Fair Audience Tape. Suffers a bit from being in a big hall with a lot of echo.
Reviews of the time concentrated on Marks baiting of Tommy Crookes and adventures with missing microphones.
A lengthy "Spencer" sets the scene dominated by Hanley bass and rolling and tumbling drums from Burns. Nagle plays an eerie patch and Crookes offers small and semi-audible chords and odd sustained notes. This is very menacing, brooding and full of tension and release with Julia's descending melody adding texture. MES enters at about 4 minutes however he does not utter a word until about 6 minutes 30. He is clear, barking out shards of imagery, demanding the listeners attention.
"Idiot Joy" is driven fast and played well, interesting use of keys from Julia. Again Crookes is mostly inaudible. "Levitate" - starts with a curious statement from Mark... "what are you doing with a bag of crisps behind your amplifier? - I'm talking about you Tommy Crookes" - is played exceptionally well but suffers with a smattering of microphone feedback. The two guitars lock well together on this and its particular notable that the band lock into a groove on this reading.
"Lie Dream" is very speedy and the riff is not played quite right by TC (to my ears at any rate) but all in all very good performance. "Hurricane Edward" is also very good. dominated by excellent drumming from Burns and some suitably challenging guitar from Crookes. Mark introduces "Eve" and the band eventually catches on and joins in - its a bit of a sloppy performance and meanders a little in places - the electronic percussion is totally out of kilter with the live drums - Mark messes up the shards section by starting too early - by the time it gets round to it properly its very good with Mark mentioning "Snoop Doggy Dog".
"Hip Priest" is painfully quiet in the drum area and loses focus - Mark plays with the words - speeding his delivery up somewhat.... albeit it is extremely laconic - Crookes plays some good figures, Julia plays an oddly inappropriate keyboard patch which feels very proggy and tends to overwhelm. The audience joins in and has a great deal of fun. By the time the intense bit comes the band has it down pat and it translates into a great tumbling noise. Can't help feeling that Julia sounds like Tony Banks on Genesis Live on this one.
"Behind the Counter" is very loud and quite vicious - a touch of the old heavy metal here chums with again some odd prog-like keyboard from Julia - for some reason I am reminded of Suzy Quatro singing "Can the Can" - Mark has a go at someone half-way through. A bit of an oddity really.
Mark says something like "And who has rented the drum riser out to the Channel 4 live broadcast" and the band sort of play "I'm a Mummy" - again all a little disjointed with Julia's keyboard seeming slightly out of kilter. Band also seems to speed up the pace about half way through. It sort of rescues itself towards the end but somehow falls short generally.
"Oleano" is Hanley driven but feels a little disjointed - with the band not clicking at all. Things are back to normal for "He Pep" which is excessively sloppy in its "fall-ness". There is some evidence of live mixing of Mr Crookes amp during the latter parts of the song. "Masquerade" works quite well and has an extended non-Smith section after a brief opening flurry of words over the intro. When he does kick in at about three minutes it is a very good rendition indeed. Things move along with a sharp and smart version of "Pearl City" with again Mark not coming into until well over two minutes in. "Glam Racket" is aborted and the band walk off. The theme from the "Big Country" plays and the band re-enter with a strange take on "Feeling Numb" - guitar riffs seem a little too complex and Julia again uses a synth patch which does not quite fit. Mark is in good fettle directing the band with suitably placed "whups" and count-ins his words sliding into each other as the band descends into some weird late 70s pop-band pastiche.
A very odd gig indeed.
Reviews of the time concentrated on Marks baiting of Tommy Crookes and adventures with missing microphones.
A lengthy "Spencer" sets the scene dominated by Hanley bass and rolling and tumbling drums from Burns. Nagle plays an eerie patch and Crookes offers small and semi-audible chords and odd sustained notes. This is very menacing, brooding and full of tension and release with Julia's descending melody adding texture. MES enters at about 4 minutes however he does not utter a word until about 6 minutes 30. He is clear, barking out shards of imagery, demanding the listeners attention.
"Idiot Joy" is driven fast and played well, interesting use of keys from Julia. Again Crookes is mostly inaudible. "Levitate" - starts with a curious statement from Mark... "what are you doing with a bag of crisps behind your amplifier? - I'm talking about you Tommy Crookes" - is played exceptionally well but suffers with a smattering of microphone feedback. The two guitars lock well together on this and its particular notable that the band lock into a groove on this reading.
"Lie Dream" is very speedy and the riff is not played quite right by TC (to my ears at any rate) but all in all very good performance. "Hurricane Edward" is also very good. dominated by excellent drumming from Burns and some suitably challenging guitar from Crookes. Mark introduces "Eve" and the band eventually catches on and joins in - its a bit of a sloppy performance and meanders a little in places - the electronic percussion is totally out of kilter with the live drums - Mark messes up the shards section by starting too early - by the time it gets round to it properly its very good with Mark mentioning "Snoop Doggy Dog".
"Hip Priest" is painfully quiet in the drum area and loses focus - Mark plays with the words - speeding his delivery up somewhat.... albeit it is extremely laconic - Crookes plays some good figures, Julia plays an oddly inappropriate keyboard patch which feels very proggy and tends to overwhelm. The audience joins in and has a great deal of fun. By the time the intense bit comes the band has it down pat and it translates into a great tumbling noise. Can't help feeling that Julia sounds like Tony Banks on Genesis Live on this one.
"Behind the Counter" is very loud and quite vicious - a touch of the old heavy metal here chums with again some odd prog-like keyboard from Julia - for some reason I am reminded of Suzy Quatro singing "Can the Can" - Mark has a go at someone half-way through. A bit of an oddity really.
Mark says something like "And who has rented the drum riser out to the Channel 4 live broadcast" and the band sort of play "I'm a Mummy" - again all a little disjointed with Julia's keyboard seeming slightly out of kilter. Band also seems to speed up the pace about half way through. It sort of rescues itself towards the end but somehow falls short generally.
"Oleano" is Hanley driven but feels a little disjointed - with the band not clicking at all. Things are back to normal for "He Pep" which is excessively sloppy in its "fall-ness". There is some evidence of live mixing of Mr Crookes amp during the latter parts of the song. "Masquerade" works quite well and has an extended non-Smith section after a brief opening flurry of words over the intro. When he does kick in at about three minutes it is a very good rendition indeed. Things move along with a sharp and smart version of "Pearl City" with again Mark not coming into until well over two minutes in. "Glam Racket" is aborted and the band walk off. The theme from the "Big Country" plays and the band re-enter with a strange take on "Feeling Numb" - guitar riffs seem a little too complex and Julia again uses a synth patch which does not quite fit. Mark is in good fettle directing the band with suitably placed "whups" and count-ins his words sliding into each other as the band descends into some weird late 70s pop-band pastiche.
A very odd gig indeed.