Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

New Zealand and Australia (January 20 - February 10, 2009). Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
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spall
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:52 am

Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by spall »

Hello,

I went to both Melbourne dates (Feb) and was astonished. It now remains as not only the best concert I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot) but the best 'thing' I have ever seen! After the first concert which someone had graciously donated their spare ticket for, I was so blown away that the next morning I bought tickets for the second show and brought some family along. As a musician, you could say the concert was about as close to religion as I'll find!! The Webb Sisters singing "If it be your will" sent shivers down my spine and I am still on cloud nine because of that two days later. And what of the man himself? A gentleman of the highest order.

Anyway..

I would move heaven and earth to uncover some quality footage of the Melbourne show, or for that matter, any leg of the tour. Does anyone if such a thing exists? I also read online there is an official July 2008 @ London DVD release although I cannot actually find this anywhere despite long searches online.

Thank you all.

From a very, very appreciative fan.
NickShears
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:18 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by NickShears »

Hi Spall, welcome to the forum. As you'll see, or have seen, you're far from alone in being so moved by the concerts. The London show is indeed being released on DVD, and as someone posted on a different thread here yesterday, it's already available for pre-order on Amazon, for release March 31 2009.
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Nick,
London 1979, London 1983, London 1988, Brisbane 2009
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AlanM
Posts: 576
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:42 am
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by AlanM »

Amazon US is taking orders for the DVD and CD to be shipped on 31st March. However be aware that the DVD is only Region 1 at this stage - make sure your machine can play it. Track lists are the same for both items.
Amazon UK does not list either item, but does list a 2008 release of a DVD from a 1988 concert. Has anyone seen this one? How is the quality? I was quite disappointed with the vision quality of the 1985 Warsaw concert.
I enjoyed the two "Under review" DVDs - not much music, but many insights that I had not come across in Ira B. Nadel's biography or Jim Devlin's book. I now listen to "Joan of Arc" with a new understanding. A lot of irony was revealed after I read a biography of Joan of Arc.
Too much Leonard Cohen is never enough.
London 1972, Adelaide 1980, 1985, 2009
Sydney 2010; Adelaide 2010
Sydney 2013 X2; Melbourne 2013; Adelaide 2013
Nicolas
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:15 pm
Location: Brussels, BE

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by Nicolas »

Hello Spall,

I have just found this on Dime:
Leonard Cohen - 2009-02-05 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia (aud FLAC + videos & photos)
This is a torrent available for free download once you have registered on the website.
This is the description:
Leonard Cohen
2009-02-05 (Thursday, February 5, 2009) 8:15pm AEDT
Rod Laver Arena
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
lossless audience recording (FLAC)
plus videos & photos

Leonard Cohen's first concert in Melbourne (not counting his
A Day On The Green appearance ten days previously) in 24 years.
Tracklist:

--- DISC 1 (1:10:58)
Set 1
01. Dance Me To The End Of Love
02. The Future
03. Ain't No Cure For Love
04. Bird On The Wire
05. Everybody Knows
06. In My Secret Life
07. Who By Fire
08. Chelsea Hotel #2
09. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
10. Sisters Of Mercy
11. Anthem

--- DISC 2 (0:57:47)
Set 2
12. Tower Of Song
13. Suzanne
14. The Gypsy's Wife
15. The Partisan
16. Boogie Street
17. Hallelujah
18. I'm Your Man
19. A Thousand Kisses Deep [recitation]
20. Take This Waltz

--- DISC 3 (0:44:42)
Encore 1
21. So Long, Marianne
22. First We Take Manhattan
Encore 2
23. Famous Blue Raincoat
24. If It Be Your Will
25. Democracy
Encore 3
26. I Tried To Leave You
27. Whither Thou Goest

Total running time: 2:53:27

The band:
Leonard Cohen (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboard)
Javier Mas (bandurria, laud, archilaud)
Dino Soldo (keyboard, saxophone, wind instruments, dobro, background vocals)
Bob Metzger (guitar, steel guitar, background vocals)
Rafael Bernardo Gayol (drums, percussion)
Neil Larsen (keyboards, Hammond B3, accordion)
Roscoe Beck (bass, double bass, background vocals)
Sharon Robinson (vocals, shaker)
Charley Webb (vocals, guitar)
Hattie Webb (vocals, harp)

Lineage:
> Church Audio STC-11 cardoid mics
> Church Audio ST-9100 preamp (gain approximately 3 o'clock)
> Edirol R-09 (Line In / WAV, 48000 Hz, 24 bit / Input Level: 22 /
AGC: Off / Ext Mic Type: Stereo / Low Cut: Off / Mic Gain: High)
> 4GB SanDisk SDHC Card
> USB > PC hard drive
> dBpowerAMP Music Converter
> WAV, 44100 Hz, 16 bit, stereo
> Adobe Audition 1.5 (amplified volume 6dB)
> Acoustica Audio Mixer 2.42 (manually lowered most crowd noise)
> Adobe Audition (Hard Limiting: Limit Max Amplitude to -10dB /
Boost Input by 0dB / Lookahead Time: 7ms / Release Time: 40ms;
further amplified overall volume 9dB)
> Nero WaveEditor (fades, tracksplits)
> Trader's Little Helper 2.2.2 (SBEs fixed)
> FLAC (Level 8)
> torrented on Dime 2009-02-13

Notes:
Recorded/encoded/shared by crimpies (crimpies@gmail.com).
Recorded from eighth row center on the floor.
Mics on glasses above frontal lobes, pointing towards speakers.
The recording came out quieter than expected, so the volume was
subsequently boosted in post. There is some hiss noticeable during
some passages as a result, but this could almost pass for ambience.
Selling this would be uncool, doubt you could anyway. Enjoy!

---

Videos by dozza747 from YouTube.
Taken with a Canon PowerShot A540.
Used with kind permission.

Lineage:
> Canon PowerShot A540
> computer
> DVD data disc
> the mail
> PC hard drive
> torrented on Dime 2009-02-13

a. Anthem
b. Hallelujah
c. A Thousand Kisses Deep
d. If It Be Your Will

Video: 320 x 240 pixels, 30 fps, 636 kbps
Audio: 88 kbps, 8 bit, PCM
If you can't figure out how to download it I could help you out. Just PM me
Kind regards,

Nicolas
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crimpies
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:58 am

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by crimpies »

Looks familiar! ;-)
Melbourne Feb 5 2009 / Melbourne Feb 10 2009 / Wellington Oct 31 2010 / Wellington Nov 1 2010 / Melbourne Nov 12 2010 / Melbourne Nov 13 2010 / Sydney Nov 16 2013
skipper1967
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:30 am

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by skipper1967 »

Thanks for the upload crimpies. You are the man.

Hoping you also caught Tuesday nights show.

Thanks for sharing.
User avatar
Paula
Posts: 3155
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2002 1:20 am
Location: London

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by Paula »

Crimpies people like you do us all a great service and it is greatly appreciated 8)
Dublin 14th June, Manchester 20th June, O2 17th July, Matlock Bandstand Aug 28, O2 14th November, Royal Albert Hall 17th and 18th November 2008, MBW 11th July 2009, Liverpool Echo 14th July 2009
User avatar
crimpies
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:58 am

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by crimpies »

Sorry about the hiss on the recording, don't know what happened really, used similar settings as always but the concert was quieter than I'd anticipated.
Melbourne Feb 5 2009 / Melbourne Feb 10 2009 / Wellington Oct 31 2010 / Wellington Nov 1 2010 / Melbourne Nov 12 2010 / Melbourne Nov 13 2010 / Sydney Nov 16 2013
markreed
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:29 am

Re: Melbourne Concert Footage Recorded?

Post by markreed »

The 1988 Concert DVD is not great at all.

There's no doubting the musical quality within the disc, the songs, performance and music is absolutely brilliant, but visually it is a big let down. A professionally shot concert, the picture is squashed with a thin aspect ratio so it looks as if either Leonard and all his band are incredibly fat, of a 1.78:1 ratio squeezed to 2.35:1. In short, whereas the picture should occupy approx two-thirds of the frame height wise, it probably occupies one third, and it looks ugly and wrong as a result. If you can overlook that, the DVD captures a fine, high quality concert from the 1988 tour. The image is very dark, and not especially sharp : like watching an old video tape - which is probably exactly what it is. That said, a visual record of this tour is near enough an essential purchase for a fan of the man, so be aware that this is not of the equivalent standard as a recent contemporary release, and the quality of the image belies a 20 year old videotape that was presumably never intended for a full release but a television broadcast.
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