Preston vs. Les Bains Douches

Basically, which one's better?

I say Preston - the trio of The Eternal/Heart and Soul/Shadowplay is hard to beat.. Les Bains Douches I put right at the bottom of JD discs, only slightly better than 'Permanent'.

Yep, I'd have to say Preston too...the first song sets the tone, and since I don't have my MP3 player with me (I'm at work!!!) I can't remember what it is, but I sure can hear the bass in my head. I think Wilderness was the second song, one of my favorite JD songs, the bass is awesome.

I have to say I disagree sharply. Les bains has more songs.. an absolutely kick ass version of Shadowplay (The cymbals) Digital isn't too shabby either.

Preston was a good take...bu the whole show was plauged by technical meltdown....the version of SLC at the end absolutely kicks anything on Les Bains though.... that's really odd..

I thought the drums were much better throughout Les Bains.... I guess I am just not as big a Morris fan??

Actually Preston is the longer of the two gigs (Les Bains is the first 9, everything after is Holland shows from 1980), but the sound on Les Bains is a hell of a lot sharper (you can tell what is Barney's guitar and Hooky's bass), so as far as that goes Les Bains is the better choice. But as Tony Wilson said in the liner notes for Preston, it's got attitude that more than makes up for the problems they had that night. I don't know about the Eternal being a highlight, though. I have yet to hear a decent live version of that one, and Preston just reinforces my dislike for it as a live performance.

If I had to pick, Les Bains would probably be it, I think it's the best presentation of JD at their best. Preston is more of a Herculean struggle with mixed results against a problematic sound system, but it's essential listening. In other words I'm somewhere in the middle...

The full Les Bains audio tape is quite good, drags on a bit though with a ropey version of A Means To And End (debut). Preston is great because of the technical problems.

Footnote to the Preston chaos is that New Order had similar problems at Denver Red Rocks in 87 with "everything's fucking bust" again, and had to play an improvised guitar-only last third of the set. A real gutsy LWTUA and Age of Consent, you can hear Hooky laughing as he mentions Preston !

Originally posted by Michele Racicot I have to say I disagree sharply. Les bains has more songs.. an absolutely kick ass version of Shadowplay (The cymbals) Digital isn't too shabby either.I thought the drums were much better throughout Les Bains.... I guess I am just not as big a Morris fan??

I think the Preston Shadowplay is quite good too... But about the drums-- I think the Les Bains Douches Disorder really hits you when you put the CD in the player, but the drums for some reason aren't aggressive in that performance (or the rest of the disc). They're very 'pop music', very conventional-sounding to me..

But Preston's drums can be good - especially listen to Heart and Soul, the last parts are really just Steve drumming (w/echo effects) and Ian singing (w/echo effects), and the other instruments just aren't functioning.. I think that's fascinating...

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 I don't know about the Eternal being a highlight, though. I have yet to hear a decent live version of that one, and Preston just reinforces my dislike for it as a live performance.

A decent live version of The Eternal? What about the H&S live disc? I think the Lyceum Eternal is absolutely incredible, the drums are holding that entire song together. That's the "version to end all versions", a real peak of that disc. I used to not think The Eternal was that great a song, and then I heard that version...

Tell ya what, I'll give that one a listen and get back to you on it tomorrow (remind me)

Heart and Soul off Preston kicks major ass, I think we can all agree on that....

The thing about Preston, which has been mentioned here a few times is the technical trouble they had, just makes the whole think that much more interesting and challenging for them to work through the problem.

And what was that women saying about something going to Birmingham too...anybody got a clue about that one, I'd like to know.

Dug out the old original tapes last night. Paris was good but a bit too long (an hour of JD is too much sometimes, especially a scratchy 22 year old recording). Preston was ace, especially Heart and Soul !

Preston 3-2 Paris Bains Douches

Originally posted by Jim Giliberto The And what was that women saying about something going to Birmingham too...anybody got a clue about that one, I'd like to know.

I think she says something about "45" minutes or something along those lines....not sure...a few seconds after that I swear I hear Ian say: "Are we on tour?" or either "Let's do an encore" the ladder of whitch doesn't make sense since it wasn't the end of the show.....

oh well that's all I can make out......

Originally posted by Jim Giliberto And what was that women saying about something going to Birmingham too...anybody got a clue about that one, I'd like to know.

"Anybody from Birmingham - the coach is goin' in five minutes." 'Coach' meaning the bus back home for some of the crowd (I think)...

Right after that it seems that the roadie says "What's goin' on?" and then I can't make anything out (until they start talking about Shadowplay)...

For those of you who have the Les Bains Douches bootleg (I forgot who you are), how good is the sound quality? Do you think it would have been better to release the full gig in lesser sound quality?