17.06.1985
USA, New York, Beacon Theatre
First Night at the Beacon
good Aud.

01. Fear Is a Man's Best Friend [2:49] 
02. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty [2:53]
03. Richard [1:46] 
04. Island of No Return [3:59]
05. A Lover Sings [4:16]
06. Which Side Are You On? [3:39]
07. To Have and to Have Not [3:36]
08. A New England [4:37]
09. A13, Trunk Road to the Sea [2:48]

Total Running Time: [30:26]

FLAC master, 28 October 2018, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (stereo) {recorded by Gene S}: unknown mics/recorder > analog audio cassette master > Maxell 1992-96 US XLII-S 90 (Type II CrO2) analog audio cassette {from the Stonecutter Archives} > Sony TC-WE435 (azimuth adjustment) > Roland R05 (24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (audio cleanup, convert to 16/44) > SHNtool (fixed SBE) > CD Wave (track splits) > TLH (WAV > FLAC8).

Notes:
Courtesy of the Stonecutter Archives is this opening set by Billy Bragg for the Smiths, on the first of two nights at the Beacon. The tape starts garbled with Gene getting his recorder into position from what sounds like a bit far up and back in the balcony, cutting into the set in the middle of a John Cale cover. Things stabilize soon after that, but there's not much that can be done about the distance on this. It's listenable but don't expect anything stellar. "Richard" inexplicably gets cut, perhaps because the end of a side of tape was used to master this. It was nice to have come across this in the archives nonetheless. The usual fired-up young Billy here, politically charged as always, except for his one dig at Paul Weller, and the aside to losing in Trivial Pursuit to Joey Ramone earlier that day. The Smiths sets circulate and perhaps someday we'll get to the first gens from Gene's masters which are probably out there in some form already. A trawl through the archives has not turned up the second night's opening set. If any of you have that or alternate sources, please feel free to share. Enjoy, elegymart

Dimeadozen.org: Torrent 634013 by elegymart)