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So anyone get a digital report in January 2025?

Personal ads with actual addresses. Haha

Hi Mike!!! I understand your point of view and because you are not a fan of live albums and I think your views are pretty solid in this regard. I like the live albums of my favorite artists basically because when we started to hear and discover this kind of music, these albums were the closest we could get or imagine to see the bands live, that's why the live album of maiden, priest and others have a special place, I may not listen to them regularly, but they will always be there. cheers

Good topic and good to hear your thoughts Mike. For me I don't mind live albums. Most of them in my collection are from my favourite bands, just to give some different versions of songs, which are sometimes better versions than the studio ones or a particular period in their career I like. A few live albums have been highlights for me, my first album I ever bought was Steppenwolf live, just because that was the only one they had in the shop. Blaze as live at it gets I picked up as it had a live version of Virus on it, which is one of my favourite maiden songs and that was a game changing album for me regarding becoming a fan of Blaze's solo career. And Night Demon live darkness made me a big fan of that band, I'd say it really highlights what they're about and it contains a lot of their best versions of some of their songs.

Good to hear your thoughts Mike. Vinyl is now a luxury item for listening to music for people who like physical releases for the reasons you mentioned. And because of that I can't see a huge increase in demand for CDs, especially while vinyl is selling so well. They'll always be available because of their cheap costs and conveniency but I can't see them becoming a luxury item and in high demand. Tapes are a funny thing, I have increased my collection over the last few years but mainly as collectors pieces, especially if they come with a digital download, which for me makes listening easier or if I have a CD/vinyl copy as well if it's an album/band I really like and yeah their quality seems a lot more poor that say 25 years ago.

Good response there Mike. I think you seem to be the only person who talks about Tigertailz, good to hear about your connection with that album. Will have to give the Screaming Eagles album a listen. The Aggressive Perfector is ace, will give it a listen this afternoon as it's been quite a while since I listened to that one.

Live at the White House by the exploited was mine. I had it on a dubbed cassette and was fascinated by it and loved it and memorized it. Now I have two different CD versions and I put it on once every few years when I’m feeling nostalgic and I find it almost unlistenable. I never thought to wonder why I don’t like live albums but I think you articulated every reason perfectly. Well done.

LIVE albums are junk no matter the mastering/mixing. Id rather have a blu-ray or DVD of the concert. Something visual.

Have I entered the Twilight Zone? From my experience so many people love a good live album?!

Hehe! That letter re: Steve Clark was cool. That lass must've felt just exactly like I did about him, lol. Decent of her brother to write in and ask for a poster... my brother would never have bothered for me. Noticed the t-shirts were priced at £8.99. Wish that was still the case. Oh the good old days!

Great nostalgia trip these vids🤘I turned 15 in January 89, it was a great year 😂

I'm not a live album fan - I don't wanna hear the same shite just live - of course, the classics are Live after death - and some ones that sound heavier like Obituary Dead, overkill wrecking your next and Exodus Another lesson in violence

crikey the jacket on the Bonfire bloke on the left is very dapper - damn that Motorhead gig looks like a corker

I have very few live albums in my collection, and the ones I do have include a DVD with the exact same show. I'd be more inclined to watch the DVD instead of listening to it. Some live albums are legendary, like If you want blood, Live after death etc. But other than that, I wouldn't own any old live album, it would have to be special. I have the one Death Angel pit out a few years ago, they played deep cuts they never play live and that's great. But yeah, I've never really been too interested in live albums because I'd rather watch them play instead of listen. You also made a good point about the sound quality not being there too. Nice one Mike 🤘🏻

Yup that’s all you need to do, write a great song & your 🎃UT of the band lol. Love Geoff Tate’s voice, but I always thought his hair was a bit goofy.

The first metal album I ever owned was Live After Death so I think I was hooked on live albums after that, I listen to that still 5 or 6 times a year at least still. The live albums I like most are the ones with a bit of banter, even if it's bad, that was the only time I'd ever heard those people speak and get a glimpse a bit of their personality in the pre-internet days. My preference is single show live albums. Two other favourites I've discovered recently are Lizzy Bordon's The Murder Metal Road Show (that was a VHS as well I think - but not seen it I must check YT for that) and Twisted Sister's Live At The Marquee 1983 (a more recent full show release) which has some of the best live album banter I've ever heard. A live album on shuffle?! just no, I think you can be just as familiar with the sequence on live albums, you just have to listen to them as much as a studio album. Thoroughly enjoyed your take on this topic.

Home taping is killing music! Another great trip down memory lane. I saw Motorhead in '89 I have no idea who else was on the bill though.

Yeah I had this one:Mille wearing that Rush t-shirt..started me down the road of the Rush obsessive.Great times indeed..

That Buffo guy who wrote the Kreator article is still a writer for magazines nowadays. He´s also Tankard´s manager. It´s funny how many people I know on a personal level while going through those old magazines. Holy Moses, Tankard, Vendetta, Buffo and the fat guy with curly hair, glasses and the Overkill shirt on the "party page"....

Zed Yago. Renamed Velvet Viper. I'd like to know which store carries Metal Hammer

My two older daughters (aged 14 and 16) grew up in the streaming\digital age and have no nostalgia for records, cassettes or CDs, but both of them have CD players in their bedrooms. They really want something physical that they own from their favourite artist, that sounds great and is easy to play. CD's fit that bill perfectly. They have some signed vinyl, but only framed on a wall. The CD's get played, swapped with friends and purchased anytime we pass an HMV. I wouldn't say it's a revival, more of a resurgence. Vinyl definetely died for a bit but CDs just about clung on.

Wrathchild played in Whitehaven in the 80s too, in the old Whitehouse. Rocky Shades pulled a knife out of his boot and threatened the audience with it when he heard someone laughing at how they were dressed.

The Mermaid in Birmingham was made famous by Napalm Death etc, you mentioned it upon seeing the Cerebral Fix pic. The CF/Kreator/Virus tour was in 1987. Had this edition of MH, but of course I wished that I still had that collection I had built up back then.

Another flick through nostalgia 😂 I fully agree with your comment about Jan from Vixen. The amount of coverage given to Lisa Dominique back in the day was ridiculous but I guess she was slightly prettier than Ozzy & Lemmy 😂

Without ever hearing her sing a note at the time, I had a massive Lisa Dominique poster on my wall, her and Lita Ford, can't say I was ever a fan of Lisa, but Lita had talent at least

Hi M. Came across your channel by accident a few days ago and have found your videos very interesting. Just thought I'd leave a couple of comments on this one. Saxon were the first band I ever saw. Carlisle Market Hall, 1980. Just turned 15. Made a massive impression on me at the time, but I must admit that I lost interest after 4 or 5 albums. Did enjoy meeting and chatting with Biff at the meet & greet when they came to the good old Civic Hall though. My first experience with Alice was when he appeared on the Muppet show sometime in the 70s, and performed Welcome to My Nightmare with Muppet monsters! That was a bit weird to innocent me at the time, but really got me interested in Alice. I love all of his work tbh. The way he has evolved has kept him interesting and in the spotlight for near to 60 years now. Some of those early 80s alcoholic haze albums are indeed a bit weird, but there are gems on all of them!

It's starting 2025 for older accounts and Jan 2024 for new accounts. Why is that?

Live After Death was the first metal album I bought when it was released. My fav album of all time,I know every bloody note and word of that album.Had the vhs video as well,now the dvd. Do yourself a favour and give it a listen again.I still play it every now and again even after all this time. Really like the Maiden England live video as well. No Sleep is bloody awesome as well.I would say the opposite to people bout No Sleep.I would tell em to listen to it and hear the difference between the live setting and studio setting from the band from that time.How unrelentingly heavy and massive they sounded live.

Hard to imagine a proper CD revival in this day and age Mike. I'm glad my car has a CD player in it though as it's the main use my cd's get. Cheers mate

Big fan of Motorheads No Sleep. Was at one of the nights at the city hall when some of it was recorded and still listen to it regularly

I actually like a live album... especially from my favourite bands.... having at least one live album in the collection from some bands is important to me and I enjoy listening to them. A DVD/video is probably better. I might do a video on this to explain why in my rambilng way, lol. Good to hear your views though as always. 🤘

Good topic and good video Mike. I agree that a CD revival is a tough sell. There are a couple of other points that occurred to me while listening to you: First, one other advantage CDs have over vinyl is durability. Vinyl is a fragile format that's easily damaged (including their covers). CDs are a lot more durable. Second, since vinyl prices have skyrocketed during the vinyl revival, CDs became a budget-friendly option. A new LP on Century Media can cost $40-50 while a CD copy is about $15. This is the big reason I've seen more people digging through used CD bins in the past year or two; they're sick of every beat-up used LP being $20+. Unfortunately, companies have noticed this and now they're jacking up the price of new CD releases. More new titles are $22-24 on CD. Ridiculous.

I'm a Rush fan, too and I prefer the Studio Albums to the Live ones-to the point where I gave my live ones to a charity shop. I've got live DVD's including ESL, AS0H, GUP Tour, RIR, they'll go next. Even seeing them live, even as entertaining and awesome as they were, were just not a patch on the Music recorded under studio conditions. It's all to do with the improvisation they had to go to, to even try to replicate the technical intricacies of their recordings, in the live setting. Sometimes, perfection is just something that is fleeting and can only be manifested in moments-moments that can't be recaptured, except for the recordings of those times. Hearing perfection made me fussy.

I don't like poorly recorded live albums. However I can highly reccommend the MTV ones. Nivarna & A-Ha are exceptional 👍 Also Less is More by Marillion. We were at the London concert the night it was recorded

I still buy cd or sacs. In reality glad dumped vinyl esp looking at the prices and whilst sure pressings are better prob still problematic.

Good conversation. I'm like you, I rarely see the point of them. When I was young with very little albums, I used to love the Pantera 101 Proof live CD haha. It brought the older Cowboys tracks up to speed with the newer album tracks with increased aggression, which appealed to me at the time. I also watched the Sepultlura and Metallica live VHS on repeat, though I mostly enjoyed the behind the scenes and tour banter stuff the most. The only live albums I think I still have that does get a listen to is Strapping Young Lad's "No Sleep Till Bedtime" as it was recorded here in Australia, plus it similarly to that Pantera disc took the couple of tracks I liked from SYL's debut album (which had bad production) and gave the tracks new life. The other is Judas Priest Unleashed in the East, for very similar "the tracks sound heavier" reasons.

Whilst I agree with the general point, I have to say that my favourite W.A.S.P album is 'Live...In The Raw!'. Loads of overdubs, for sure, but it sounds so much more chunky than their studio albums of that era.

My take on the live album is I don't mind them but it has to be a band I really like if I'm going to buy one and generally it stops at one live album per band having said that I still think a live album can be a gateway for getting into a band it was how I got into slayer back in the 90s and I'll still pull out decade of aggression now and again!

I LOVE live albums! If really live (fuck you Kiss with your bullshit), I love that it’s not pristine sounding, the fact that sometimes the songs are played a bit faster, and the in between song banter. Also, mistakes are cool - humans aren’t machines, the studio makes them out to be such. Live rules!!!

Cost!!

I do love the good old live albums I have, but don't buy them anymore. I rather watch live on DVD's/Blu-ray/TH-cam, so one gets the visuals as well. I will highlight Decade of Aggression by Slayer as one of my favourite albums, never liked the production on Seasons in the Abyss, but the songs sounds fantastic on that live comp. Live after Death is ace, when you're 11 years old, that is just a magical release. So sometimes live recordings can bring life into music, that the bands can't make in the studio. But the downside is that it's mostly their best of songs that are on a live recording, and those you often don't need to hear more. Would be cool if a band just recorded a set with overlooked tracks. Cheers. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Halford Live Insurrection is a good live album, and there are some really good live bootlegs I've heard too.

It's however you like it and I love music

I’ve never stopped buying CDs since the 90’s, I like how cheap they are these days, I also collect vinyl which is stupidly priced, crazy collectors have bumped up the price.

Live albums tend to be hit and miss; the best ones were released before video tapes took over. Live After Death is the last great live album in my opinion; after that filmed shows on VHS took over and the album format becomes something for the die hard fan.

Crap audio quality most of the time...

CDs in the last 3 years have sold more than they have for ten years along with vinyl. A revival as in selling what they used to, never but definitely better than it has been.

Haha I have noticed also that almost everybody says that they are not fan of live albums and collections and next thing they show is live or compilation album. I have og press of Live In Yogoslavia. Great album. I have their first album too

I have another point with live albums. I love when bands release a whole show from one place (maybe even recorded on 2 or 3 nights). Live albums are all about the energy and the feeling. Most bands release those from different shows from a tour cut together or even worse, from a tour and the festival run in the next year. The energy changes from song to song, the energy from the crowd and the feeling in the band. I don´t like that. I want to hear what the band was doing THAT night at THAT place and suck up the energy they created at THAT moment. Did you know that Helloween used pre-recorded vocals (for Kiske) on the reunion live album? He was sick for half of the shows and they just played the backing tracks at shows with him miming. He admitted that in an interview.Hats off to his honesty but I can´t listen to it anymore...

I can't stand live albums, i want to hear the performers not the audience. Yes i have attended live performances and often gone home wishing i had not done that. Trying to recreate the sound from the studio in a live performance is asking a lot.