York Barbican 4th November 1999

 

This one is seeing the light of day after being misfiled for a number of years. The set is really interesting with the inclusion 'Pin Up', 'Ice Queen' and 'Two Sunspots' but not withstanding that there is no escaping from the fact that the band were at the nadir of what was even then a long career. John Ellis was moving closer to the door and another line up alteration was on the cards within months.

This is a great sounding recording having received the attention of DomP in the past.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-U2CjVcExYa

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-jzvgrcEOxa

01. Intro/Duchess
02. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
03. Who Wants The World?
04. Coup De Grace
05. Pin Up
06. Skin Deep
07. Threatened
08. Ice Queen
09. Princess Of The Streets
10. The Raven
11. Genetix

01. Always The Sun
02. Goodbye Toulouse
03. Nuclear Device
04. Two Sunspots
05. Burning Up Time
06. Tank
07. Something Better Change
08. Five Minutes
09. Golden Brown
10. Thrown Away
11. Hanging Around
12. No More Heroes

Buzzcocks Radio 1 One World Session 2nd April 2003 (TFTLTYTD # 14)

https://we.tl/t-isEKMhdShR

 

I am a sucker for radio sessions. For the fan for whom official releases are never enough, sessions provided/provide that bit extra. In the UK, John Peel led the way with this format whereby bands would turn up to a studio and bang out three or four tracks in super quick time. This on the fly aspect only adds to the charm of session tracks. Funny thing is that despite the breakneck rate at which tracks have to be laid down.... one take and your done, for many fans and musicians alike session versions of songs can sometimes become the definative version. It is not unknown for a track that has been recorded in a matter of hours to knock spots of the 'official' version that was slavishly recorded over days in the studio! Maybe it is that urgency, that immediacy that makes all the difference... and perhaps more so from bands coming out of the punk era, a getting back to basics kind of thing.

Of the session itself, there is more in the info file included in the download. As mentioned this was a promotional session for the 'Buzzcocks' album, a fine album it is too. Of the two songs from the album, 'Jerk' and 'Lester Sands', only the former was new for 2003. The latter was more contemporaneous with 'Breakdown'. An early track and a thinly veiled attack on American music critic Lester Bangs... 

'Lester Sands is a stupid fucker/Lester Sands will stay that way'.

So, having ackowledged my love of radio sessions, this one is to remember Pete Shelley who left us at the age of just 63. I don't get too overly emotional when a musician I like dies, maybe I am just hard hearted. The Stranglers got me, Bowie did too, not to mention Terry Hall and Pete Shelley was right up there. I was numb when the news came through.

I note that this is available elsewhere online. I think that I got this from Dime, so thanks to the originaluploader, thebasement67.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-isEKMhdShR

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-LYmxhGJxxR

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