1987.09.11 San Diego Sports, San Diego 

New Order

San Diego Sports Arena

San Diego, CA

September 11, 1987

KeithM Master via JEMS

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-939 Stereo Microphone > Sony Walkman D6 

JEMS 2017 Transfer: master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 8 mastering > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 Touched By The Hand Of God

02 Let’s Go (instrumental)

03 5 8 6

04 Angel Dust

05 All Day Long

06 Weirdo

07 True Faith

08 Shellshock

09 Subculture

10 Bizarre Love Triangle

11 Temptation

12 Atmosphere

13 The Perfect Kiss

Introduction To The KeithM Masters

JEMS is pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM, best known for his U2 master recordings circa 1987.

KeithM recorded hundreds of concerts in, around and beyond Southern California starting in the early ‘80s, using a Sony ECM-939 stereo microphone and Walkman D6. Most of his recordings range from really good to excellent and offer a striking balance in that they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, but somehow little up-close chatter or talking.

While U2 was KeithM’s primary band, he recorded many other artists, especially those who played the San Diego area.

Based on web research, to the best of our knowledge Keith’s recording of this New Order show has never circulated, and it would appear it is the first tape of any kind to surface of the show.

That’s excellent news for New Order fans as it is a very fine, up-close recording, on par with some of KeithM’s best U2 tapes from the same year. Samples provided. The set features a relatively obscure performance of the instrumental “Let’s Go” which wound up on the Salvation soundtrack. To their credit, New Order mixed up set lists quite a bit in this era, so this set varies meaningfully from shows the following two nights in Irvine and Inglewood.

KeithM also recorded the 1986 New Order show in San Diego and we’ll be getting to that in the coming weeks.

I’d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and allowing us to share his work. He enjoys reading your comments so please keep them coming. Special credit goes to DIME member bitrate for helping me connect to KeithM and remaining persistent as the months went by before we finally got things going with the tapes.

Special thanks to DIME member snaggu for help identifying a track and confirming details about the show. Finally, thank you to frogster for handling the final production and posting.

BK for JEMS

Without shadow of a doubt, one of the (many) highlights of 2017 for the JEMS team was the release of the KeithM tapes.

The variety of recordings recorded by KeithM is outstanding to say the least, from Neil Young to Peter Gabriel, the Moody Blues and of course, the tapes that made him known in the trading circle: his U2 recordings.

But now, we move away from the "classic" bands to get into a band a little more "current," and that is New Order.

New Order, as you may know, was the band that turned out with the remaining members of Joy Division after the death of Ian Curtis.

As a New Order fan, I can tell you with great enthusiasm that this is an excellent capture of what I, in my opinion, consider to be their best years. Samples provided.

Like all bands, New Order spent some time looking for its "sound." Although for many fans of Joy Division it was a radical change to listen to "Movement" after being used to the Post-Punk which many of us love, New Order knew how to find its own identity and that is something that is shown in this recording.

It is impressive that only after 7 years, New Order had already created hymns like "The Perfect Kiss." And if you do not consider that this was the critical peak band, I'd love to let you know a piece of information that you might not know: Jonathan Demme, the director of The Silence of the Lambs, was the director of the video of "The Perfect Kiss."

It may not sound so strange to some, but it must be said that for a film director to decide to focus on a music video (and in fact, "The Perfect Kiss" video lasts more than 10 minutes) that means the director saw something in the song that he knew how to translate in the video, beyond the musicality. A message that he wanted to show, surely.

Regarding the recording, we could say that this is in the "standard" KeithM quality. KeithM had (and surely still has) the ability to record at the correct spot and get "that" feeling. 

The audience is distant in the recording (except for the nearby people who shouts a little too much in spots) and the music is really strong, intense. He does not lose a single moment of the concert and as a result, a recording for the New Order fans, those who are just introducing themselves to them and why not? For those who are not.

A previously uncirculated recording of New Order is something that you do not see every day, that's for sure, so we are pleased to, once again, contribute to the trading pool with another recording of excellent quality.

Huge thanks to KeithM for graciously lending JEMS his masters. There are many more good things to come from him. 

Last but not least, I thank the JEMS team for the opportunity they have given to me, allowing me to present to all of you many of the recordings of the archive. 

frogster