Concert Live

CONCERT LIVE (www.concertlive.co.uk) was born in 2005 with the aim of bringing music fans new & exciting ways to experience recorded live music.
Set up by school friends Adam Goodyer and James Perkins after a late night disagreement over the last track played at a Massive Attack concert, it got them thinking how great it would be to relive gigs and get the recording on the way out. What they came up with is Concert Live; a smart concept that enables music lovers to pre-order/pay for a CD at the venue before the concert starts. Customers can then collect the discs with their confirmation receipt from a Concert Live stall afterwards. CDs should be ready within 15min. after the show, however, if someone has to rush for the last train as opposed to the queue at the stall, the pre-ordered and pre-paid discs can also be send to your house (additional postage fee is required). Alternatively, orders can be placed online as well.
The live albums are created on TDK CD-R's. CD-R technology makes the products available instantly at the end of the recorded gigs. Occasionally there might be playback issues on older CD-players, however this is rare.

"There is something so special about getting hold of the gig you were at, particularly hearing the crowd belting out the words, and knowing you were one of them. It makes the hairs stand up on end and makes you rush. You just don’t get that same energy from studio recordings, that’s why we had to do this, it’s the ultimate merchandise for live music fans” says co-founder James Perkins.

What a great concept Concert Live is was demonstrated at the recent High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park, Hackney, where fans could take home a live-recording of the much anticipated Emerson, Lake & Palmer show, the band’s first concert in fifteen years! For a mere £20, fans could (and still can online) purchase a limited edition double-CD of band’s epic performance. However, there is no track-listing to be found on the sleeves. Because these are instant live-CDs and a band’s set list might change during the course of a show, the actual track lists can be found on the Concert Live website a few days after the event.

Concert Live also offer a back catalogue of titles, like Public Image Ltd (three-discs) or the Mott The Hoople 40th Anniversary Reunion Show, recorded at Hammersmith Apollo on Oct 1st, 2009. Like with PIL, this is a three-disc set, with two discs featuring songs from their classic albums while disc 3 includes backstage video, photos from the gig and rare archive images. It is the ONLY recording of the Mott The Hoople reunion show and it’s great that this legendary concert is available for your repeated and private listening pleasure. It also has (an additionally added) track-list, as the Mott The Hoople set is one of the very few Concert Live discs that are also available in selected stores like HMV.

One tiny drawback to the genius concept is the wait in the queue after a show, especially if the event is as massive as High Voltage Festival, where a huge number of fans stood in line at the end of the night to pick up their freshly recorded ELP-discs. If lengthy queues and lengthy waits are not your thing, then the small postage fee is a good investment and you can wait in the comfort of your own home while the disc is delivered to you.