These new releases offer us the dinner and also the midnight show from August 20^th.

Both shows were previously released on the import-CD’s
- “A Dinner Date With Elvis” (Presto & Live Archives) and
- “Midnight Inspirations – A Night To Remember” (Groti Rec.).

The bonus tracks were also released on the import-CD-set “Double Dynamite” (Rock Legends).

All these recordings plus the recordings that were released on “From Vegas To Macon”
(Rock Legends/ CD1) and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (Audionics) are private recordings
recorded by Rick Rennie (who recorded the six shows in their entirety from August 19^th to August 21^th).
All his recordings offer a beautiful soundquality for audience recordings. 

Both recordings present Elvis in the midst of his third Vegas engagement (August 10^th to August 30^th, 1970) since his return onto the stage in 1969.
His performing was somewhat different than it was during the first week.
The insecurity of the opening week has gone and the filming by the MGM film crew for the documentary “That’s The Way It Is” have passed a few days before this concert. Elvis was more relaxed and interacted with the audience as never before.

“A Dinner Bell In Vegas”

 1. Opening Vamp – 2. That’s All Right, Mama – 3. I Got A Woman/ Ave Maria (exc.) – 4. Tiger Man – 5. Monologue – 6. Love Me Tender (fws) – 7. I’ve Lost You – 8. I Just Can’t Help Believin’ – 9. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – 10. Polk Salad Annie – 11. Band Introductions – 12. Johnny B. Goode – 13. Band Introductions (ctd.) – 14. Celebrity Introductions – 15. The Wonder Of You – 16. Heartbreak Hotel – 17. Memphis Tennessee (one verse) – 18. One Night – 19. Blue Suede Shoes – 20. Hound Dog – 21. Bridge Over Troubled Water – 22. Suspicious Minds – 23. Can’t Help Falling In Love – 24. Closing Vamp/ Announcements

 25. I Just Can’t Help Believin’ – 26. Johnny B. Goode – 27. The Wonder Of You – 28. All Shook Up – 29. Suspicious Minds  

Tracks 6, 9 & 22 were previously unreleased performances
Tracks 1-24: 20/08/1970 dinner show
Tracks 25-29: 19/08/1970 midnight show

What I can say about the new release “A Dinner Bell In Vegas”?
First the sound quality is stunning for an audience recording! The sound is crystal clear and well balanced. They really did a hell of a remastering-job in Prague!
As the producers mentioned in the informative liner-notes they worked directly with the original mastertape for the complete concert and got their hands on a first generation copy of the mastertape for the bonus tracks. Very well done!
Second – the cover-art is really nice and completes the product in its own way!
Third – the concert is presented in its entirety for the first time and includes the former unreleased performances of “Love Me Tender”, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and “Suspicious Minds”!

And what about the performer himself and the concert itself?
I think everybody has seen the above mentioned documentary and so you’ll know what to expect from our man. Elvis is very up to it and focused. He obviously enjoyed his doings on stage and gave a really good concert. After the opening the show kicks off with a dynamic “That’s All Right”. “I Got A Woman” is the second song and gets a pretty note with Elvis singing a short excerpt from “Ave Maria”. The show goes on with “Tiger Man” which is in my opinion a highlight of the show and rocks the lounge. There are a few comments and short monologues that are funny and give a glimpse on the sense of humour that Elvis had. I don’t want to say something about every song Elvis brought at this dinner show, but some of the highlights next to “Tiger Man” are the beautiful “I Just Can’t Help Believin’”, the former unreleased “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and a very good version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. He also sang a short rendition of “Memphis Tennessee”, but Elvis finished the song after less then 20 seconds.
The concert itself ends with the usual “Can’t Help Falling In Love” and after the closing vamp and the announcements the show is over - all in all after one hour of excitement.

Thereafter Memory Records presents us another five songs from the midnight show the day before from August 19^th. The more or less complete concerts from that date were released some years ago on the above mentioned “Double Dynamite”-set. That said I remember that the shows were presented in a wrong speed (only little btw). So the sound-engineers in Prague fixed that problem and re-tuned the recordings to the correct speed and remastered them also. The result sounds better to my ears than on “Double Dynamite”. I wish they would re-release the whole concert in this way.

To sum it up – Memory Records did a more than decent job on this one and it is highly recommended.

 

 “A Bright Midnight With Elvis”

 1. Opening Vamp – 2. That’s All Right, Mama – 3. I Got A Woman/ Ave Maria (exc.) – 4. Tiger Man – 5. Playing with laughing box/ Monologue – 6. Love Me Tender (fws) – 7. I’ve Lost You – 8. Sweet Caroline – 9. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – 10. Polk Salad Annie – 11. Band Introductions – 12. Sweet Inspiration – 13. Band Introductions (ctd.) – 14. Johnny B. Goode – 15. Band Introductions - 16. The Wonder Of You – 17. Heartbreak Hotel – 18. Blue Suede Shoes – 19. Hound Dog – 20. More (part) – 21. Bridge Over Troubled Water – 22. Suspicious Minds (laughing version) – 23. Can’t Help Falling In Love – 24. Closing Vamp 

25. Tiger Man (as show opener) – 26. I’ve Lost You – 27. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me – 28. Polk Salad Annie – 29. Bridge Over Troubled Water

Tracks 26 was a previously unreleased performance
Tracks 1-24: 20/08/1970 midnight show
Tracks 25-29: 19/08/1970 dinner show

The other CD “A Bright Midnight With Elvis” offers us the midnight show from August 20^th .
The soundquality is also very, very good for an audience recording and once again I show some respect for the sound-engineer who re-tuned and remastered the recordings. The producers said the tracks for the midnight show were sourced directly from the original stereo cassette mastertape. The source for the bonus-tracks were sourced from a first generation mono cassette copy, because the original master has been lost. The cover-art is more or less done like the one from “A Dinner Bell In Vegas”, which makes both CD’s look like a 2-CD-set.
There are also some informative liner-notes, especially the part about the dinner show from August 19^th, which was the only show were Elvis was booed by the audience. The reason why the audience “booed” him, because Elvis took too long of an interlude during “Love Me Tender” and the audience became bored. As Rick Rennie stated, the audience started clapping in unison and when Elvis seemed to ignore that, they began to “boo” him to get on with the show. At least it must have lasted for 20 minutes or more!! This was edited from the first generation copy and the master has since been lost.

In comparison to the dinner show, the midnight performance is a bit tighter and Elvis is even more “up” for this show. The setlist is fairly similar to the performance from just a few hours prior, but there are several variations. There are a lot of amusing moments during the show, like when Elvis presents the “laughing box” to the audience or a hilarious performance of “Suspicious Minds”. There is also a super rare rendition of the song “Sweet Inspiriation”, which was somekind of a trademark of the Sweet Inspiriations. So all in all the concert is very enjoyable. Elvis must have enjoyed being on stage a lot during this show!

Memory Records put some bonus-tracks on this CD as they did on “A Dinner Bell In Vegas”. On this one they present us five songs from the dinner show the day before, August 19^th. The show was also released on the “Double Dynamite”-CD-set from Rock Legends. The sound-quality of the bonus-tracks is a little below in comparison to the one you can enjoy during the whole concert. The speed is also re-tuned and runs now at the correct pitch. Within the bonus-tracks is the former unreleased version of “I’ve Lost You”. At least there is to say, that during the pressing of this CD something went wrong, because the CD ends 20 seconds before the ending of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, which is infact the last song on the CD, but this is the only minus of this CD.

So in total you can say, that these releases from Memory Records are very well done and I recommend them, because the CD’s present Elvis on his peak as a performer!
After the release of “Last Time In Portland” this is a step in the right way.

Bring ‘em on Memory Records!