NewsThe Rolling Stones Archive / Brussels Affair gig downloadable
The Rolling Stones have announced stonesarchive.com a new website devoted to sharing some of their incredible archive, full of music, film and memorabilia from their almost 50 year career. Fans will be able to listen to unheard music, view unseen photographs and films, and look at rare merchandise. There will also be the opportunity to buy items such as signed lithographs, deluxe box sets, even personalized merchandise and tour gear in our shop.
To kicks things off the band are releasing a download of a legendary 1973 concert, recorded at the Forest National in Belgium that they are calling The Brussels Affair.
The original bootlegs of this concert were sold under such titles as Europe 73, Bedspring Symphony and Brussels Affair, were cobbled together from assorted radio broadcasts, including the syndicated radio programme King Biscuit Flower Hour, and usually contained songs performed at other venues. The new edition, pulled exclusively from the two Brussels gigs, was taken from the original multi-track masters recorded by Andy Johns on the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Longtime Stones collaborator Bob Clearmountain applied the final mix.
It can be downloaded as 256k MP3s for $7 or lossless FLAC for $9.
This is an interesting move from The Rolling Stones and fans are sure to be excited about what treasures are likely to be unearthed in the months and years to come.
Paul McCartney hinted of similar things to come when he announced in May 2011 a private cloud-based digital library for his archive, with the technology being provided by HP, but nothing has been heard of this since.
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Why no CD release??? A deluxe Super Box Set with vinyl only is so stupid when they could have easily included a CD. But hey, I wouldn’t plunk down the $500 for it any way. I really don’t want a Stones watch…I’d like a nice official, 1 CD (or even better Deluxe 2 CD Edition w/ Live Bonus stuff from the same tour which was featured on the bootleg) version of it. I think you’ve got to be earning the kind of cash the Stones are to be buying this stuff anyway.
Unfortunately, The Rolling Stones website(which offers MP3 & FLAC versions of the concert) has a rigid “No Sales to The United States” policy, and the U.S.A. licensee(Google Music) is offering the recording only as MP3.
If The Stones or the record companies want CD collectors to change over to downloading, denying American fans access to the lossless, full-fidelity version isn’t a way to make it happen.
I’ll seek out a homemade copy of the lossless version from a fan outside the U.S.A. . And, anyhow, I’ve already got good bootlegs from the same tour with the same song line-up. This download is hardly essential.
glad to see a major act is finally following the lead set by the “Live Metallica” site! bootlegs are going to happen anyway, fans are happy to pay a nominal fee directly to the band for them i would have thought? hopefully the likes of David Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Who and so on latch on to this and do a similar service for us fans!