Tight But Loose » Blog Archive IT WAS 56 YEARS AGO - UK TOUR 1970/LED ZEP TBL 1975 SNAPSHOT CHICAGO STADIUM/ JOHN PAUL JONES INTERVIEW IN THE TIMES/LED ZEPPELIN COLLECTION/DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE

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IT WAS 56 YEARS AGO – UK TOUR 1970/LED ZEP TBL 1975 SNAPSHOT CHICAGO STADIUM/ JOHN PAUL JONES INTERVIEW IN THE TIMES/LED ZEPPELIN COLLECTION/DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE

28 January 2026 32 views No Comment

It was 56 years ago…

Coming across this Melody Maker front page story from January 31,1970 prompted me to recall the events of 56 years ago when Led Zeppelin were undertaking a long awaited UK tour…

Here’s an extract from the Evenings With Led Zeppelin book based on the usual impeccable research from Mike Tremaglio:

Fifth UK Tour (Winter 1970)

January 7, 1970 – February 17, 1970

A timely UK outing which coincided with Led Zeppelin II toppling The Beatles’ Abbey Road as the number one chart album. There were eight theatre dates and, not surprisingly, it was their London appearance that drew most of the attention.

Back at the famous Royal Albert Hall on Jimmy’s 26th birthday (January 9, 1970), they did much to enhance their reputation with an excellent show. This concert was filmed by the band under the direction of Stanley Dorfman and Peter Whitehead. Originally intended for a semi-documentary project, it never saw the light of day, allegedly because some of the film was shot at the wrong speed. A 40-minute cut was prepared and turned up as a much coveted yet atrocious quality bootleg years later.

All but one of these dates saw them perform with no support act – a trend that would continue on subsequent tours. The setlist for these shows included a new set opener, a cover of Ben E. King’s ‘Groovin’’ (aptly renamed ‘We’re Gonna Groove’). The version performed at the Royal Albert Hall show remained unreleased until it turned up (along with guitar overdubs) on the posthumous Coda set in 1982.

On January 31, 1970, Plant suffered facial injuries when his Jaguar spun off the road after returning from a Spirit concert. This caused the cancellation of the proposed February 7 date at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, which was later rescheduled for February 17. A rare concert programme was distributed for this show and the accompanying blurb reveals that, “Although Led Zeppelin was created at the close of 1968, they are undoubtedly a group of the Seventies. THE group of the Seventies according to an opinion which is held worldwide.”

During the early months of the new decade it was an opinion shared by all who were lucky enough to attend what would prove to be their only indoor UK shows of the year.

January 7, 1970 – Town Hall – Birmingham, England

Partial Setlist (from press review):

We’re Gonna Groove, Dazed And Confused, White Summer/ Black Mountain Side, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Organ Solo/ Thank You, Moby Dick, How Many More Times Medley (inc. Rip It Up, ‘Bye Bye Johnny’, Come on Everybody, Something Else), Bring It on Home

Background Info:

The first show of the British Tour was performed in Plant and Bonham’s local stomping ground. Birmingham. The concert featured the debut performance of ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ which had been written by the band a few days before the concert and wouldn’t be released for another nine months. ‘Thank You’, another song featuring John Paul Jones on organ, was also debuted.

Press Reaction:

Express and Star (Wolverhampton, England, January 8, 1970) – “Led Zeppelin and the lovely strangled cat sound” by Tony Raba: “Fans cheered wildly, danced in the aisles and even on their seats last night to give Led Zeppelin one of the most fantastic receptions ever witnessed at Birmingham Town Hall. The two-and-a-half hour show featured solely Zeppelin… and some of the best rock music I have ever heard.

The group opened its act with ‘Groove’, before going into one of their early numbers, ‘Dazed and Confused’, featuring brilliant guitar work from Jimmy Page who, with the aid of cello bow, made his guitar sound like a cat being strangled.

Two encores, and eventually the group came on to close with a really wild version of ‘Bring It On Home’, leaving the audience ecstatic and the Town Hall shaking to its very foundations after one of the wildest, raviest shows ever seen there.”

January 8, 1970 – Colston Hall – Bristol, England

Setlist:

We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quit You Baby (inc. It Hurts Me So, I Need Somebody To Lean On), Dazed And Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer/ Black Mountain Side, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Organ Solo/ Thank You, Moby Dick, How Many More Times Medley (inc. Smokestack Lightning, Beck’s Bolero, Boogie Chillun’, Move On Down The Line, Hideaway, Truckin’ Little Mama/ Bottle It Up And Go, The Lemon Song), Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown (inc. It’s Your Thing, Good Times Bad Times)

Bootleg Recording (89 minute source):

Robert apologizes for the band being an hour late, and mentions that ‘Thank You’ was being played for just the second time. Plant introduces Jimmy as “Jimmy Hoochie Koochie Page” during the intro to ‘How Many More Times’.

January 9, 1970 – Royal Albert Hall – London, England

Setlist:

We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quit You Baby (inc. It Hurts Me So, Don’t Know Which Way To Go), Dazed And Confused (inc. Cocaine Blues), Heartbreaker, White Summer/ Black Mountain Side, Since I’ve Been Loving You (unreleased), Organ Solo/ Thank You (unreleased), What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times Medley (inc. On The Way Home, Down By The River, Boogie Chillun’, Move On Down the Line, Truckin’ Little Mama/Bottle It Up And Go, Cocaine Blues, Leave My Woman Alone, It’s Your Thing, The Lemon Song, That’s All Right), Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, C’Mon Everybody, Something Else, Bring It On Home, Long Tall Sally Medley (inc. Move On Down The Line, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On)

Background Info:

This legendary gig on Jimmy Page’s 26th birthday was captured on film for posterity. Originally intended for a TV documentary on the band, the footage remained officially unreleased until the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD release (just 40 minutes of the show had previously been available on a low-quality bootleg). Jimmy Page: “It was just like it was at the Albert Hall in the summer (June 29, 1969), with everyone dancing ‘round the stage. It is a great feeling. What could be better than having everyone clapping and shouting along? It’s indescribable, but it just makes you feel that everything is worthwhile.”

Press Reaction:

Nick Logan, music critic for the New Musical Express (January 17, 1970), was wildly enthusiastic about the show in his review “Zeppelin Put The Excitement Back Into Pop”. He remarked that the band had been “exercising control over the sell-out crowd from 8:15 when they took the stage until 10:30 when they left it.”

His other observations included the following: “It isn’t hard to understand the substantial appeal of Led Zeppelin. Their current two-hour plus act is a blitzkrieg of musically-perfected hard rock that combines heavy dramatics with lashings of sex into a formula that can’t fail to move the senses and limbs. At the pace they’ve been setting on their current seven-town British tour there are few groups who could live with them on stage.

Strutting about the stage with arrogance, Plant is a most accomplished performer, drawing from the finest blues/soul-shouter traditions with a confidence out of line with his inexperience previous to Led Zeppelin.

At the end of two 15-minute long encores, when the audience had been on its feet dancing, clapping and shouting for 35 minutes, they were still calling them back for more. I spoke to ‘Sir’ Jimmy Page after the show and he confessed that the whole band had suffered extreme nerves beforehand, mainly because people like John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck had requested tickets.”

Record Mirror (January 17, 1970) also gave the band high marks, noting that, “Jimmy Page proved he is one of the best musically-equipped guitarist(s) on the pop scene” and “Robert Plant puts his lines across with a roar and sometimes insinuating sexiness in his movements.”

Top Pops And Music Now (January 17, 1970) chimed in with another positive review of the show, saying the “group contains four of the finest musicians around, (though) they are not musicianly. Nor are they particularly progressive. But they are extremely good. Very exciting. The Greatest Bopper Group in the World… they built an atmosphere and backed it with good solid rock.”

Given the lack of audio or video evidence, there had been some question whether or not ‘Since I’ve Been Loving Lou’ was played. The answer came in the form of Raymond Telford’s Melody Maker (January 17, 1970) review, as he called that song one of the best numbers played that evening.

Official Release:

Led Zeppelin DVD (Atlantic 2003)

Bootleg Recordings (113 minute multiple soundboard & video sources):

‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’, ‘Organ Solo/Thank You’ and the ‘Long Tall Sally’ medley were all excluded from the DVD release (though the ‘Long Tall Sally’ medley video is available on bootleg). he band introductions at the beginning of ‘How Many More Times’ as well as ‘That’s All Right’ from the medley were edited out of the DVD. The guitar solo in ‘Communication Breakdown’ was also edited down by almost half a minute.

‘We’re Gonna Groove’ (with overdubs) and ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’ from the posthumous 1982 Coda LP were both taken from this show.

‘Heartbreaker’ (cut after 4 minutes, just as the guitar lead gets off the ground) and ‘Long Tall Sally’ both exist on audio, despite being excluded from the official DVD. ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ and ‘Organ Solo/Thank You’ have never surfaced in audio or video form (other than the short audio snippets on the DVD menu).

January 13, 1970 – Guildhall – Portsmouth, England

Background Info:

The second and last time Led Zeppelin performed at the Guildhall in Portsmouth (they had last played there on June 26, 1969).

January 15, 1970 – City Hall – Newcastle, England

Background Info:

The second of five times the band played the Newcastle City Hall.

January 16, 1970 – City (Oval) Hall – Sheffield, England

Background Info:

The first of two times the group played Sheffield City Hall (the other being the January 2, 1973 show).

January 24, 1970 – University of Leeds, Refectory – Leeds, England

Background Info:

The venue for this concert was listed in the UK music papers as either the Leeds Town Hall or Leeds University. Extensive coverage of the concert in the University’s Union News removes all doubt as to where the show was performed.

The Who’s legendary Live At Leeds LP was recorded just three weeks later at the same venue on February 14, 1970. Spring 1970 term was a banner time for Leeds University students as Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Ten Years After, Yes, Joe Cocker, The Small Faces and Mott the Hoople were among the renowned artists who performed at the Refectory during that spring term.

Press Reaction:

”Chris and Vic” of the University News (January 30, 1970): “Their ‘two hour’ hop at the Union took nearly three hours. The fact that there were six encores only emphasizes their terrific performance. The refectory was a mass of people captivated by the sounds put out by the incredible Led Zeppelin.”

February 17, 1970 – Usher Hall – Edinburgh, Scotland

Support Act: Barclay James Harvest

Background Info:

(Rescheduled from February 7, 1970)

This one-off gig in Scotland was originally scheduled for February 7, but had to be postponed due to Robert Plant being injured in a car crash on January 31. Plant was returning from attending a gig by Spirit at the Mother’s Club in Birmingham that night and was involved in a car accident. He sustained facial lacerations and damaged teeth when his Jaguar had a collision with a minivan. As a result, the gig was postponed 10 days, giving Plant the time necessary to recuperate.

The band was supported by Barclay James Harvest, the only time they were supported by another band in 1970 (besides the two festival dates – the June 28, 1970 at the Bath Festival and August 29, 1970 at the Man-Pop Festival).

Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh promoted the concert, and a programme was produced to commemorate the event.

Extract from the book Evenings With Led Zeppelin by Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio

TBL Archive – it was 51 years ago…

TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot: Number Five:

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6th,1975

MONTREAL, CANADA

MONTREAL FORUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Heartbreaker

Snapshot Listen:- How it sounds now:

I have this on the 1975 World Tour vinyl double album and the When The Levee breaks /World Tour ’75 CD set. I’ve always had a bit of affection for the World Tour bootleg – it was one of the first I got of the 1975 US tour. It’s a fair to good audience recording but very lively.

This is an enjoyable performance though Robert’s voice is still struggling. Sick Again really rocks while Over The Hills appears in a unique arrangement as Page’s guitar lead cuts out and Plant fills in as JPJ carries the rhythm. After ”The Rain Song, Robert lectures the crowd on the Mellotron: “It’s a very peculiar instrument because every time we take it somewhere, it goes out of tune. It’s built and comprises of tapes inside the box, and to simulate violins is not an easy job when you’re travelling to North America. In fact, we’re gonna try to simulate some Eastern violins now.” Kashmir is growing more powerful with each performance and is rapidly turning into one of the highlights of the show. No Quarter clocks in at 19 minutes and pleasingly so.

Moby Dick is now stretching to 25 minutes and Plant refers to Bonzo as “Karen Carpenter”, a reference to a recent poll in Playboy magazine which placed Karen Carpenter as ‘Best Drummer’, above Bonzo. At the time Bonzo’s first hand response was captured in an interview with Lisa Robinson: “Karen Carpenter couldn’t last ten fucking minutes with a Zeppelin number!”

Dazed And Confused (only it’s third outing on the tour) includes a very delicate version of San Francisco and is now recapturing some of its former glories. Page’s solo on Stairway To Heaven is also developing a previously unknown intricacy. Instead of Communication Breakdown they throw in a ragged but welcomed version of Heartbreaker as a second encore.

“Montreal – you are the best! Maybe the snow has melted all around the hall.” is Plant’s parting comment.

They were on the up, and there were some great performances imminently ahead.

To be continued…

John Paul Jones interview in The Times…

Here’s a transcript of the interview with John Paul Jones recently published in The Times – many thanks to Gary Davies for this one…

What Led Zep’s John Paul Jones did next — feminist songs and an opera:

The musician, 80, tells Richard Morrison about his classical passions, his rock’n’roll days — and whether the band could have an Abba-style comeback

Jones has written a 20-minute song cycle for the mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, the pianist Joseph Middleton and members of the Britten Sinfonia. Called Her Kind, and co-commissioned by the Wigmore Hall, Britten Sinfonia and Asko|Schönberg, it’s inspired, he says, “by the sheer variety and scope of the operatic roles that Dame Sarah performs”. And it will give Connolly plenty of opportunities to show off her dramatic range, because Jones has set four very different texts by four feminist writers: Anne Sexton, Carol Ann Duffy, Angela Carter and Maya Angelou.

“I didn’t really set out to be a feminist when choosing the texts,” he says. “I mean, who am I to take that position? But I read an awful lot of poetry, fascinating stuff from all over the world. And I found four texts that really spoke to me. They are by women, about women. The only problem was that they are all still in copyright. I’d forgotten what it was like having to deal with publishers.”

And the music of Her Kind? “I would say tonal but edgy,” Jones replies. “But each song is very different. The first is turbulent, the second slightly Greek in flavour, the third calm and the fourth, the Angelou poem, very sassy. And I’ve scored the work for two woodwinds, two strings, piano and voice — the classic Pierrot ensemble.”

He means the instrumental combination that the modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg used for his seminal 1912 work Pierrot lunaire. And if rock fans are startled to discover that Jones is able to drop such erudite classical music references into the conversation, they shouldn’t be. The teenage bass guitar virtuoso who played in countless sessions in the early 1960s before teaming up with Jimmy Page for 12 years of glory with Led Zeppelin always had eclectic musical tastes. “My father was a band leader and pianist and my mother was also in the music business, so I heard an awful lot of music when I toured with them,” he says.

And in his teens wasn’t he also a church organist? “Yes, I used to have organ lessons with Ernest Worrell, who went on to be organist at Southwark Cathedral. Then at 16 I became organist and choirmaster at my local church in south London. The salary was £25.” A month? “A year!” Jones says. “I used the money to buy my first Fender bass guitar. In fact that organ training was very useful when I was with Zeppelin because I could play the Hammond organ and put in the bass line with the pedals. People used to say, ‘Who’s playing bass guitar?’ They didn’t realise I was doing it with my feet.”

His renown as a bass guitarist quickly spread. At first it was small gigs. “I did everything. Youth clubs, bar mitzvahs, weddings, masonics,” he says. But before he was 20 he was doing sessions with the biggest names in the London pop scene. And not just playing. He also started arranging backings for pop tracks.

“My dad always said, ‘Never turn down work. Say yes to everything and figure out how to do it later.’ So when someone said to me, ‘Can you do arrangements?’ I said, ‘Yeah, no problem’ — and ran to Foyles to buy [Cecil] Forsyth’s classic book Orchestration. I’ve still got it.

“But actually the main way I learnt was to listen to what the players told me in sessions. In those days everyone you needed for a song was in the same studio at Abbey Road at the same time — strings, brass, drums, guitars, the lot — with the singer in a little glass cubicle. So we would have top string players from the LSO there and they would give me little tips like, ‘Try it with this articulation.’ It was a great education.”

Jones also found it mentally exhausting. “I was doing two or three sessions a day and 30 or 40 arrangements a month. I was basically burning out.” So was it an easy decision to drop all that freelance work and join Led Zeppelin? “Yes, although everyone thought I was completely crazy. I’d get asked, ‘Who are they?’ And I’d reply, ‘Well, they’re nobody at the moment.’

“But as soon as I joined I realised what an exciting musical unit it was. I could bring my classical influences to songs like Kashmir, and I played keyboard a lot. And those 12 years gave me the freedom to do what I wanted in music for the rest of my life.”

Jones has certainly used that freedom well. Since his Zeppelin years he’s worked as a producer, an arranger and a multi-instrumentalist with dozens of stars and rising stars.

And his classical side has flourished too. In 2010 he had a strange request from the composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. “Mark said, ‘I’m writing this opera about Anna Nicole [Smith], do you want to be in it?’ I said yes, because Mark and I have been friends for a long time. He said, ‘All you need to do is come on stage and play in the party scene.’ I said fine. Well, about a year later I got the score. He had written me into the whole opera from the very first bar to the last. And doubling on mandolin too! I had to brush up my reading skills. But it was great fun doing the rehearsals and it helped me a lot when I was writing my own opera.”

That’s his next big project — The Ghost Sonata. What on earth tempted Jones to make an opera out of Strindberg’s pathologically gloomy play about deranged people in a Stockholm apartment block? “Well, it’s comic in some ways,” Jones says. “And again I was just looking for a good subject. The problem for me now is getting it performed. We had three opera houses lined up, then one dropped out so they all did. But I’ve done some demo tracks of it with Allan Clayton, who wants to sing the lead, and I think we might get a concert performance at the Helsinki Festival.”

It’s in Helsinki too that Jones’s next classical project will be premiered — nothing less than an organ concerto written for Olivier Latry, the brilliant organist of Notre-Dame in Paris and the Helsinki Philharmonic. What will that be like? “Big chords, loud and probably a lot of Messiaen and Fauré,” Jones says.

What does he make of all the technological advances now being applied to the music industry? Would he like to see Led Zeppelin recreated, as if in their youthful prime, by digital avatars, as has happened with Abba? “I can’t imagine how that would work with Zeppelin,” he says. “I mean, with Abba you’ve got the costumes, the dance moves. We just got on stage and made music.”

And what about the threat of AI wiping out the music profession? “It will certainly put some people out of work,” Jones says. “But I can remember a time when people said the Hammond organ would put dance band musicians out of business. And records were going to put everybody out of business. They didn’t. It will be the same with AI. Musicians will find a way to survive.”

Sarah Connolly performs Her Kind at the Wigmore Hall, London, Jan 8, wigmore-hall.org.uk

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Led Zeppelin Collection:

I was sad to learn of the passing of Raymond ‘Keith’ Mitchell via his son Ben. Keith was a long time TBL subscriber – our condolances go to all his family and friends.

Ben has also been in touch regarding Keith’s Led Zeppelin collection as follows;

Following the sad passing of my Father, Raymond ‘Keith’ Mitchell, we have inherited a rather extensive collection of rock memorabilia. However, my Dad was a true Led Zeppelin fanatic collecting anything he could get his hands on. Some of you may have even met him at a records fair or exchanged correspondence or he may have even bought something from you.

We have all kinds of Led Zeppelin memorabilia all in amazing condition including different vinyl pressings, box sets, bootlegs, books, magazines and some original gig posters and programmes.

If anyone is interested they can email us at RaymondosRecords@gmail.com with any inquiries.

Follow our instagram page @raymondorecords and our discogs page is RaymondoRecordStore.

Thanks again for any help you can provide.

Kind regards

Ben Mitchell

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Friday January 23:

It was 50 years ago today…

Friday January 23 1976 – back then I was working at the WH Smith record department and Friday was new release day – imagine my excitement as I opened the box marked ‘RCA New Release’ and there was the new David Bowie album Station To Station.

I had already read the reviews for this album including the NME review by Charles Shaar Murray and I knew this was going to be a special record …

50 years on it still is…

Friday January 23:

Every record purchase tells a story – here’s a good one – The Everly Brothers Two Yanks in England album – 1966 album on Warner Bros.

Jimmy Page plays on this and when I interviewed him in 2014 I gave him my copy of this album which he was well pleased with. I’ve been looking to replace it since and my record collecting comrade Lee did beat me to a copy at the last Victoria Record Fair – imagine my surprise when this afternoon I came across a superb original copy in our local charity shop – £4.99? I’ll take it!

I duly celebrated with a pint at the local Gordon Arms – after all the trails of my slip on the ice January is finally not looking too bad!

Saturday January 24:

Saturday is platterday- good to back in a record fair environment- plenty to wade through at the VIP Victoria Fair today…

Saturday January 24:

A great day at the Victoria VIP record fair in London – pic here with Mark Palmer Krys Jantzen and Phil Harris during our lunchtime break at the nearby excellent Royal Oak pub – record collecting can be thirsty work!

Saturday January 24:

At the Victoria VIP Record Fair today it was a joy to find this gem 50 years to the week I first bought it – what I have here is the Bob Dylan Desire album Japanese pressing with insert/ what a beauty- I also wore the matching T.shirt to mark this Dylan anniversary!

Saturday January 24:

I am a big collector of obscure foreign Led Zeppelin pressings so I was well pleased to find this one at the Victoria VIP record fair today – what I have here is the Led Zeppelin Presence album – a foreign pressing possibly Taiwan – single sleeve with red lettering – very obscure indeed and after some negotiation it was in my bag – the 50th anniversary of the Presence album starts here! Big thanks to Andreas Stocker for pointing me in the direction of this gem

Wednesday January 28:

Marking the first anniversary of the passing of the great Tom Verlaine so loading up the much underrated second Television album Adventure – this one the excellent CD reissue with bonus tracks…

Thursday January 29:

DL/TBL Throwback Thursday…

Some nostalgic retro charts and adverts from this week in 1981:

Update here:

I am pleased to say my eye and eyebrow is returning to something like normal albeit with a bit of a scar and my rib pains have lessened. In the scheme of things I was fortunate that my fall was not worse. It has certianly made me very aware that such a fall can cause a lot of damage. I may still be 25 in my head but in physical reality I am coming up 70. Incredibly I have to report I also had a minor fall off my bike this week – I really am not having much luck this month.

Thankfully January is very nearly behind us – it’s been a long month and not without its challenges =finally the following statement can be applied…

’’January is a 31 day hangover but February brings lambs, daffodils and the air fills with a magical quickening that tells you spring is on the way. February is short so whatever you’re trying to stretch, whether it’s your salary, your calorie intake or your booze units, February’s unique compactness helps you spread it just that little bit thicker. A good enough reason to raise a glass”

Wise words indeed…I’ll drink to that…

As ever there has been musical inspiration and here’s the current DL winterlude playlist:

Bob Dylan – Desire – LP

Bob Dylan – Planet Waves CD

The Beatles – Get Back Rooftop Appearance -LP

Led Zeppelin – Zurich 1980 – bootleg box set

Marianne Faithfull – Songs of Innocence and Experience – 2 CD

Crosby Stills & Nash – The 1969 Live Recordings – 7 CD set

Labi Siffre Gold – 2 CD

Julia Fordham – Julie Fordham Limited Edition with Live Tracks -CD

Thanks for listening

Until next time…