Up Close - Ultimate Archive Collection

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Track list

Disc 1

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About

From the liner notes :

For Up Close, I basically had to create an album from scratch. This is the complete show, taken from Paul’s follow-up to the very successful Unplugged set he did for MTV. This time he went electric, and the show was recorded live at the Ed Sullivan Theater in beautiful New York City on December 10, 1992. The only thing I had to go by for this release was the 1993 Yellow Cat boot CD Looking For Changes. That CD had a host of problems, including a) it was off-speed, b) the sound was muffled, c) it was missing a song, d) the transitions between tracks were noticeable as between-song edits were made to cut a 90-minute show down to 77 or so minutes for the disc. These edits were not done with any finesse and each one sticks out like a sore thumb, making for an awful lot of sore thumbs on one CD! Oh, and there was also e) the lousy cover art that was on that disc as well. We here at Voo-Doo Records tried to address all of those problems one by one. So for this release, you’ll find that the speed has been corrected, the sound has been gently tweaked to give it a more natural sound, and more like the rest of his catalog, the missing song HAS been re-instated! Yes, this CD has all the songs from the show, so to compensate I did have to cut out some of the dialogue between tracks (a good portion of which was the make-up lady coming out to get Paulie all pretty-like for the fancy MTV cameras). For my set, I tried to make the edits/transitions as smooth as possible so they hopefully go by without being noticeable. If you A/B the ’93 boot CD (or a video of the COMPLETE show), you can see where the edits were. I had the option of making this a 2-CD set, but the idea of having this as two 45-minute CDs really didn’t appeal to me, and I liked the idea of cutting out the dead spaces with the make-up lady and so on, so I made the decision to cut it all down to a CD that clocks in just under eighty minutes.

For the cover, I thought long and hard about what ideas to use. Of course, I turned to y’all to see if anyone had any decent photos from the show (turns out you didn’t. Boo!). As fate would have it, there was an Up Close Press Kit up for sale on ebay at this time that included a few slides that were taken at the show. So I bought that and converted the slides to digital (the lengths I go), and then turned one of ’em into the black and white, degraded image you see on the cover! By this point I had the idea of making the cover like Choba + Unplugged and so wanted to replicate the image quality of those covers. So there ya go! Ditto the back cover of the disc, which I tried to replicate the Unplugged CD back cover as close as possible. Don’t worry LP fans – when it comes time to do the actual Unplugged disc, I’m sure I’ll replicate the LP back cover, Spanish liner notes and all. For the label, once again I drew inspiration from the current label Capitol records was using at the time, namely the updated purple label. For fun, sit this one next to the Thrillington label and pick out the differences! Any way, thanks to all your patience as I got these ready to the point where I was really satisfied with them. And I am. So, enjoy two slices of Macca, circa 1992!

On December 10, 1992 Paul returns to the scene of The Beatles’ historic live American TV debut on February 9, 1964: the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. ‘I got the strangest feeling of déjà vu. I feel like I’ve been here, I don’t know what it was. Some previous life, probably!‘

The purpose is to present both his new album (Off The Ground) and to promote a new tour. The occasion is a new show of MTV, following the hugely successful Unplugged series: Up Close.

Two consecutive days Paul and his band (Linda, Hamish, Blair, Robbie and Wix), play the same show for the 750 attendants. There are two electric sets, with an acoustic set in the middle. For the final four songs Paul takes place at his Yamaha piano. Apart from nine new songs of Off The Ground (‘Big Boys Bickering’ was then still considered as part of the track list), there are three Beatles songs never played live before: ‘Fixing a Hole,’ ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Michelle’. Also noteworthy are the new arrangements of two more Beatles songs: ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is presented in a Country style, while the Bo Diddley beat of ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ is accentuated.

Up Close is premiered on MTV in America on Wednesday February 3, 1993. It’s an abbreviated set with 13 tracks: 1-7, 10-12, 15-19 & 21. It is repeated regularly over the next months.

In the UK, Up Close is transmitted on BBC1 during the Easter Weekend on Bank Holiday Monday April 12, 1993.

The complete and unedited set appeared first on the 1993 two-cd bootleg First Night. By cutting the comments, Dave was able to present it in a way that you can get it all on one shiny disc.

Last updated on June 16, 2019