"This song is an endless song, it has endless possibilities"....
The 1978 gruppe post Baines and Ferrets etc in fine form. A clear, if somewhat tinny and phasey , capture from sound board and released by Voiceprint in their "From the Vaults" series in August 2005. If you want a good (but not great) record of the 1978 band then this is the one to source.
From the start it is clear the band is in fine fettle. Mark is a hectoring, drawling and snarling beast of a lead singer, behind a band built on Burns polyrhythms, Pawletts contrapuntal chords and Bramahs continuous high fret melodic lines, or chittering chords . Rileys's tentative bass occasionally slips through but due to the tinny master the bass may as well not be there.
A polished performance of extant material with interesting inter-song interjections from MES and Bramah.
Notable point for me is Mark's extemporisation at the end of the "Its the New Thing" . Unfortunately "Mess of my" is missing from the official recording - I am pretty sure I have it on a old cassette somewhere so will add comments when I next go up to the tower at the end of the west wing in search of said artefact.
Also somewhat strangely "Various Times" is tucked in at the end of the CD rather than in its natural set place. "Music Scene" is also cut short despite a promise of a ten minutes. References to current music scene reverberating through with Brian Ferry getting a bit of a kicking.
Memorable playing throughout this with the obtuse juxtaposition of styles of this version of the gruppe creating something somewhat unique.
Worthwhile getting.