Concert recording of the week: U2 at Paris Cinema Studio, London (1981)
When the members of U2 have said anything about trading of concert recordings among fans, they have been quite positive. They are very negative about people trying to profit from bootlegs, especially poorly recorded ones. Both Bono and Edge state the band’s opinion, including statements on the official U2.com site:
“We invite people to bootleg our shows. We invite people to make CD copies, we’ve no problems with that, but if some guy is gonna make money off the back of this, we’re gonna find out where he parks his car…” (Bono; source: KROQ Radio USA, October 2000)
“We’ve never had a problem with bootlegs or people recording our shows for their own use. Our problem has always been people ripping off our fans with inferior recordings that they sell at exorbitant prices” (October 30, 2000; source: <http://www.u2.com/news/article/733>, official site accessed March 14, 2010).
One of my favourite concert recordings is an early one from 1981 which was a planned broadcast on FM (BBC) but sourced from the pre-FM tapes:
- U2′s concert at Paris Cinema Studio in London, England, on August 23, 1981 (FLAC – via Qualitybootz).
The setlists from that leg of the October European tour can be found here.
