John generously provided a history of the recording and shared the technology and links so Great Big Sea fans and members on the Facebook page could download and listen to the recordings before they were made available on YouTube.
After much humming and harring over the ownership rights of music recordings, where historical recordings like this should be kept and the bootlegging and piracy of shows, I followed the instructions and downloaded a copy. Part of me would have liked to see them returned to their rightful owners to do with as they please. However, since the hiatus and the chance there is unlikely to be any more music from Great Big Sea those concerns were laid to rest.
What a thrill that recording was for all Great Big Sea fans, including me to listen to their early music. The recording was of an amazingly high quality considering the technology the show was recorded on, a Sony Walkman and cassette tape.
The members of Great Big Sea who had only been together for a short time were comfortable on stage in a pub on George Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland. There was great chemistry between the band members and the crowd as they joined in and clapped along. Early Great Big Sea played a range of traditional Newfoundland folk music, some of their own songs, to some great covers of Canadian favourites. Some of the music from those recordings is still being played today, twenty three years on and the fans love them.
John dates the recording to around 1993 and a month before their first album Great Big Sea was released which could very well be true. However, there is a recording of the song ‘What Are Ya At ?’ the crowd seem to know this song and join in. ‘What Are Ya At’ was the first song Alan Doyle and Sean McCann wrote together and appeared on the first album Great Big Sea. The crowd knowing this song may indicate the recording could have been at a later date and after the release of the album. But regardless of the date of the recording the discovery is a significant find for the Great Big Sea members, Great Big Sea fans and Newfoundland music.
This recording also raised for me many issues about the intensity of bootlegging today and the chance of finding something like this recording in the future. Bootlegging is such a feature of concerts these days. The Great Big Sea members performing solo careers are no exception to the intensity of bootlegging. There is overkill as some fans try to capture whole concerts and every little thing that occurs on stage and distribute their recordings without much regard to the quality and the existing material already available. Extensive bootlegging can spoil surprises and discoveries for those attending concerts in the present for fans of any artist, musician or music group of any genre. I always hope there is something left for the future to discover about the past when it comes to music.
If you are interested in the recordings you can find the link on the Great Big Sea Online Kitchen Party on Facebook.
A year later Great Big Sea were performing in Toronto. I have also included a copy of a photograph from the first concert Great Big Sea did in Toronto posted by Alan Doyle on his official Instagram account. No copyright infringement intended.
From John Pasqini on Great Big Sea Online Facebook page…
"Hi everyone,
I have a gift for all of you.
Some of the administrators are already aware of this, but back in 1992-94 I was a Folklore Graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. One of my fellow students at the time was Sean McCann. This was around the time he met Alan and they formed Great Big Sea with Bob and Darrell. Sean took a hiatus from the program at the time to "try this band thing out for a bit."
One night in 1993, another student of mine recorded an early show of Great Big Sea about a month before their first album was released. It was recorded on cassette using a portable Sony Walkman with a detachable mic. The show was at a bar on George Street called Sevens George.
A few months ago, I rediscovered my copy of the cassettes that were recorded directly from the originals. I digitized those recordings and put them on two CDs. I had an old concert flyer of GBS that I took off a telephone pole one night after the show and used that image to created the "cover" for the CDs.
I presented the CDs to Alan this year after his show at Sellersville, PA and his exact words were "What a treasure, this is a real treasure." I'll never forget the look of awe on his face when he held the CDs in his hands. He said there weren't many recordings of GBS around that time and he only had a 4-track recording that he did himself around that time.
This quite possibly could be the very first live bootleg recording of Great Big Sea ever. I have since given the recording to Sean, Bob and Darrell via DropBox. I'm soon going to upload the concert to YouTube but I wanted to give the members of the Online Kitchen Party first crack at it before it is available to the public.
The DropBox folder contains two folders of tracks (MP3s) that are broken up so each folder can be put on a separate CD. I broke the in-between song banter into their own tracks in case anyone just wanted to listen to the songs without the talking (though I don't know why anyone would want to do that). The YouTube version will just be two one-hour long track videos with the concert flyer as the only image on the screen (very low tech). I also included in the folder my cover album mock-ups for each CD and the original poster that I scanned.
In order to access the files, you'll have to download DropBox onto your computer or tablets or use the DropBox App on your phones.
DM me if there is any problem accessing the files."
After much humming and harring over the ownership rights of music recordings, where historical recordings like this should be kept and the bootlegging and piracy of shows, I followed the instructions and downloaded a copy. Part of me would have liked to see them returned to their rightful owners to do with as they please. However, since the hiatus and the chance there is unlikely to be any more music from Great Big Sea those concerns were laid to rest.
What a thrill that recording was for all Great Big Sea fans, including me to listen to their early music. The recording was of an amazingly high quality considering the technology the show was recorded on, a Sony Walkman and cassette tape.
The members of Great Big Sea who had only been together for a short time were comfortable on stage in a pub on George Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland. There was great chemistry between the band members and the crowd as they joined in and clapped along. Early Great Big Sea played a range of traditional Newfoundland folk music, some of their own songs, to some great covers of Canadian favourites. Some of the music from those recordings is still being played today, twenty three years on and the fans love them.
John dates the recording to around 1993 and a month before their first album Great Big Sea was released which could very well be true. However, there is a recording of the song ‘What Are Ya At ?’ the crowd seem to know this song and join in. ‘What Are Ya At’ was the first song Alan Doyle and Sean McCann wrote together and appeared on the first album Great Big Sea. The crowd knowing this song may indicate the recording could have been at a later date and after the release of the album. But regardless of the date of the recording the discovery is a significant find for the Great Big Sea members, Great Big Sea fans and Newfoundland music.
This recording also raised for me many issues about the intensity of bootlegging today and the chance of finding something like this recording in the future. Bootlegging is such a feature of concerts these days. The Great Big Sea members performing solo careers are no exception to the intensity of bootlegging. There is overkill as some fans try to capture whole concerts and every little thing that occurs on stage and distribute their recordings without much regard to the quality and the existing material already available. Extensive bootlegging can spoil surprises and discoveries for those attending concerts in the present for fans of any artist, musician or music group of any genre. I always hope there is something left for the future to discover about the past when it comes to music.
If you are interested in the recordings you can find the link on the Great Big Sea Online Kitchen Party on Facebook.
A year later Great Big Sea were performing in Toronto. I have also included a copy of a photograph from the first concert Great Big Sea did in Toronto posted by Alan Doyle on his official Instagram account. No copyright infringement intended.
From John Pasqini on Great Big Sea Online Facebook page…
"Hi everyone,
I have a gift for all of you.
Some of the administrators are already aware of this, but back in 1992-94 I was a Folklore Graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. One of my fellow students at the time was Sean McCann. This was around the time he met Alan and they formed Great Big Sea with Bob and Darrell. Sean took a hiatus from the program at the time to "try this band thing out for a bit."
One night in 1993, another student of mine recorded an early show of Great Big Sea about a month before their first album was released. It was recorded on cassette using a portable Sony Walkman with a detachable mic. The show was at a bar on George Street called Sevens George.
A few months ago, I rediscovered my copy of the cassettes that were recorded directly from the originals. I digitized those recordings and put them on two CDs. I had an old concert flyer of GBS that I took off a telephone pole one night after the show and used that image to created the "cover" for the CDs.
I presented the CDs to Alan this year after his show at Sellersville, PA and his exact words were "What a treasure, this is a real treasure." I'll never forget the look of awe on his face when he held the CDs in his hands. He said there weren't many recordings of GBS around that time and he only had a 4-track recording that he did himself around that time.
This quite possibly could be the very first live bootleg recording of Great Big Sea ever. I have since given the recording to Sean, Bob and Darrell via DropBox. I'm soon going to upload the concert to YouTube but I wanted to give the members of the Online Kitchen Party first crack at it before it is available to the public.
The DropBox folder contains two folders of tracks (MP3s) that are broken up so each folder can be put on a separate CD. I broke the in-between song banter into their own tracks in case anyone just wanted to listen to the songs without the talking (though I don't know why anyone would want to do that). The YouTube version will just be two one-hour long track videos with the concert flyer as the only image on the screen (very low tech). I also included in the folder my cover album mock-ups for each CD and the original poster that I scanned.
In order to access the files, you'll have to download DropBox onto your computer or tablets or use the DropBox App on your phones.
DM me if there is any problem accessing the files."
