A live version of How We Used To Live by Saint Etienne from the Trumpton Comes Alive EP popped up on my playlist shuffle, the first time I've heard this version since 2013. Even more surprising is that both the performance and the original version are from 2000. It really doesn't feel - or sound - that long ago.
When it was released as a teaser single for fifth album, Sound Of Water, How We Used To Live was seen as something of a departure from Saint Etienne's pop template. To anyone who'd followed their albums as well as their singles, it was perhaps less of a shock.
The single was available as a 5-track CD, with the full length 9-minute version, a couple of new tracks, and a pair of remixes, including a very rare outing in this capacity for Dot Allison.
The live version from the Trumpton Comes Alive EP doesn't appear to be available online, so here's another performance from 7 weeks later, when Saint Etienne touched down in the USA. This is Saint Etienne touring as a full band and, as with the album, How We Used To Live is presented as the set's penultimate song, stretched out to nearly 11 minutes. I can ignore the off-key moments as it's an otherwise wonderful performance.
I've never seen Saint Etienne live in concert, but I made my one and only trip to the legendary BBC Radio 1 Roadshow on 2nd May 1994, when it pitched up on Castle Green in Bristol, to see them do a PA. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day, as early May bank holidays always seem to be and... I have absolutely no recollection of their performance. I'm guessing they performed Pale Movie and/or Like A Motorway from Tiger Bay, but I was most likely very, very drunk by that time.
The only other artist on the line-up of any interest to me and my friends would have been Credit To The Nation, though apparently we were also treated to Ant & Dec, now TV institutions, then in their PJ & Duncan days and about to go massive with Let's Get Ready To Rhumble. If we didn't heckle them, we almost certainly would have given DJ Mark Goodier some stick. How We Used To Live, indeed.
To try and pull this back to Saint Etienne, 2021's excellent I've Been Trying To Tell You was their highest charting album in the UK since Tiger Bay.
Saw St Etienne on their last tour at The Trinity in Bristol - my first time seeing them. The unusual thing was that my mates and I found the more moody, introspective songs more enjoyable than the 'bangers'. We did think the sound quality was a bit iffy too and this was commented on at the Brum gig by a music journalist so I don't think this was the only night of the tour when the phonics didn't do them any favours...
ReplyDeleteThe Trinity is a great venue but I've seen bands do well and very poorly with the phonics, sometimes in the same night! Great example was Smith & Mighty supporting Lamb. The former absolutely owned it, the latter just couldn't match them. I can guarantee that the Trinity experience of Saint Etienne would have topped Castle Green musically, even if I can't remember it!
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