Toronto Bob wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 3:52 pm
Nice work! That's great that you did the A/B comparison. Often shows are given erroneous information like dates and have collectors going on a wild goose chase. This is good information. If the show was traded in the past, it hasn't made an appearance on the main torrent sites - or at least it has escaped me. I don't catch 100% of shows uploaded but over the past 10 years or so I've checked regularly for Alice shows and grab everything from 1982 and back.
I generally grab everything I see but as you say, the older recordings are much more interesting. That's natural I think. There are fewer of them for a start, and pre-1982 feature shows/tour I never saw in person.
As to torrent sites, yes they are great in many ways, but while a lot of things turn up there it's far from everything that's out there.
As an aside: I remember many years ago getting an email from a guy who'd been to this site (a very early version with trading list) and had a 1977 show I didn't have listed. Can't remember which one now off hand (want to say Milwaukee?). He said he had a tape that the bought from a 'head shop' the day after the show and did I want a copy. I'd never seen the tape offered anywhere else so of course I said "sure!" and he kindly sent a copy through.
At the time it was the best sounding *complete* 1977 show out there. I added it to my tape list and traded it a few times (I'm sure he sent it to others as well) and gradually it started to surface everywhere else.
Sure enough as internet speeds increased, making torrents etc a much easier way of doing things, tape trading pretty much died out (I haven't traded for things for years) and in recent years sites like Dime are the "go to" places to discover new recordings, but I still think there are gems out there sitting in someone's tape collection. Tape sthey got just because they were at the show, or saw it in a local shop. They have probably lost interest in collecting live recordings (if they even did seriously collect) and likely don't even remember they have it, and don't realise no one else does!
But occasionally they will go looking for something online and discover sites like that exist and, bam, a previously unknown recording shows up. I suppose you should never give up hope of something existing just because you haven`t seen it yourself. Things ARE out there just waiting to be discovered. We just have to hope they are spotted, before a wife/son/daughter just throw them out thinking they are worthless.
