Winner of #179 Competition

The copy of the 70s mint condition, and still factory-sealed, 8-track 'Heartbreaker' tape goes to Addy Adams in West Yorkshire. 

So congratulations go to him, as does the tape.

Commiserations to those who entered but didn't win this time.

The question?

In which country was 'Wishing Well' re-titled 'Best/Good Wishes'? 

 

The answer to this competition was Venezuela, and this information was included in FAS #178 (P42)

 

There will be another competition for subscribers in issue #180 with copies of 'The Free Story' Australian 2CD set, and the German 2LP set WITH the Toby version of 'Travelling Man' up for grabs.

Free At Carnegie Hall - January 25, 1971. New Recording Found.

It's remarkable that anyone, anywhere, would still hold a previously uncirculated Free tape. But life is full of surprises, even almost 55 years after the actual event! Not only that, but to find a show with sound quality like this, which is pretty good, makes this even more of a treasure. It's not perfect, but everyone is audible, and it's a fair 8/10 as old audience tapes go.

 

Recorded on the American January 1971 tour (see FAS #159), this is Free promoting 'Highway', and sounding  rather fine. It's a slow start, with both 'Be My Friend' and 'Don't Say You Love Me' in the first 25 minutes, but there are some fine moments. Congratulations to the taper at the time, and thanks to Larry "Florida Kid" Clark, who just came up with this tape, and was so super-kind and generous in sharing it. He revealed that he had had this Free tape for close to 40 years, had forgotten that he even had it, and had no idea from whom he got it. Thanks also to Bob Elliott, Greg Vick and Thomas. Kudos to Goody for speed correction, flutter repair, and general 'remastering'.

You'll likely be able to find this for free download in all the usual places over the next few days, so be sure to keep your eye out for it on 'Guitars101' and 'T.U.B.E' etc.

FREE

Carnegie Hall

New York City, NY, USA

25 January, 1971

 

A hitherto uncirculated, 2nd gen. analog copy show

(A Goody Speed/Pitch-adjusted Remaster via Docdondy)

 

Line-up:

Paul Rodgers (vocals)

Paul Kossoff (guitar)

Andy Fraser (bass, keyboards)

Simon Kirke (drums)

 

Set List:

01. Introduction  0:27

02. By My Friend  6:11

03. The Stealer  4:31

04. Ride On A Pony  4:27

05. Don't Say You Love Me  5:40

06. All Right Now  5:14

07. Fire And Water  4:13

08. Heavy Load  5:23

09. The Highway Song  5:19

10. My Brother Jake  2:58

11. Soon I Will Be Gone  3:20

12. Woman  3:58

13. I'm A Mover  3:34 (audio below)

14. Mr. Big  7:32

15. The Hunter  5:51

16. Crossroads  6:17

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Runtime:                  74:57 minutes

Free 'Heartbreaker' factory sealed 8-track cartridge competition

Just a quick reminder to subscribers, that all FAS #179 competition entires need to be in by August 31st, either by email or post. Details, and the question, are on page 2 (intro) of the current FAS magazine. 

Still factory sealed from the early 70s, this isn't an item you come across every day! 

Another competition for subscribers in the next issue (#180) with copies of 'The Free Story' on LP from Germany, and the 2CD set from Australia up for grabs.

Bad Company Tribute Album.

Speaking personally here, I need this about as much as I need another compilation album, maybe even less, but you may have other thoughts, so here's the info.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH: A TRIBUTE TO BAD COMPANY

The first-ever tribute to Bad Company arrives October 24.

Pre-order & Pre-save the album on limited-edition silver colored vinyl, CD, all digital formats, special merch bundles, and listen to The Struts cover of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” here:

 

Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy - The Struts

 

Album Tracklist:

“Ready For Love” – HARDY

“Shooting Star” – Halestorm (feat. Paul Rodgers)

“Feel Like Makin’ Love” – ​​Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators

“Run with the Pack” – Blackberry Smoke (feat. Paul Rodgers & Brann Dailor)

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy”– The Struts

“Bad Company” – Charley Crockett

“Rock Steady” – Dirty Honey

“Burnin’ Sky” - Black Stone Cherry

“Seagull” – Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard (feat. Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke)

“All Right Now” – The Pretty Reckless

Founding members Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke also appear on the album, bringing this tribute full circle.

Pre 'save' & pre-order information 

 

Free Appreciation Society Magazine - Issue #179

Free Appreciation Society

Magazine Issue #179

August 2025

 

All issues are now in the mail for subscribers.

The final issue in the eight part series covering the period leading up to, and including, the 'Heartbreaker' album. This issue continues directly from #178.

Here we complete the overview of the releases with various issues of the 'Heartbreaker' LP from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Japan, America and Europe, also taking a look at the two vinyl bootleg issues from Latvia/Russia. All the information you need with matrix numbers, labels and pressing variations, covers, inners, and extras all included. Lots of photographs of everything too. Also covered are 8-track cartridges (including a competition for subscribers to win a still factory-sealed US original), cassettes, and CDs from around the world.

Included here is the penultimate diary section, dealing with the day to day life of Free from July 7^th 1972 to August 27^th 1973. This includes tour dates (played and cancelled), set-lists, live tapes, studio recording dates, press information, and so on. A forensically detailed (16-pages), day by day, month by month chronicle of all Free activity during this period.

Tetsu is in colour on the back page, and the April 1973 'Music World' article is the centre. 48 pages crammed with information and images from this period of the Free history, and catalogue.

There's a competition in this issue for subscribers only. You'll find the details and question on page 2 (the intro page). Closing date for entires, via email or letter, is August 31st. Only one entry per person please. Remember to include your full name and address. The winner will be announced here on September 1st, when the prize will be mailed out to them. Best of luck.

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It is cheaper to buy directly here (from the FAS itself) than it will be on Ebay, where there are other fees involved for both UK and overseas buyers. ALL payments are via Paypal, so it's all very easy and secure. Casual buyer? Want the magazine cheaper? Get a subscription! A subscription is the cheapest way to get the FAS magazine. For subscription information email: fasarticle@aol.com

You can buy this individual issue from the email address above. Total is £7.50 via Paypal for the UK, a three issue subscription is £19.10

Overseas it's £26 (via Paypal). Buying from the FAS directly should save you on customs charges, and fees, now levelled directly via Ebay, which will not be added here as items will be sent as 'letters'.

Drop me a mail giving your location and a Paypal money request will be sent to you. It's cheaper than buying them on Ebay where the fees add up making this issue almost £8 in the UK, and way more overseas as they now add taxes to the total. So;

UK single issue £7.50 (Paypal)

Overseas single issue £9.80 (Paypal)

A subscription for three issues (UK) is £18 (£19.10 via Paypal)

A subscription for three issues overseas is £26 (via Paypal).

New Issue Coming...

Well, it's been an interesting couple of months. It was nice to get the last issue out a bit early, and I got straight onto the next, not least as #178 and #179 run back to back, but I was a bit miffed when during the first week of June computer emphatically 'said no', and with a blue screen, and then a 'phooft', was gone to computer heaven. Ouch! Actually, over Christmas, I'd kinda been warned this was coming, when I had a 'blue screen of death' but managed to get things going again. At that point I bought a 6TB drive and transferred everything out, and then continued to do so on a weekly basis. So, when in June things were somewhat more final, I only lost about a weeks work. Doesn't sound like much, but actually that's a fair bit of writing, scanning and correcting.

Anyway, I went to 'spare computer', having took 'dead computer' for repair (Still not got it back yet). The FAS is tricky. Currently everything is done on Windows 7 Pro, as after that some software doesn't work anymore (thanks Bill Gates), and as I can make 'Word 2000' stand on it's head, and eat a banana, while Adobe 6 makes a cup of tea, and does the ironing, I can't do that with the newer versions because they are stupidly over-complicated. It's all down to familliarity of course, but I don't need the current versions of either to do what I need to do, and nor do I wish to re-buy them, or 'lease' them. So 'spare' computer on, HD plugged in and ... nothing ... Oops! That caused a bit of a panic. Second computer in for repair and, that's right, I still don't have it back yet.

To cut a long story short computer 3 then also died. I've not even bothered to take this in for repair, but I did manage to find a place in Birmingham that had a 'used' unit identical to computer #1, and they were willing to kick it back to Windows 7 for me, and so I bought it. Having spent a few of days getting things working again, I was up and running, and I was able to start playing catch up. 

Issue #179 was actually about done, so I decided to get that paged for printing and completed, as there's more missing from #180 and #181 from the 'crash'. They were the issues I was working on mostly when computer said 'no'. Therefore, FAS #179 is now ready to go, and in fact 'far far away', and 'far away', issues are already in the mail. UK issues will be going out on Monday. This is actually the August issue, but as with #178, there's no point in me just holding on to it. It's ready, so lets get it out there for you to enjoy.

There's a competition in this issue for subscribers ONLY, and you'll find details on Page 2 (the intro). Closing date for entries, via email or letter, is August 31st, so if you feel like having a go, get them in. Only one entry per person please. Full magazine information will go up here on Monday or Tuesday, after the final batch of issues has been mailed.

 

Over and out...

 

Mick Ralphs Dies

I was sad yesterday to hear that Mick Ralphs had died. This comes almost ten years after he'd had a brutal stroke (November 4th, 2016), shortly after Bad Company had completed touring. Bad Company it seems will be inducted into the 'Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame' in the 'Performers' category this year. While I'm pretty certain Mick would have frown upon this somewhat, as just industry backslapping, I'm sure he would also have been quite proud to see the work of the group he started with Paul Rodgers, by playing him songs that Mott The Hoople couldn't make work, including of course 'Can't Get Enough', get that recognition. I'm also positive that when Simon and Paul get to play together on November 8th, this loss will make that performance particularly charged with the emotions of losing another member of the original gang.

I really enjoyed Ralphs' work with Mott The Hoople. The version of 'Ready For Love' with the 'Afterlights' section on 'All The Young Dudes' is great, but it was the version of 'Thunderbuck Ram' on the 'Bumpers' set that really made me sit up and listen to them. It's different to the version on 'Mad Shadows', where Guy Stevens had Andy Johns mix the Hammond down, and much heavier sounding, which I like.

In Bad Company there are missed treats like 'Too Bad' hidden on the often neglected 'Burnin' Sky', but I always really loved 'Simple Man'. It has such a lovely opening and closing motif, along with that superb Rodgers vocal. Both 'Thunderbuck Ram' and 'Simple Man' can be found below to enjoy, in memory of the man who wrote them. It's also Mick singing on 'TR'.

 

Rest easy. Gone now, but not forgotten. Mick was 81.