Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Kuusrock Festivaali 1988
Kuusisaari, Oulu, Finland
July 17th, 1988

Audience recording by me &
Sony Walkman WM-D3 using Dolby B setting and it´s stereo microphone + small wind shield (works as a camouflage also)

2 x TDK SA-90 Master cassette - Yamaha KX-800 stereo cassette deck - Yamaha EQ - Luxor 9283 Hi-Fi stereo video recorder - TDK HS 240 tape - Philips 880 cd recorder - cdr - .wav -flac

This is the master source for all the circulating tapes from this particular show here in my hometown. Qualitywise it presents the top end of my recordings made in the years 1988-1993.
I made a dub from my master to VHS HiFi tape, using Yamaha deck and equalizer in the winter of 1989 (if I remember right - could be a little bit later though).
Did some c-cassette trades at the time, so copies of these have circulated since.
I still have the master cassettes stored, but I decided to share this version since it sounds as good as it can get.

I had excellent place to wiew and record the show and the weather was nice and calm, no wind (outdoor show).
I was rather close to the mixing board to the right side, I could for example see the Finnish tv crew to wire the camera to the board. In the middle of the 3rd song they left.
To my left, a lady working for the local radio station was dancing to the music keeping a huge microphone over her head and a recorder (or a transmitter) in the bag on her shoulder.
It was so obvious that she did not have a permission (unlike a finnish national tv YLE) to do so, I expected something to happen.
And sure it did, Stevie Ray noticed this from the stage during a performance. He waved to the sides and someone working for him got the instuctions from him to stop this.
Stevie Ray was actually pointing the woman very clearly even though he was playing at the same time, most of the people noticed except she!
Two minutes later she was instructed to stop by someone, which came as a surprise to her, if I read their bodytalk right.
Considering the tapes rolling in my jacket, this scene was amusing to observe. My own microphones were naturally customed & integrated to my hat,
so that you could not even see I was recording, even though you look straight at me from one meter distance.

The set was kind of laid back one, if you compare it to the concert four years earlier that I attended in a local sportshall. SRV was sober, relaxed, he had nothing to prove and he just played.
The band was of course now a quartet supporting Reese Wynans & the keyes and some of the song arrangements were different.
Even though playing here was indeed great, I still kind of missed the storming trio with fire in SRV:s fingertips and that manic look in his eyes.

Anyway, the set was as follows and I splitted it in 2 discs:

Disc 1
1. Don't Lose Your Cool (instrumental)
2. Say What!
3. Lookin´ Out The Window
4. Look At Little Sister
5. Mary Had A Little Lamb
6. Texas Flood
7. Love Struck Baby
8. Pride And Joy -(tape flip after this song)
9. Superstition
10. Willie the Wimp
11. Cold Shot
12. Couldn't Stand The Weather
Disc 2
1. Life Without You
2. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) -(ending of the song went to a second 90 min. tape)

After the show we stormed to the local club, where evening jams were about to start. Last time SRV was having a ball with the local musicians (unfortunately I missed that opportunity).
No Stevie Ray during the whole club evening, he left home early from the party. A minor disappointment for me, I had recorders and tapes ready of course.
I already had a good feeling about the festival performance I fortunately was able to capture earlier in the early evening hours.

Another surprise came next morning when I opened the local newspaper "Kaleva". On the front page news there was a big story claiming some bootleggers were arrested by police trying to record the festival performances.
What sounded surreal is the fact that they were recording outside the festival area, floating in the middle of the river equipment staged on a rowing boat!
Someone noticed this and called the police who confiscated everything they had. I laughed my ass off reading this. I probably have the article somewhere, it was so hilarious.

Crank it up and enjoy!

Ukimikko