In the four-decade period between the release of their self-titled debut album in 1976 and Tom Petty's untimely death in 2017, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers delivered scores of classic rock anthems and cemented their legacy as one of the greatest American rock 'n' roll bands of all time.
Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the band, fronted by Petty, released a total of 13 studio albums and sold over 80 million records, performing to over 140 million fans worldwide.
Now a unique bootleg performance of the band taped at a show in Edinburgh more than 40 years ago has been released on vinyl.
Live in Edinburgh 1982: The Gennaro Tapes showcases a raw era-defining moment in the band’s career as they toured their fifth studio album, Long After Dark.
The show, which took place at Edinburgh Playhouse on December 9, 1982, was recorded onto cassette by the band’s beloved house sound mixer, Gennaro Rippo.
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According to the Tom Petty Estate, ‘The Gennaro Tapes’ is the first authorized performance bootleg from the band in almost 50 years and the first and only Petty live recording that hasn’t been touched since the day it was captured.
The rare recording captures a powerful 20-song set that includes tracks from Long After Dark such as "You Got Lucky", "Change of Heart", "Straight Into Darkness" and "A One Story Town", alongside favourites from their catalogue such as "Don't Do Me Like That", "Refugee" and "American Girl", as well as a handful of classic rock and soul covers such as The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" and The Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star".
Pressed directly from original cassette to vinyl for superior sound quality, the album has been described by Manchester's Limited Edition Records as "one of the best sounding documents of one of the great American songwriters".
The band enjoyed listening to the cassette tapes after their shows in what they would affectionately call "Gennaro’s Hawaiian Disco,” often giving Gennaro Rippo the Presidential Suite in their hotel for the band to hang out and listen to each night.
The record is a result of a collaboration between the Tom Petty Estate and Third Man Records, the independent record label founded in Detroit in 2001 by American singer/ songwriter Jack White, who first gained fame as the guitarist and lead singer of rock duo The White Stripes. White, alongside Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell, are both longtime fans of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
The Tom Petty Estate said the record is inspired by White and Blackwell's "enthusiasm for hearing something raw and unpolished from the band in this golden era".
Over his 40-year career, Tom Petty became a beloved American rock & roll icon, world-renowned for his songwriting and his band The Heartbreakers. In addition to the 13 studio albums he made with The Heartbreakers, Petty recorded three solo albums, including Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers. Petty was also a member of the supergroup, Traveling Wilburys, and in the pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch.
Hailed as one of the greatest popular music artists of all time, Petty’s honours include Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and multiple Grammy Awards. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 66, just a week after Petty and his band performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on the last stop on their 40th anniversary tour, which also saw them play at London's Hyde Park.
The release of The Gennaro Tapes rounds out an in-depth look at the 1982 collection of archival footage and music shared by the Tom Petty Estate this year, which has also seen the release of Cameron Crowe’s documentary, Heartbreakers Beach Party, and the newly remastered deluxe edition of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' classic 1982 album Long After Dark, featuring 45 minutes of rediscovered music.
‘The Gennaro Tapes’ is released as a 3LP collection in a limited one-time-only press of 7,000 copies, featuring three unique colourways, including Tom Petty Store-exclusive turquoise vinyl, Third Man Records Store-exclusive maroon reverse splatter and indie retail-exclusive orange wisp.
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