"Boston Garden (Boston, MA) Sep 18, 1987" - U2

Live Album

Track Listing:

Background Information

Wolfgang’s Vault is a private music company established in 2003. The company restores recordings in audio and video format and releases them for streaming or for download. The company also sells music memorabilia. The basis of the collection was the collection of the late Bill Graham, born Wolodia “Wolfgang” Grajonca. Graham was a well known music promoter and at times was the promoter for U2 in the USA. This is not the same Bill Graham who was instrumental in the early days of U2 in Dublin.

In 2002, William Sagan bought Bill Graham’s archive from Clear Channel for an estimated $5 million, and immediately set up “Wolfgang’s Vault”. The website started offering recordings by many artists that Graham had promoted and recorded for sale. Other artists such as U2 were streamed on the site but had no recordings for sale. The issue many had was Sagan wasn’t sharing royalties from the recordings with those who had performed the work. In 2006, a group of musicians headed by the Grateful Dead sued Wolfgang’s Vault. In 2008 a settlement was reached with the Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and the estate of Janis Joplin, and those artists had entered into a licensing agreement pertaining to the sale of merchandise.

The Vault had been streaming U2 recordings, all in video for a number of years. Included was the May 15, 1981 concert from California Hall, the November 14, 1981 and May 6, 1983 concerts from the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, and a June 15, 1986 performance from Giants Stadium. None of these were made available for purchase, but you could watch the video by logging into the site.

On December 6, 2012, an audio performance by U2 was put up on the site and made available for purchase for $5.00. The show was U2 at the Boston Garden, on September 18, 1987 during the Joshua Tree tour. The site listed the following: “In terms of U2’s popularity in America, no city played a greater role than Boston, which embraced the band early on and never let go. Recorded on the Joshua Tree Tour, when U2 was arguably near the peak of their powers, this remarkable recording captures the second night of U2’s two-night stand in Boston. Having graduated from the much smaller Orpheum to the mammoth Boston Garden sporting arena, enjoy a key moment in U2 history, as they perform before their biggest and most ecstatic Boston audience to date.”

The recording is a soundboard recording, released as is, with little editing other than to break it into tracks. Bono’s stage banter between songs is left intact, as are a number of errors made by the band during the performance, such as having to stop “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to start again. The concert was released in mp3 format at 320kbps. The show is split into 28 tracks.

It is unknown what legal agreements U2 may have made with Wolfgang’s Vault, but it is expected that there may be one in place, as they are now offering recordings for sale as opposed to just streaming music as they had in the past.

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