THIS IS NOT A COMMERCIAL RELEASE - CALL IT A BOOTLEG IF YOU LIKE
Six years after forming in Christchurch, and touring overseas, Fetus Productions comes back to tour around NZ - the Endless Possibilities Tour during August - September 1986 taking in venues at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington then back to Auckland.
This was one of their film (The Box) and music performances for which the band was so well known.
This is an UNOFFICIAL RECORDING of the band performing live during their 1986 NZ tour
There are other examples of very crudely packaged recordings of Fetus Production material, a good one is Self Manipulation Live at Windsor Castle
Like the bootleg of The Gordons I have listed separately, I am really hoping someone will really look after this, "pull off" the material and transfer to other media for historical/archival purposes. The packaging is very rough and ready which could easily lead to someone accidently throwing it out!
This cassette tape is extremely difficult to find, in fact I know of only two copies in existence.
Better still, if an enterprising person could obtain permission/be granted licencing to release this rare slice of NZ music on vinyl, even better so that others can enjoy having their minds expanded by this music from Fetus Productions!
I listened for hours to this tape, ensuring the description was accurate and I have to say, the head feels like scrambled eggs now.
I am not at liberty to divulge which venue this was recorded at, let's just say "somewhere while on tour within NZ"
This audio recording is not some dodgy recording at the gig by a fan with a portable cassette recorder and microphone!
It has been taken directly from the mixing desk, the various source inputs are quite balanced (vocals, guitar, synth & percussion) and the sound quality is very good.
Fetus Productions - Live performance 1986
UNOFFICIAL RECORDING
Recorded onto Sony HF60 media
Tape media is in excellent condition, clamshell is fine and is the screw type not plastic welded so it would be easy to remove the tape itself if this was ever required.
Recorded on both sides of the tape, total run time for Fetal Productions 50 minutes and 10 minutes of The Dead Kennedys at the end of Side B
Live performances with no audience participation heard, just tons of great music!
Extremely crude/raw packaging presentation, just a very worn front cover with hand written track notes. The cassette media has a simple label on each side FETUS PRODUCTIONS
Test cassette machine: Nakamichi DR8
Prior to testing, tape was repacked (FF - RW - FF - RW) to ensure even tape loading. This is vital for cassette tapes that have been unplayed for considerable periods of time.
The audio was taken straight from the mixing desk, not an acoustic feed!
The instruments/music/vocals are clean and bright, without reverberation and the levels are balanced with peaks around -2dB, NO OVERDRIVING
Sound quality is VERY good - no tape drop outs and frequency range is VERY GOOD, if I had any criticisms I did notice a couple of "clunks" during track 1 where the sound engineer is still getting things set up but the rest of the recording is just fine.
Tape run sheet: (times are approximate but within 2 seconds)
Song Title - Run Time
Side A WHITE
Ice Queen - 00:00 ~ 06:04
Danger Man - 06:05 ~ 08:59
Trafficing - 09:03 ~ 12:33
Dali - 12:34 ~ 16:16
Oh Hello - 16:17 ~ 19:00
Now That I'm Wanted - 19:01 ~ 22:43
The next two tracks are not identified on the label and I cannot identify them
Unknown song 22:44 - 26:57
Unknown song 26:58 ~ 30:39
Side B BLACK
This side is a bit confusing with two versions of Whats Going On? Version 1 is much "darker" than Version 2
The Prisoner - 00:00 ~ 04:42 (strange background noise during the period 00:25 - 00:46 , like a mic is "opened" then "closed")
City Why? - 04:43 ~ 08:32 (Whats Going On? Version 1)
Tokyo Rain - 08:34 ~ 13:29
Fertility Cult - (Whats Going On? Version 2) 13:30 ~ 17:29
Moss Garden - 17:33 ~ 20:18
20:18
At this point we drop into The Dead Kennedys
Holiday In Cambodia
Viva Las Vegas
California Über Alles
Tape finishes with the first line of lyrics from The Dead Kennedys, I Kill Children
God told me to skin you alive
There has been no editing of any kind, no fade in - fade outs and each song practically runs into the next with hardly any pause