Rehearsals in Japan February 1979

 

Nothing to get over exited about with this one. In the process of trying to sort out some discs I found these two tracks on a compilation that I had done. This is the audio of one of the extra pieces of footage that appeared in the S.I.S. video that also included the 'Battersea Power' footage. This footage would appear to be the band in rehearsal rather than being filmed for TV. Hanging around is a little different in that the song opens up with Dave playing with his knobs.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-95u7qh7oix

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ul9FTDMflw

XTC Erics Liverpool 3rd June 1978

 

Now here's a band who are almost impossible to pin down musically. I think too that their influence was only really understood after their demise. Coming from a musical collaboration that started in 1972, the band that became XTC predated punk by a significant number of years. Whilst with the arrival of punk, XTC certainly would have benefitted from the availability of gigs etc, they never conformed to punk. Early XTC was I suppose some kind of artrock outfit, angular guitars and off the wall keyboards. It was the energy of their live performances that gained the respect and appreciation of the new punk audience.

As good as the early material it is, I think XTC really made their mark with later 1980's material that conveyed a quintisential Englishness. Their songs contained a gentle humour within their excellently crafted songs (in a similar vein to say Squeeze). They are one band that so many people would like to see produce something for the 2020s. Fans have been teased with the short lived TC&I (Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers) as well as EXTC (Terry Chambers), the latter coming to a concert hall near you soon in support of Hugh Cornwell, but a full blown reunion remains highly unlikely.

Thanks to the original uploader.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-u3RnjnpHn5

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-yBOC0XDrBp

20 From '87 (4) The Damned Brixton Academy London 20th December 1987

 

If my memory serves, I was supposed to be at this gig but a 6th Form Christmas party got in the way. The fact that I was drinking cheap red wine from a dimpled pint jug (they were still a thing in the '80s!) quickly made the train/tube journey a practical issue and something that was probably very unwise. And so I missed it.

Looking at the set though as I prepare this post I am rather perplexed. I cannot say what the situation was in The Damned camp at the time, but their choice of songs for the evening's entertainment strike me being a little odd. When you have only fairly recently so thoroughly toured your most successful album ('Phantasmagoria') and you have at least a handful of strong songs from the follow up album ('Anything'), why fill out the set with so many covers? 

'She's A Monster' (The Stems), 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)' (The Electric Prunes), 'Johnny Remember Me' (Johnny Leyton), 'Riders On The Storm' (The Doors) and 'Tonight' (MC5). Five covers in a 19 song set is a little overkill I think. Granted 'I Had Too Much To Dream' was no stranger in a Damned set and The Damned/Naz Nomad had kind of made it their own by then, but still I stand by my point.

It feels to me like the band knew the writing was on the wall with regards to their contract with MCA (it wasn't renewed for a third album) after the poor performance of 'Anything', in comparison with its predecessor. Did this gig represent the end of the band's purple patch such that Dave had his sights set on 'The Phantom Chords' project. Later 'Johnny Remember Me' was released by The Phantom Chords and 'Gunning For Love' was bagged by the band too.

By no stretch of the imagination is it a bad gig, but considering what they were doing 18 months previously, it doesn't quite make the mark for me. See what you think.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-e5r6SJ36XN

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-zDjRyZD2l7

20 From '87 (3) Xmal Deutschand University of Essex Colchester 21st March 1987

 

It's funny how I never played any real attention to this band, even when they played in front of me at the Brighton Centre in 1986 and yet 38 years down the line I an seeing them as a near constant band appearing on my Spotify.

This recording captures the band at the University of Essex in Colchester in March 1987, around the time that the album 'Viva' was released. I did not realise that the track 'Matador' from the album was released as a single in 1986 and that the single was produced by Hugh, which would probably explain the pairing of the two band's on the Dreamtour.

The recording is OK soundwise. The band did experience some technical issue part way through the set. It the downtime when the problem was being fixed, Anja had to tell the audience to stop spitting at her. Who the hell was still spitting in 1987, I mean come on! The crowd to seem to be a bit lairy/pissed up, but that may just be another Saturday night in Colchester!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-EeFsDp5C7a

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-LJbZlB7LHU

20 From '87 (2) Leas Cliff Hall Folkestone 27th March 1987

 

Well, 1987 wasn't such a bad year on the music front if you happened to be a Stranglers fan. We were treated to a second leg of the Dreamtime tour, a phenominal appearance at the Reading Festival, a live album that that didn't feel like a half-hearted obligation to the record company and even some 'Facts & Figures' from Hugh for good measure!

In Folkestone, Hugh did his best to ingraciate himself to his Kentish audience by describing Folkestone as the city that never sleeps, rather it dozes twenty four hours a day. I never visited the town in the '80's, but having seen it a few times in recent years, like many resort towns on the south coast Folkestone is enjoying something of a revival in popularity.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-c7FJiy4UJu

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-cKqkZG36eN

20 From '87 (1) Siouxsie And The Banshees Finsbury Park London 25th July 1987

 

Excuse the indulgence of two Banshees posts in as many weeks. This was one of those gigs hosted in the Finsbury Park supertent. A summer all-dayer with a supporting cast of Wire, Psychic TV and Gaye Bykers On Acid. This is a good mid-career gig with a diverse career spanning set. The band's eclectic covers album, 'Through The Looking Glass' was released a few months before this gig and several tracks from it appear in the set, 'Hall of Mirrors' (Kraftwerk), 'This Wheel's On Fire' (Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity) and 'Trust In Me' (Sterling Holloway) from Disney's classic animation, 'The Jungle Book'. 

Thanks to malcom769 for the original Dime upload.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-nHfqQfyzee

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-kyLVfQ2xYO

The gig was reviewed in the 8th August issue of Record Mirror.

1987 A Return

 

The Great Storm'  15th -16th October 1987

It was 10 years ago that I posted a '10 From '87' thread, so I thought I'd have another crack at it but this time be a little more ambitious in aiming for 20 uploads from the year. Here I have to cast my net a bit wider as for me, even at the tender age of 18, I felt that music in the UK was on a downhill slide. There were good bands out there of course, it's just that perhaps my ears weren't particularly open to them.

Back in 2014 I posted what I was upto in 1987 and you can find that if you so wish. However, one new recollection of the year came to me. What became of the 'Great Storm' when the counties of Kent and Sussex experienced a hurricane. My then home town of Burrgess Hill was particularly battered by the elements. Of the night I remember little... I had spent the earlier part of the evening in the pub. I remember opening my eyes briefly at 4.10 am (the approximate point when the storm was at its most violent) but that is all. The next day was amazing, a scene of absolute devastation at every turn. Very few people worked, for quite some time people were trapped in their roads by fallen trees so couldn't go anywhere other than on foot. For a good few weeks the air vibrated to the sound of chainsaws as millions of tons of fallen trees were cleared. It was eleven days after the storm before we had the electricity restored to our house. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to spend every evening in town in the pub for warmth and light. This was something of a problem as I was due to retake my A Levels the coming January... I didn't do much better at the second attempt either!