Stevie Nicks
Superstar Concert Series SS86-22
for broadcast the weekend of September 6, 1986
recorded at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Weedsport, New York, August 15, 1986
Superstar Concert Series SS86-22
for broadcast the weekend of September 6, 1986
recorded at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Weedsport, New York, August 15, 1986
Here's the TL:DR version of the ridiculously long investigation painfully detailed below:
Someone made a CD cover.
They mixed up Cayuga with Cayahoga on the artwork.
Bootleggers copied the files and the incorrect venue is now all over the Internet.
They mixed up Cayuga with Cayahoga on the artwork.
Bootleggers copied the files and the incorrect venue is now all over the Internet.
CD1 - Sides 1, 2, and 3:
01 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Intro
02 Commercial - Sprite
03 Outside The Rain (not on cue sheet) > Dreams
04 Talk To Me
05 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
06 John Kay of Steppenwolf - Westwood One Radio Network Promo
07 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
08 Commercial - Sprite
09 I Need to Know
10 Beauty And The Beast
11 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
12 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
13 Jim Ladd & Greg Lake - Emerson, Lake & Powell Tour Update
14 Leather & Lace
15 Stand Back
16 Commercial - Sprite
17 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
CD2 - Sides 4, 5, and 6:
18 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
19 Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
20 How Still My Love
21 Commercial - Sprite
22 Adam Woods & Cy Cunin of The Fixx - Westwood One Radio Network Promo
23 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
24 Edge Of 17
25 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
26 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
27 Rhiannon
28 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Promo
29 Commercial - Sprite
01 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Intro
02 Commercial - Sprite
03 Outside The Rain (not on cue sheet) > Dreams
04 Talk To Me
05 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
06 John Kay of Steppenwolf - Westwood One Radio Network Promo
07 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
08 Commercial - Sprite
09 I Need to Know
10 Beauty And The Beast
11 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
12 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
13 Jim Ladd & Greg Lake - Emerson, Lake & Powell Tour Update
14 Leather & Lace
15 Stand Back
16 Commercial - Sprite
17 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
CD2 - Sides 4, 5, and 6:
18 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
19 Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
20 How Still My Love
21 Commercial - Sprite
22 Adam Woods & Cy Cunin of The Fixx - Westwood One Radio Network Promo
23 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
24 Edge Of 17
25 Commercial - Coke (Max Headroom)
26 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Break
27 Rhiannon
28 Steve Downes - Superstar Concert Series SS86-22 Promo
29 Commercial - Sprite
There was also a promo spot at the end, but I goofed up and didn't record it. I'll fix that over the Xmas holidays and update the files.
SS86•22-1 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-2 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-3 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-4 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-5 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-6 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-2 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-3 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-4 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-5 JS KM(stamp)
SS86•22-6 JS KM(stamp)
Digitized from the 3 LP syndicated radio show September 2022. Flac files of wavs. Includes scans of the cue sheet, all six disc labels, the Billboard ad for the broadcast, a ticket, and backstage passes.
This version is STEREO.
What We Know, and How We Know ItAn Essay by You Know Who....
Announcer Steve Downes never mentions a venue on SS86-22. The same tracks were broadcast as Superstar Concert Series SS87-11 the weekend of June 19-21, 1987.
A shorter 2-LP set of a Westwood One Pop Concert (PC 87-28) was broadcast the weekend of July 6, 1987. The EBAY listing said, "....Westwood One vinyl 2-LP radio show hosted by Phil Hendry, features a superb live concert recording from the Cuyahoga Fairgrounds, Weedsport in New York on September 6th 1986, featuring 6 songs including Dreams, Leather & Lace, Rhiannon and more. First broadcast the week of July 6th 1987...."
It's possible the announcers on these rebroadcasts identify the venue as "the Cuyahoga Fairgrounds." I don't own copies so I can't check. But it's also possible the vendor looked it up on the Internet.
The Internet is a cesspool of contradictory "facts," so as our pal Doctor Strange put it, we've got to "Scooby-Doo this crap" to figure out what we should believe.
First of all...the Stevie Nicks Info website lists the shows for the 1986 Rock a Little Tour at https://stevienicks.info/stevie-nicks-tours/1986-rock-a-little-tour/
That says the Sept. 16, 1986 concert at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds (rescheduled show) was recorded for the Westwood One Superstars Concerts Series.
Right away we have a problem. The date of the syndicated broadcast on the Westwood One cue sheet is September 6, 1986...ten days before September 16th. The show can't take place AFTER the broadcast of the show, why, that would wreck havoc with the Time-Space Continuum!
Okay...so maybe there's a misprint on the cue sheet?
Well, I went into the Billboard Magazine archives and found a full page print ad from the August 30, 1986 issue confirming the syndicated date as September 6. The print ad and the cue sheet agree on the broadcast date. The deadline for artwork for an August 30 publication date had to be at least five days to a week in advance. That's an educated guess from working on newspapers; if anyone knows the actual deadline, leave a comment.
Over on Ebay, I got lucky. I found a ticket from the "CCFairgrounds Weedsport, NY" from Aug 15, 1986. That would give them enough time to record, mix, press, and distribute the records. At the same time....WOW! From a concert on August 15 to a record at a radio station on September 6 is just three weeks!
When I look at the other shows on Stevie Nicks Info, I see shows in Saratoga Springs August 12, Toronto August 14, and Middletown August 17. These cities are within a four hour drive of Weedsport. A make-up show on Aug 15 would fit right into the calendar while they were close by. By the end of August, the band was playing in Long Beach, California. Would they have driven from California to New York to do a single show? My conclusion is if this is from Weedsport, the date is August 15, 1986, as on the ticket, even though the Stevie Nicks Info website doesn't list the show as even existing.
By the way....Wikipedia also says there was a Sept 16 show in Weedsport. It's likely that one source is just cut n' pasting the information from the other without doing any independent fact checking.
Weedsport is a village in Cayuga County, New York. It's small; Wiki says less than 2,000 people live there. But it's got the Weedsport Speedway, which was formerly known as the Cayuga County Fair Speedway, a 3/8 mile oval dirt racetrack located on the Cayuga County Fairgrounds. And Wiki also says "in the early 1980s the venue started hosting major concerts by some of the biggest bands in rock music... For concerts the track has attracted crowds as large as 12,000." So that's a likely venue.
But the Internet's not done repeating errors. There's more.
Remember that Ebay listing up the thread that says it's from Cuyahoga? It turns out there's a handful of bootlegs that say this is from Cuyahoga, too.
So...where did the error come from? There's a Guitars 101 post from Jan 14, 2013 that says the show is from the "Cuyahoga Fairgrounds." The very first comment the next day points out, "It's Cayuga County Fairgrounds to whomever made the artwork." The link is still active, so I downloaded it, and sure enough, the artwork STILL says "Cuyahoga Fairgrounds" in 2022. And guess what? The show is in MONO, not stereo.
If you own any of these bootlegs (actually, "gray market"), can you check to see if they're monophonic, too?
In 2014, the Iconograph label issued "Beauty And The Beast; Live 1986 Radio Broadcast." The back cover says the show is "Live FM radio broadcast from Cuyahoga Fairgrounds, Weedsport, New York, USA 15th August 1986."
In 2015, Dol Records pressed up a vinyl bootleg "1986 Live At WWO In Weedsport, NY." Only eight songs were included. The back cover of the record says:
"Cuyahoga Fairgrounds
Weedsport, New York
August 15th, 1986
FM Radio Broadcast Westwood Radio One
featuring Peter Frampton on Guitar and back vocals
on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around""
A review on DISCOGS says, " Another shocking abortion of a release by DOL yet again. Some genius took a perfect Westwood One Stereo soundboard master and collapsed it to MONO to press, creating a hollow narrow sound with instruments missing."
There is also a CD version with the same abbreviated set list with the same wording on the cover released by BRR (Broadcasting Radio Records). This was also issued in 2014. As the CD repeats the short set list rather than the entire Westwood One show, it's likely copied from the DOL Records vinyl.
The Transmission Impossible bootleg (released in 2017 by Eat To The Beat) has the full Westwood One show, and the back cover says "From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded At Cuyahoga Fairgrounds, Weedsport, NY 15th August, 1986"
In 2019 a 3-CD set called "The Broadcast Archives" was issued by The Broadcast Archive label as BSCD6104. There's no cover up at Discogs but the Amazon description currently (2022) says, "Disc Two includes the extraordinary show Stevie performed at The Cuyahoga Fairgrounds in Weedsport, New York on 15th August 1986."
Well, it SAYS that it includes that "extraordinary show," but an Amazon reviewer says "....disc 2 is identical to disc 1. So the 1986 Cuyahoga set is not in this box."
There is such a place as the Cuyahoga Fairgrounds, but it's 326 miles west of Weedsport, New York, outside of Cleveland....in OHIO. And the Blossom Music Center (a venue featured in several Westwood One shows) is in Cuyahoga Falls (although not on the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, which are 30 miles to the northwest). And Stevie Nicks DID play at the Blossom Music Center in 1986...but on June 13th.
The name Cuyahoga is from the Mohawk language, while Cayuga is from the Cayuga Nation. Both peoples are member of the Five Nations of the Iroquois with related languages, and while similar sounding, Cayuga isn't Cuyahoga.
There are times when I'm working on a project like this and wonder if it's worthwhile, as the show is already pressed up on silver-cd at a reasonable price. I just sort of ASSUME it is high quality audio because it is on CD. At the very least, this is a STEREO version that's gone through my usual declicking process (which mainly involves LISTENING CAREFULLY for surface noise and then zooming in on the offending millisecond...).
So...what have we learned? Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Or on a CD case!