule - all the instruments and voices were clearly recorded on the tape. The songs sounded fresh and vibrant, full of youthful energy. This was The Members Mark 1 at the top of their game.  

Next came the task of remixing the tapes and turning them into finished masters. Apart from some spillage problems all the tracks were perfectly preserved and the first three tracks were quite easy to mix. This biggest problems resulted from Nigel's guitar being so loud that it was on all the drum tracks and the bass track as well his own track. Using the latest tools I managed to fix this problem by analysing various frequencies and eventually I got some sort of separation. The last track Gang  War took a lot more work I needed to paste the first half of the first take on to the second half of the second tape and move Nicks vocal  from one tape to another. I also added a bit of organ and tambourine to hold the track together better. Nick Tesco's singing was very easy to cut and paste . He had a great sense of timing and always sang the lyrics exactly the same way almost like double tracking Even though Adrian's drums were only on two tracks they sounded massive.  "End of Term" was to be the follow-up To Sound of the Suburbs But needed to be released just before the end of term to have maximum effect Because of delays in recording it was abandoned As a single.

Some people who criticised the production of our second album as too polished. Here are four tracks with The Members at their raucous rowdy best.   I learned a lot about the band  mixing these four tracks .  The first three tracks are all under 3 minutes yet are packed with lyrics drum fills guitar solos and chris's throbbing bass lines. This is the sound of a band that came up the hard way through the tough punk pub circuit . No X factor lottery winners ! I have tried to present the band as you would have heard them live i did however claim  producers privilege doubling up a few choruses adding a tiny bit of acoustic guitar  on "End of term" and organ on gang war Enjoy!

JC Carroll 2013

These will be released a a 4 Track EP . On Cd the First 50 Copies will have a Piece of the the original Master Tape and will be numbered.