What is this so called 'Live Guide'?
This live guide is a complete listing of all Linkin Park tour dates from 2000 until present day. It also contains tour and show information on Fort Minor, Mike Shinoda's (Linkin Park vocalist/emcee/etc) side project, and Chester Bennington's (lead singer of Linkin Park) appearances.
Each show that we have information about currently contains a page that has the setlist of the show and any known live recording information (aka: tapes, bootlegs, etc) on it. We give runtimes of shows, tapers of shows, and all sorts of information.
Also included on the pages are Show Notes and Other Notes.
Show Notes is a small section for notes like if a certain show was the first time Linkin Park ever played song X or something. If something special happened during the show, you can expect to find it there.
Other Notes includes information such as if a song from the show was used on a CD or DVD, like for the Linkin Park Underground (Linkin Park Fan Club) CDs.
How did the idea come about for the site?
Well, you see, back in late 2006, I was viewing other small Linkin Park Live Guides around the community (like the one on forfeitthegame.com) and thought it'd be a good idea for me to create one myself that I could keep updated at all times. I worked and worked on it, and the final result was a site that featured white pages full of info that linked to text documents with info about each show. Boy, did I feel accomplished!
Finally, in April 2007, I was approached by a guy named Sebastian Sebotta, who was the creator of the original Linkin Park Live Guide that was made years and years ago. I was asked specifically by him to merge his existing Live Guide (which covered years 2000 through 2003) with my current live guide (the one with the text documents), knowing already that I would gladly take the responsibility to keep it going for years. I agreed simply because I thought it was a great idea and also because the current site desperately needed an upgrade. Thus a major project was started by me in summer 2007.
I graciously got the help of fellow friends [AndOne] and SergSlim and from there on we started on a brand new Live Guide, which was what would later be known as "Live Guide 2.0". Coincidentally, [AndOne] was a person that also had a small live guide on his site, but his was filled with information on which shows had audience and pro recordings, which proved to be VERY useful in the construction of this project. Anyway, both of them contributed a LOT of hours to work on this project.
However, construction on the site was very slow throughout summer. Nevertheless, once I saw Linkin Park perform in Atlanta in August 2007 and met the band, the motivation was then given to me to continue the project. I contacted my good friend, Shadowfax1007, who worked with me on the 'CureForTheItch' project, to assist me in a layout, and after going through two demo layouts, he delivered the layout ,in under 2 hours flat! The Live Guide was worked on throughout September and October 2007, and was finally launched on October 22, 2007.
On October 22, 2007, Shadowfax1007, a staff member of the site, gave Mike a letter at the Meet and Greet for the Brisbane 2007 show. The letter told Mike and the rest of the band about the project, how much time was input into it, and how we would love for any contributions they or Mark Fiore may offer (if possible).
In May 2008, I was contacted by FisicoUk, who ran a website called LPU-International, which hosted the largest collection of Linkin Park Live Audio on the Internet. FisicoUk suggested some new features to the site, and on the 23rd May, was commissioned to build what became known as "Lp Live 3.0". Astonishingly (To even FisicoUk himself) The project was completed 3 weeks ahead of schedule, on the 6th June 2008. After a brief bout of testing, the site was launched on the xx June 2008.
What about the staff?
This live guide currently has eight staff members. You can find details on the staff on the Live Guide Team Page. Not counting me - SergSlim, [AndOne], and Shadowfax1007 were added on as staff in mid 2007, and have been a part of the team ever since. NKramar was officially added as staff in late 2007 and LPPanther was added in January 2008. FisicoUk was added in May 2008, along with Carlmundo, the latter to look after the new Discussion Forums.
Astat is not an official staff member, but we consider him a valuable asset to the site because of his huge contributions he makes.
Who else helped with the site?
I have had many inspirations and helpers throughout the years.
Major credits go out to:
- [AndOne] for allowing me to use some of his bootleg information and for correcting a vast amount of information here
- Shadowfax1007 for his graphics, layouts, coding and assorted help with not only this site but all of the projects I have worked on over the years
- Sotrix for all of the hosting and server needs I have had him put up with for the past few years
- Crewdy of ForfeitTheGame.com for his archived setlists from the old PushMeAway.com
- Sebastian Sebotta and Omar Osatch, who indirectly helped by creating the first major live guide that went public
- www.foofighterslive.com for the huge inspiration and ideas for the site
- All of you that submitted information and corrections to us which helped us complete this Live Guide (major shoutout to the LP Underground members right here).
Special thanks to:
- Astat, who constantly helps by adding TONS of information to the site
- LESTAT for finding all of the Camp Freddy, Stone Temple Pilots, Chester Bennington, Orgy, and Julien-K information. Thanks a lot to him for all of the Chester Bennington info! Most all of the live information in that section came from LESTAT.
- Wesley, from LPInside.com.br, for translating the LP Live guide into Portuguese.
So why in the world would you even need a live guide?
There are many reasons! The live guide was created because it is neccessary for the everyday LP trader and collector to know what is out there and has a place to come for accurate information about each show. I have visited other traders' sites and seen mislabled shows too many times, which is quite annoying. Like I said, the main purpose for this is because of the sheer crappiness of other LP fansites in covering the information about shows. I'm not trying to insult other sites, but it's the truth.
What are some of the improvements that have taken place for the Live Guide?
The Live Guide Staff, believe it or not, is always working on something new and constructive for the site. We have a great staff that can work on many aspects of the site at once. We are also extremely happy to have Shadowfax on board our staff. In January 2008, we integrated a search box that was under works for several months. You can now search the site freely for shows and information that you might need.
In February 2008, we integrated a banner rotation system that was also under works for a few months.
The new site in June 2008, many new features were added to the site, including a Discussion Forum, Chat Room, Gallery, and Downloads Section.
Anything else?
Please note that no full live recordings are stored on this server. They are hosted on the former LPU-International server, and some crafty coding enables us to list the full directory here. There are many reasons for this, the main two being that it would take about a month to move all the files over, and also we prefer to keep the Downloads seperate from the rest of the site, to reduce the load on the main server.
Also, on February 22nd, 2008, Mike Shinoda mentioned the Live Guide on his blog at www.mikeshinoda.com! He referenced the release of 'Plaster' (the One Step Closer demo) and linked to all 4 sites that released it (LPLive, LPFuse, LPProjekt, and LPAssociation). Awesome!
We on the team really hope you enjoy this Live Guide as much as we do. We hope you get something useful out of it and we'd love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments or would like to add information to a show. You can find our contact details on the Team page. Thanks!
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