In 1982 Neil Young switched record labels, leaving Reprise which he had been with since the beginning to sign with the relatively new Geffen Records. The first record he released was Trans, an album so screwy his label sued him for trying to sabotage his own career. He used a vocoder on half the tracks making his voice unintelligible. Anyway, you all probably know more about this stuff than I do. This is where I admit I don’t know the full history of Neil’s storied career as much as I’d like.
He took the Trans Band (which I believe was mostly just Crazy Horse under a different name) out on tour through Europe in the fall of 1982. I had fun collecting the tour and you might have noticed that I’ve been posting those shows for the last few weeks. I think I have at least one source from every show except 09/21 Rotterdam. If anyone has that in lossless quality please send it my way. If you have alternate sources for any shows I’ll take them too.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this tour. It seems like people think it is a good one. Here’s where I admit I haven’t really listened to any of them yet. Been too busy with other stuff.
1982.08.31 – Annecy, France
1982.09.01 – Frejus, France
1982.09.04 – Wiesbaden, Germany
1982.09.05 – Nuremberg, Germany
1982.09.07 – Verona, Italy
1982.09.11 – Viareggio, Italy
1982.09.12 – Rome, Italy
1982.09.14 – Basel, Switzerland
1982.09.15 – Dijon, France
1982.09.16 – Paris, France
1982.09.18 – Quimper, France
1982.09.20 – Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1982.09.24 – Birmingham, England
1982.09.26 – London, England
1982.09.27 – London, England
1982.09.28 – London, England
1982.09.30 – Brussels, Belgium
1982.10.01 – Lille, France
1982.10.03 – Bordeaux, France
1982.10.05 – Cologne, Germany
1982.10.07 – Drammen, Norway
1982.10.08 – Gothenburg, Sweden
1982.10.09 – Stockholm, Sweden
1982.10.10 – Copenhagen, Denmark
1982.10.11 – Dortmund, Germany
1982.10.12 – Munich, Germany
1982.10.14 – Stuttgart, Germany
1982.10.15 – Eppelheim, Germany
1982.10.18 – Berlin, Germany
1982.10.19 – Berlin, Germany
themidnightcafe.org 
Is this where his record company accused him of being inconsistent? He responded by saying that at least he was consistently inconsistent. I love that. Yay Neil Young!!
Fantastic! Love the album TRANS and this deep dive into that tour!
If you (or anyone else) had to pick 5 of these ’82 recordings that stuck out as being most EXC in both sound quality and performance. What might they be? Thanks, and thanks for the site.
I’m honestly terrible at answering this sort of thing. I have a terrible memory when it comes to remembering which show sounds best and which one has the best performances. I’ve gotten to where I try to take notes when I listen to a show, but I’m not very good at that either.
And as I noted in the post I’ve not actually set down with this tour yet. But maybe someone else will see your comment and answer. I hope they do.
The London show from 9/26 sounds pretty good. it’s nice that they included Beggar’s Day from Crazy Horse in the setlist for this tour.
Hey Mat – thanks for posting these! I’ve been downloading them as you’ve been putting them out kinda wondering if you’ve been up to something…!!! I somehow ended up with this manufacturers made CD back in high school, which was rare as I usually had records or tapes that I made from friends who got the LPs…and I still have it. Have really loved the music on it ever since and the lousy quality, not to mention the cheap feel of the tape I have (especially compared to a beloved high quality UDXLII) somehow coincides with the computer-esque sound of the music in an ironic way…all in all – these shows just hit the spot for me, so thanks!
that’s a fun memory. I’ve always had a real nostalgic feeling for old tapes. trading via snail mail was such a different experience than torrenting and immediately downloading shows
Woah. This is the motherlode. Thank you Mat.
You are welcome. Enjoy the music.
This is an interesting tour – it is not really Crazy Horse as Nils Lofgren is along for the ride and not Frank Sampedro. The Trans songs got some flak in some markets and I recall the Dortmund tape is a good recording but the Trans songs get audible booing from the audience. One story I heard is that Neil went to see the Stones in 1981 and was blown away by their stadium show. He hired Chip Monck who did the Stones’ lights in 1972 but Chip went way over budget and Neil made no money on the tour. As an aside, another attendee of the Stones’ 1981 tour was Bob Dylan (who went to one of the LA shows with Harry Dean Stanton) and his next tour was run by Bill Graham (who ran the Stones tour) and his band featured Mick Taylor and Ian MacLagan. Bob even did a few singalongs on that tour as the Stones had done with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in 1981.
Awesome. I love background information like this. Thanks very much.
The Band he assembled for these shows were like a career retrospective; on bass, Bruce Palmer from Buffalo Springfield; Ralph Molina from Crazy Horse; Ben Keith from the Stray Gators; Joe Lala from the Stills/Young Band; Nils from as far back as “After the Goldrush”, etc.
Thanks for that info. I need to learn more about Neal’s various bands