interviewsxxxx83

U2
BOY STORY (refurbished bootleg)
1983 music and interview radioshow with B.P. Fallon

source: Original Pressed Commercial Bootleg LP "Boy Story"
          > CoolEdit2000 (WAV) > SHN (see notes)

bootleg info: Hammy Hamster Records England (1986)
         - no other info available

tracklisting:

(1) A DAY WITHOUT ME (mix of unreleased, but commonly bootlegged demo with the BOY CD version)
      - B.P. Fallon's show intro
(2) "first studio experience"
      TWILIGHT (demo - used as B-side on "Another Day" single)
(3) "trying to get a record deal"
(4) STORIES FOR BOYS (U2-3 version)
      "failing to get a record deal"
(5) "cinematic sound"
      STORIES FOR BOYS (BOY CD version)
      "Steve Lillywhite"
(6) TWILIGHT (BOY CD version)
      "one of the great debut LP's"
(7) "strip out the fussiness"
      OUT OF CONTROL (demo - NOT from U2-3)
      "playing it ten times"
(8) "worth the wait"
      OUT OF CONTROL (BOY CD version)
(9) "discussion"
      ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE (demo - unreleased, but commonly bootlegged version)
      "I have to laugh"
(10) "a new understanding"
      ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE (BOY CD version)
      "thanks cats"

NOTES:
This is sourced from an vinyl bootleg LP, which itself seemed to be sourced from a multi-gen.
cassette of an FM radio show. The host, B.P. Fallon chats with Bono about the making of the
BOY LP, and they compare and contrast the original demo versions to the final versions that
made it to the album. The sound quality of the vinyl bootleg was not all that great, so I had
the idea that it might be "fun" to make it better myself. (We all have different definitions
of "fun" - just remember that!!)

My process was as follows:

1. Played the vinyl on my stereo and fed it into my harddrive via an RCA stereo jack
     and the CoolEdit2000 .WAV editing program.
2. De-clicked the vinyl as best as I could by hand (removing them manually in a
            .WAV editing program). I don't have a good de-clicking program and I don't trust
     them anyway.
3. Went ahead a de-hissed it too. I normally wouldn't do this to a vinyl source, but
            since the vinyl was obviously sourced from a multi-gen. tape anyway, I figured it
     could only make things better. I did this by using a mild amount of noise reduction
      followed by some equalization to improve the mid-range a bit while also getting rid
            of the high-end hiss.
         4. Replaced all the music from the LP with the same tracks from better sources. I used
            the BOY CD as source for the final album versions, and I used the CONTRACT DEMOS
     bootleg CD as source for the othe demo versions. However, one track didn't seem to
     match any known demo: the version of "Out Of Control" on this bootleg seems to be
     an entirely new demo version not heard anywhere else! So it was not replaced.
5. Went back and speed-corrected all the interview segments. While I was comparing the
     music tracks, I noticed that the speeds of the album tracks on the bootleg were way
     off from the speeds of the BOY CD versions. So I used CoolEdit's "stretch" function
     to fix everything.
6. Used CoolEdit's 4-track mixer to smoothly fade from the interviewer voice-overs at
     the beginning and end of each track into the upgraded songs mentioned above. There
     are also one or two cases where they talk over a song's mid-section so I had to match
     and mix those together too.

Oh, and just for grins I mixed up a "demo vs. LP version" of "A Day Without Me" to start off the
CD. This was not on the original.

Hope you enjoy the results,
---Dirk Horst (dhorst@airmail.net)