Light Of Eternity Opera House Wintergardens Blackpool 6th August 2026

 

A few days ago I was thinking as I was posting the Dave Formula & Noko set, that this must have been the cream of the crop of sets (at least in terms of those that I have heard) from this year's Rebellion Festival. Whilst I probably still hold that opinion, I have been listening to this set from 'Light Of Eternity' which would also be up there with Dave and Noko. 

Light of Eternity features Big Paul Fergusson on drums, so as you might reasonably expect the band make a lot of noise with Menace! Yes, there are elements of Killing Joke in there (why would you expect there not to be?), but it is different. Great big, powerful songs! I haven't stopped listening to their 'Collateral' EP since playing this live set through.

Thanks to Chatts for sharing this excellent capture!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-507YLcoxPWeXv0SY

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-uxWxctX1ZNyPn4ty

St Georges Hall Bradford 19th March 1987

 

This gig from the second leg of the 'Dreamtour' has been uploaded  on this site previously, but this post includes an audio upgrade to that earlier post. Many thanks to the Dime uploader, AlarmFan, who I suspect is the Alarm/Stranglers fan and blog owner who was so very helpful in helping a blogging novice to get this site off the ground all those years ago). Apologies if I am mistaken, but thanks anyway!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-OzxTH7uCzNZ9fWCc

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-F2JGca62yHkZfOsu

Paul Jenner (Peejay) 1963 - 2026

 

Today we bade a fond farewell to our friend Peejay who was released last month from a courageous three and a half year fight with cancer. It is a strange thing to say that a funeral was enjoyable and perhaps that is indeed the wrong term to use. Rather there are some ceremonies that through all the sadness of loss bring with them an absolute affirmation of life. This was one such example. His wife Ruth and family put together a wonderful ceremony which included a warm and powerful eulogy expertly delivered by the celebrant, Mandy Cook, to an audience that filled the chapel and some.

Peejay was a Stranglers fan of long standing, a Strangled contributor and would be pirate on the High Seas (or at least the French Riviera) when he participated in JJ's 'Challenge' bathtub race back in 1986. A great lover of music and gigs he was joined by a congregation of mates, bands and mates in bands.

His involvement with the band and S.I.S. was very well known with the band also sending a wreath on the day.

Fly Straight Peej!

Blondie (The Greek Theatre Los Angeles 15th August 1979) and The Nerves (The Nerves EP 1976) Got It Covered #8

 

Cheating a bit with this one as the Blondie gig mentioned in the title was uploaded as a separate post last night. This EP in its original form is long deleted, however, it has quite a presence on line in MP3 format. Nevertheless, it having been officially released fifty years ago, I am quite prepared to take this down if so requested.

So, I am having a Blondie moment, I do so not infrequently and make no apologies for it. Earlier in the summer of this year I posted something on Blondie's 'Parallel Lines' as one of my Top 30 albums of punk thread, an album which features one song which is immediately identifiable with the band, 'Hanging On The Telephone'. On first hearing (and on every subsequent hearing actually) you would take some convincing that the song is anything other than a Blondie original... it isn't and yet Blondie made the song their own.

Responsibility for the writing of the song is that of Jack Lee, guitarist of the short lived (1974 to 1978) San Francisco power pop trio, The Nerves.  Lee was accompanied in the band by Peter Case (bass) and Pail Collins (drums). In their brief existence they toured the US and Canada and supported the Ramones on occasion as well as making regular appearances in some of California's noted venues such as Mabuhay Gardens.

Post break up, Case and Collins wrote and performed together in a band called The Breakaways, who had an even shorter half life that The Nerves. They then went their separate ways, fronting The Plimpsoles (Case) and The Beat (Collins). It was the existence of this US group going under the name of The Beat that resulted in an agreement that when Collins played in Europe he would go by 'Paul Collins' Beat, whilst the Birmingham based ska outfit would adopt the name 'The English Beat' when playing in the US.

According to Wikipedia, there was a short-lived (well it would be on previous form wouldn't it!) reunion of Case and Collins which was meant to celebrate collectively the music of the bands that they had been a part of. Jack Lee did not participate and it seems that the reunion tour stalled very quickly with claims of 'musical differences' and incidences of bullying cited as the reason.

More interestingly, Jack Lee also wrote 'Come Back and Stay' for Paul Young which gave him a Number 4 chart placing in the UK. And back to  the Blondie connection, in addition to 'Hanging On The Telephone', 'Parallel Lines' featured a second Lee penned track, 'Will Anything Happen'. Happy days for a songwriter I guess, to have not one but two of your songs included on one of the biggest selling albums of the decade.

MP3: https://we.tl/t-R6PpNpbdRQPXxCDR

01. Hanging On The Telephone
02. When You Find Out
03. Give Me Some Time
04. Working Too Hard

Blondie The Greek Theatre Los Angeles 15th August 1979

It's the Summer of '79 and the world is in the hand's of Blondie. This was around the time when I started to take note of music for myself. What I mean is that it was in 1979 that I really became aware of music that didn't belong to my parents or Terry Wogan (who at the time hosted the Breakfast Show on Radio 2 - and always in the background when getting ready for school). Also, being an only child, there was no older sibling with a more contemporary record collection to overhear. Some additional musical education came my way from my best mate's Dad. Paul lived next door and his Dad was the local DJ, who had a bit of a name in our part of Sussex. If we were careful, we were allowed to play the hits of the moment and I remember a lot of Blondie and a fair bit of Squeeze lying around. Into the early months of 1980 and Paul and I were getting into the 14 to 18 disco's in town (only because his Dad was playing the records mind!) and it seemed that Blondie was played twice as much as any other band. I guess this was just because throughout '78, '79 and '80 Blondie were a hit making machine.

It's easy to see how the formula worked for the band. They has a receptive audience across musical genres. Part punk, part New Wave, with disco sensibilities and the aforementioned knack of releasing singles that guaranteed heavy rotation on every radio station in the land. Oh and there was the singer too!

This is a recording from The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. This was recorded a month or so before the release of the band's fourth studio album 'Eat To The Beat', and two tracks appear in the set from the album, 'Dreaming' (to be the next single and yet another hit in the UK - peaking at Number 2) and 'Slow Motion'. The rest of the set is very strong in my opinion, but then I love early Blondie albums!

Thanks to Mark for the share of this one!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-OK7WJQhrd6J7DwWL

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-DRTb5uWRfz8m0yGA

This album was reviewed in the pages of the 15th September 1979 issue of Sounds - it usually took several weeks for overseas gig reviews to make it into print.

Sounds (15th September 1979)

The writer clearly has time for the band, wants to like the gig but is struggling with the fact that post the mega global success of 'Parallel Lines', the band were in transition, leaving the clubs behind them and catering for an altogether different audience.

Still I would have given my right arm to see Blondie in 1979!

Dave Formula And Noko Opera House, Wintergardens, Blackpool 8th August 2026

 

This is something special that has emerged in the last twelve months! It was seventeen years ago that Magazine briefly reformed for some dates and so it is a long time since that great band's songs have been aired in a live setting... cue Dave Formula and Noko.

Noko filled the sadly vacant shoes of John McGeogh for those 2009/10 Magazine dates and of course Dave Formula was there from (almost) the beginning. Further teaming up with French vocalist, Peter Petersen (who has a remarkably similar vocal style to Mr Devoto!), bass player Tim Petersen and Formula Jr, Max Tomlinson, on the drums, this quintet bring the music of Magazine back to life. And they do it brilliantly!

'Real Life' is one of the greatest albums to come out of punk, a mix of punk, psychedelia and progressive rock that I am sure that few people could have anticipated. Howard Devoto, alongside Pete Shelley, was one of punk's originators who got bored with it almost before it was a thing! Such was the enigmatic character of Devoto, there was a great expectancy as to what his next move in music would be. He took his time and gathered a collection of highly competent musicians around him before launching Magazine.

Thanks as always goes to Chatts for sharing this recording which really does capture the energy and joy imbued in these songs.

I was due to see them in London earlier in the year with Mo, but plans had to change. We will certainly be there when new dates are announced either in London or Manchester.

Dave Formula & Noko

(Opera House, Wintergardens, Blackpool

8th August 2026)

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-7fPBHFcVzBtxSmOS

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-2vA0udbr5JHoLHJm

Town And Country Club, Kentish Town, London 17th February 1993

 

This is  the first of two night's the band played at Kentish Town's Town & Country Club in North London (the venue has long since gone under the name of The Forum). A word about the recording. Generally, it is of very good quality, but 'Burning Up Time' cuts in part way through and for some reason from 'English Towns' on, the volume is a bit lower, possibly due to movement in the crowd relative to the taper. Otherwise it is a good capture. Also of note is the inclusion of 'Mumble Jumble', a rarely played track, that was replaced in the set the following night by 'Mr Big'.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-ABp1PmzDPyjUR82P

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-nhhLVgcvaEmBJYbc