Harry Chapin – New Victoria Theater

here is the info file from Dime

Harry Chapin

London, England 9/3/1977

Venue: New Victoria Theater

City: London

Recorded: September 3, 1977

Lineage: SBD > ? > CDRx > EAC > WAV > MKW > FLAC

Performers:

Harry Chapin – Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals

Steve Chapin – Piano, Vocals

“Big John” Wallace – bass, vocals

Kim Scholes – Cello

Ron Palmer – Lead guitar

Howie Fields – Drums

Notes:

This show is also circulated as May 31, 1978, at the Rainbow Theater in London but there are several flaws with that date.

1) This show took place on “Big John” Wallace’s 34th birthday.

2) Harry talks about his new album coming out last week, that album is “Dance Band On The Titanic” and it was released in August 1977.

3) Harry says several times during the show “When we were here in April”. According to the concert dates at http://www.harrysfriends.com/Concert List/def.htm They were at the New Victoria Theater on 7-Apr-77 and 3-Sept-77.

The dates used on this site are provided by Harry’s drummer at the time, Howie Fields. (if u check out Howard Fields website http://www.howiefields.com/HarryChapinYears/intro.shtml this show is the Rainbow Theatre. Howard has a copy of the handwritten setlist too posted there. It was originally recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour. Wolfgangs Vault has this and the sound is pristine!)

I still have not found a date for Big John’s birthday but I think #3 proves the date/location fairly well.

What a fantastic Harry Chapin show. It believe that this is a complete tape, sourced from the soundboard feed. There is an audible noise floor on the tape, but the sound is simply fantastic, and only during the quiet moments and in between songs is it evident. The performance is virtually top notch, with only a few slight misques sprinkled throughout. The majority of the songs are sung with Harry’s usual passion and intensity, making for a truly wonderful experience. Dance Band on the Titanic had recently been released, and the songs from that album are particularly fresh and powerful. The version of Halfway to Heaven is head and shoulders above the official, Mr. Tanner is slow and emotional, and the list of top notch takes continues for a good majority of the set. Towards the end, the performance tails off a little bit, due to the declining quality of Harry’s voice as well as a few technical problems with the audio setup. Regardless of a fairly weak ending, and due to the scarcity of good sounding Harry Chapin bootlegs readily available to bootleg collectors, this set falls into the “must-have” category for all of his devoted fans. This tape has also been circulated as May 31, 1978, but the most likely date for it is September 3, 1977 (please view the discussion above for more on this debate).

-Stephen Pickett, www.audiophilia.net

Disc 1

01 Harry Talks

02 I Wonder What Happened to Him

03 Mercenaries

04 Harry Talks

05 My Old Lady

06 Mr. Tanner

07 WOLD

08 Halfway to Heaven

09 I Wanna Learn a Love Song

10 Harry Talks

11 Tangled Up Puppet

12 Taxi

13 Sniper Intro

14 Sniper

Disc 2

01 There Only Was One Choice

02 Cat’s in the Cradle

03 Bluesman There is a repeated portion as a result of a tape flip

04 Intro

05 Odd Job Man

06 Bicentennial Medley Intro

07 Dogtown

Disc 3

01 Mail Order Annie

02 Let Time Go Lightly

03 30,000 Pounds of Bananas Intro

04 30,000 Pounds of Bananas

05 Dance Band on the Titanic

06 Circle