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Don
New Member
Posts:20
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| 09/25/2006 5:38 AM |
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Mark Rossiter sent me 2 Rahuna songs, Live at Fulton Dragway from somewhere between 1971-1974. They're on the Music page. Here's what Mark said:
Don, the sound quality of the recordings are poor at best and you will hear Tom's keyboard is way out of tune in some spots, but it is a slice of reality. OK, so this recording was made on stage at on open air concert at Fulton Raceway. It was some local promoter's idea of another Woodstock featuring local bands. The headliner for the show was 'Blood, Sweat and Tears'. Because of the anticipated crowds, there were all kinds of NYS Police there. Probably one policeman for every three people in the crowd. It was a big joke.
There's a story behind all of the car horns honking at the end of one of the songs. Some band from who knows where showed up without any equipment of any kind. They asked us if they could use ours. When we said 'No, but thanks for asking', they stormed off in a huff honking their car horns at us as they drove past the stage on their way out. Unbelievable!
I just ran across another stack of cassette tapes, so I'm looking to see what's on those. The first one I listened to has a Rahuna practice session. Nothing worth posting, in my opinion, but it's interesting for me to hear bits and snatches of what eventually became songs of ours.
The band members at the time were Mark Peters on guitar, Tom Letkauskas on keyboards and vocals, myself on drums and Duke (can't remember his last name, but Tom would - something Polish, I know) on bass guitar.
My brother tells me he has the rest of the tape digitized also, not just these two songs, but he hasn't loaded them up yet.
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mjrossit
New Member
Posts:4
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| 12/25/2006 11:25 PM |
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Hello, I am Mark Rossiter's younger brother Matt. I'm helping Mark get some of his old Rahuna and Unit tapes restored because some of those songs ROCK!! I did find an old old tape that sounds like it's a bad recording of a bad recording, I have the rest of that concert on tape, but Mark claims he has a better recording of it. He recently sent me some more tapes, but I'm waiting on a better tape deck to digitize them from. When I get back from Spain on Jan 11th I'll start doing that. In the meantime, I have available a recording of a 45 record done by Rahuna and and a singer named Harold Brown, obviously a gospel singer. http://rossiters.com/mp3-ftp/Mark/ or http://rossiters.com/rossiter-audio. And in case you're looking for a couple of back in the day photos there's a couple of just Mark with his 'Rock Drummer' look. It would be great if some of the former band members could dig through their old boxes of stuff and find, pictures, videos, and recordings and put them together on this forum.
Matt |
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Don
New Member
Posts:20
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| 12/27/2006 11:58 AM |
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Hi Matt. The only link that worked for me was the last one: http://rossiters.com/rossiters-audio; the one with the flash player. There are some cool songs and the quality is good. I didn't know Mark played lute or guitar.
Don |
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mjrossit
New Member
Posts:4
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| 01/12/2007 12:40 PM |
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Ok, to anybody that's reading my posts.  I just got back from Spain and I'm listening to these tapes (3) that Mark sent me of Rahuna and Unit. I'm listening on a TEAC V-700 Audiophile Stereo Cassette Deck with my Bose Headphones. I am happy to say that sound quality is pretty good (I was afraid it might be bad). I can hear some King Crimson influence mixed with a little Jazz on the Unit tape. Honestly, I am very impressed. This is great music and I hope I can make a good transfer to digital. Kudos to you guys for writing and playing such good music. I'll let you know when I'm finished doing the transfer. Hopefully Mark can find the other missing tapes.
Matt |
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Don
New Member
Posts:20
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| 01/12/2007 6:17 PM |
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Sorry Matt, your last message slipped through the cracks.
I really liked the lute and guitar stuff you did.
I'd like to hear the Rahuna and Unit stuff too. Good luck on the digitizing. I'm looking forward to it. Do you know where the Unit stuff is from? |
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mjrossit
New Member
Posts:4
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| 02/23/2007 3:59 PM |
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Hi Don, and those reading...
I have been doing some experimentation on cleaning up audio, but without 'overdoing' it.
I'm using Audacity to capture these tapes into .wav format, then editing out the bad noises with Peak Bias Soudsoap2 and Apple Soundtrack Pro. I've created a directory on my website for archiving anything I can find on Rahuna, Unit, Friends of Lois or anything else I can find of interest. Go to --> http://rossiters.com/ruf - or if you want to download the mp3's and put it here on your website - just go to the directory you see in the Jukebox player and save the files to your computer. For example - http://rossiters.com/ruf/Rahuna-Fulton-Raceway
I started out by uploading that Fulton Raceway concert in its entirety.
I have a few more tapes that sound alot better, which I will upload soon. I just needed to spend time with this software to figure out which sounds the best without changing the integrity of the music.
I have no idea what was recorded when. I have a Unit tape and a Rahuna Tape that sounds like a studio recording and one more Rahuna live tape. I'll have to ask my brother again where and when these were recorded.
Matt |
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uburoibob
New Member
Posts:4
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| 07/11/2007 8:45 PM |
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Just a note about the Fulton Raceway show - the day was running very late, people were hungry, we had taken "happy pills" on the way to the show. It was just a very weird day. Mark Peters and I went to McDonalds to get some late lunch and bring food back for the band. Mark was in full Rahuna dress, complete with teased hair and sparkles, fake nose with little flag sticking up out of the end, striped stockings, 14" platform shoes, etc. McDonalds was filled with people dressed in overalls - not hippy overalls, but real rural, salt-of-the-earth overalls. When we walked in, the typical buzz of local commerce was completely obscured by silence. Soooo, we order, and hang out while the order is prepped. Not a word from anyone as they either stare or do their best to pretend they aren't looking. We really wanted to get outta there. So, the meal comes, and we open the bag to make sure it's right.
What are the chances that the fly that landed on the uncooked french fry would hang on long enough to be deep-fried? And how many flies does that happen to? Nonetheless, right there on the top french fry was a deep-fried fly. And we had to return the fries. We were probably in there about 5 minutes, but it felt like hours. You could feel the curious dislike burning into the back of your head.
That's the story, and I am sticking with it... until somebody remembers it better.
Bob |
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Mrossiter
New Member
Posts:1
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| 07/26/2007 6:29 PM |
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And to add to Bob's story - there was a bunch of us riding to the show together in Bob's Checker (when was the last time you saw one of those driving around??) Somewhere around Sodus the 'happy' pills really started to kick in. Bob pulled over and said he couldn't keep his eyes open to drive any further. I took over for a while. I don't know how far I drove - maybe 10 or 15 minutes worth when I woke up to the sound of the tires crunching gravel on the side of the road. Scared the crap out of me. My super-hero status was short lived, I'm afraid. Usually when you get super-tired there is a point when you realize you ought not to be driving. I went right past that point and straight into the REM state. We're all lucky to be alive. I don't remember who took over the wheel from me, but I do know that by the time we got to Fulton I was all wired up and ready to go. |
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