Spin Around The KItchen Banging Things

More from HANN, courtesy of Two Minutes To The News, the second single of 2024 and a precursor to debut album, Forever In A Glance, due in the summer.

 

This is the video for We Were Seventeen, which came out in January.

 

I jumped on board the HANN wagon in late 2022 and I really enjoy the mix of hummable tunes, slice of life narratives and ace one-liners, delivered in a wonderfully deadpan style.

I don't want to miss anything but I really need a wee

(Will She? Won't She, 2022)

Hannah Fitzpatrick avoids the current vogue for sprechsang, yet it's still like being with your mate down the pub, catching up on their latest (mis)adventures in love and life. 

Ooh Daddy's mad at me

Coz Daddy walked straight in

And caught me taking

Daddy's drugs

(Daddy's Drugs, 2021)

If you're new to HANN and have enjoyed the above, these and loads of other songs are available on Bandcamp and all are well worth checking out. 

 

I've no idea what the mix of brand new and previously released songs will be on the album, though I'm guessing Two Minutes To The News and We Were Seventeen will be shoo ins.

 

What I do know is that Forever In A Glance will be going straight into the shopping basket the first Bandcamp Friday after release and promises to be one of 2024's most fun releases. And goodness knows we need that in our lives right now.

Just Trying To Do The Best That We Can Do

Fluke have returned.

 

Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier have reunited to release a new single, Insanely Beautiful, which I presume is a direct lift of the feedback that they received from the first person they played the song to. 

 

As a huge fan of Fluke throughout the 1990s, weathering the departure of Mike Tournier and the final releases as a duo of Jon Fugler and Mike Bryant in 2003, the prospect of new music from Fluke in the 2020s was an impossible dream.

 

And yet, here we are. Jon's voice may carry the weight of the passing years and the trademark bubbling beats may be replaced with strident steps. Otherwise, it's like they've never been away. Insanely Beautiful sounds very much in the present day but unmistakably Fluke.

The single's available on Bandcamp as four individual tracks. The original seven-minute monster, cinematic synth sweeps and stadium-sized rhythms, is presented in both vocal and instrumental versions. Leah's Mix by Fluke features Leah Cleaver on sole vocal duties. Finally, Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray deliver a Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown mix that's every bit as good as you might expect from them, slowing down the pace, turning up the bass and creating a nine-minute beat-driven behemoth.

 

Comeback of the year.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch Some ZZZZs

It was listening to Mutuashi by the fabulously named Zong Zing All Stars a week or so ago that planted the seed for today's selection, artists with names beginning Z.

Now, even the modestly travelled blogophiles amongst you might say that this is blatant rip off/poor imitation (delete as applicable) of the "Rock's Greatest..." series over at No Badger Required, which to date has covered the letters J and W. To which I'd reply, if only I were half that good...!

The closest this selection gets to rock is via hirsute Texan trio ZZ Top, although legendary New York DJ/producer John 'Jellybean' Benitez does his best to drag them onto the dancefloor. Mind the broken glass, sticky beer puddles and piles of vomit, boys...

Sticking with New York, sister act Cristi Jo and Jessica Zambri caused a bit of a stir in the late 00s/early 10s, although seem to have released just one album, House Of Baasa, in 2012 and been quiet on social media since the summer of 2018. Easier is an early song, remixed by Berkshire's finest Does It Offend You, Yeah? who I revisited in a post earlier this year.

 

Staying in the city, another New York DJ legend, Justin Strauss, trims and polishes Tomorrow People by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers to make a radio-friendly hit. Not the first reggae tune on this selection, you won't be surprised to read.

From New York to Phoenix, Arizona, Zola Jesus aka Nika Danilova is an artist that I haven't listened to in a little while, having been on a intensive immersion in her catalogue back in 2022. As the title suggests, Versions contains reworkings of songs including Collapse, which originally closed Zola's third album Conatus in 2011. This string-laden version features Jim 'Foetus' Thirlwell and the Mivos Quartet.

 

The aforementioned Zong Zing All Stars are a London-based 9-piece, playing euphoric music informed by the Cavacha rhythms with Soukous from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I don't profess to be knowledgeable about these genres in the slightest. However, I can point you in the direction of the esteemed Ernie Goggins at 27 Leggies, whose continuing African Odyssey series has been an education. You can hop back to last year's stop at the Democratic Republic of Congo, to sample the likes of Zaiko Langa Langa, who apparently created Cavacha back in 1973. From there, go back to the beginning and enjoy the entire trip, which most recently paused at Mali. 

 

The final stop on this trip is my birthplace Bristol and producer extraordinaire Eeyun aka Ian Perkins with Zoob & The Co-operators. The first burst of melodica should underline the fact that South Of The River Avon is inspired by Augustus Pablo's East Of The River Nile and in all likelihood Dr. Pablo and Dub Syndicate's 'response' album, North Of The River Thames. South Of The River Avon is the B-side of one of several vinyl 7" singles that I bought last year from Happy People Records and enjoys a regular airing on the Casa K turntable.

 

1) Zion High (TGU Remix By Transglobal Underground): Zion Train (2004)

2) Velcro Fly (Dance Mix By John 'Jellybean' Benitez): ZZ Top (1986)

3) Tomorrow People (New York City Edit By Justin Strauss & Murray Elias): Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers (1988)

4) Mutuashi: Zong Zing All Stars (2020)

5) This World (Album Version): Zero 7 ft. Mozez (2000)

6) Lush Life (The Ironix Remix By Felix Eickhoff & Simon Reichardt): Zara Larsson (2016)

7) Easier (Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix By James Rushent): Zambri (2009) 

8) Last War (Jah Jah Children Arise): Zap Pow (1977) 

9) Collapse (Version): Zola Jesus ft. Jim Thirlwell & Mivos Quartet (2013)

10) South Of The River Avon (Version): Zoob & The Co-operators (2022)

 

1986: Velcro Fly EP: 2

1988: Tomorrow People EP: 3 

2000: Simple Things: 5

2004: Original Sounds Of The Zion Remixed: 1 

2005: Trojan Roots & Culture Box Set: 8

2009: Bang For Changes EP: 7 

2013: Versions: 9

2016: Lush Life EP: 6

2020: Global Riddims Volume 3: 4

2022: Up Trooper’s Hill EP: 10

 

Catch Some ZZZZs (45:07) (KF) (Mega)

There's Still Something Going Round Inside My Head

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded 23rd July 1994.

 

First of all, welcome to Alex from Germany, who has just started a music blog called Bamboo Temple Garden. On Thursday, Alex commented on my previous posting of side 2 of this mixtape which reminded me (a) how much I liked this particular cassette and (b) that over a year later I hadn't got around to posting side 1. Where does the time go?!

The determination to make this Saturday's post coincided with the completely unexpected but very welcome news on Friday (via Swiss Adam) that the mighty Fluke has reunited and have a new single out on Monday. Incredibly good timing as Fluke kick off this side with their own remix of 1993 single Bubble, which was originally only available on the vinyl 12" single. To say that I'm thrilled that they're back is an understatement.

Next up is another legend, Fabio Paras, operating under the Smells Like Heaven alias with Londres Strutt. I love this song, especially the remix here by Boomshanka, but it also used to cause my girlfriend at the time no end of amusement over a misheard lyric. Once you hear the sampled refrain "bassline kicking" as "baste my chicken", there's no going back, I'm afraid...

Dave Lee was at the forefront of the 1990s disco revival and the singles and remixes around his solo album Universe Of Love set the template for the rest of the decade. Believing his own name to be lacking the fizz and pop needed for his musical output, Dave merged the names of two US artists, Pal Joey and J Walter Negro, to create Joey Negro. Dave continued to use the name for three decades until in July 2020, he recognised that it was not acceptable and the alias was permanently shelved. Whilst the name may have been ill advised, the music is and has always been brilliant.

Which I could also say about A Man Called Adam, who have continued to produce great music in each decade from the (late) 1980s to the 2020s and show no sign of running short on inspiration. Bread, Love And Dreams is a much-loved single from their debut album, with a memorable cover image of Sally Rodgers' bum... I'm still not sure that I've connected that image with the lyrical themes of the song, but I guess it stood out on the record shop racks at the time. What also stood out was the quality of the mixes, not least their own but those by Slam and, included here, Graeme Park.

I only need mention the Sabres Of Paradise or the names Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns and you know you're in for a treat. This is their epic remix (one of three) of Conquistador by Espiritu aka Vanessa Quiñones and Chris Taplin. It's a 12-minute propulsive house monster, not a typical Sabres mix in many respects but proof that when they wanted to go there, they could lead the way every time. 

Who else to follow Andrew Weatherall than David Holmes? David sealed his reputation with an equally epic remix of Smokebelch II by Sabres Of Paradise, but this remix of should've-been-huge Freaky Realistic predates that milestone. Named after the now-legendary Belfast club that David and Iain McCready ran at the time, the two Sugarsweet mixes of Koochie Ryder take the song into a much different (head) space and will be a pleasant surprise if you're only familiar with David's later work.

And to close side 1 (and bridge to side 2, as it happens), The Grid aka Dave Ball and Richard Norris bring their own remix of Crystal Clear. This single came as a seemingly unbeatable remix package featuring Justin Robertson and The Orb. Both excellent but The Grid are more than up to the challenge, the Trimar Mix adding female vocals and an energy that elevates it even higher than the original album version. And it's all achieved in under five minutes. Great stuff.

 

If that doesn't have you smiling and grooving wherever you are, check your pulse, you may need medical attention... 

 

1) Bubble (Braillebubble): Fluke (1993)

2) Londres Strutt (Boomshanka Remix By Ben Mitchell & Steven Harper): Smells Like Heaven (1993)

3) Do What You Feel (Dum Dum Vocal Edit By Dave Lee): Joey Negro ft. Debbie French (1991)

4) Bread, Love And Dreams (Parkside Mix By Graeme Park): A Man Called Adam (1992)

5) Conquistador (Sabres Of Paradise Mix No. 3 By Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Espiritu (1993)

6) Koochie Ryder (Sugarsweet Mix Part 2 By David Holmes & Iain McCready): Freaky Realistic (1993)

7) Crystal Clear (Trimar Mix By Dave Ball & Richard Norris): The Grid (1993)

Side One (45:30) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here

I Don't Want To Hear Any More Music...Unless She's Got The Music

Jo Bartlett's third solo album, Ghost Tapes 1 To 9, is out today. You can listen to the full album on Spotify and YouTube or, better still, buy it for a bargain £7 via Bandcamp.

 

I've been fortunate enough to have a sneak preview of the album for the past week or so and, in short, it's thirty three and a half minutes of your life that you'll happily want to live over and over.

 

There's a consistent make up to the songs, not least sparse but considered instrumentation that manages somehow to sound full and spacious at the same time. The guitar and synths are underpinned by a mighty, rumbling bass on the majority of songs. 

 

The Last One (Is The First) is a formidable opener, promising to be a striking instrumental until, two and a half minutes in, Jo's voice takes over. The vocals are of course the critical element that creates the cohesive listening experience, sometimes with effects, sometimes untreated, always focusing the listener on the narrative. 

 

And it's compelling narrative, stories drawn from Jo's life in music. "I guess you'd say it started when I was less than two," Jo reflects on She's Got The Music. 

Musically speaking, it's a further step away from Jo's previous album The Cut Up (2022) and a leap if you will from Upheaval (2011) and a direction that works exceptionally well. It feels a very lazy comparison as I'm typing it but I think I subconsciously made a connection with Andrew Weatherall, particularly Two Lone Swordsmen's latter vocal period and also some of his work with Nina Walsh. 

 

Reflecting on that though, I think it's more to do with the soundscapes that Jo has created, not least the bringing together of electronics, acoustics and voice resulting in an album that feels organic, human and warm.

As I mentioned in my previous post in February, I belatedly (re)discovered Jo's music so I feel like I've had something of a crash course in her solo work in the past couple of months. It couldn't have been better timed though, given that it's led to today's release of Ghost Tapes 1 To 9, which is already a highlight of 2024 for me.

1) The Last One (Is The First)

2) Drawing A Line (ghost tape no. 2)

3) I Waited A Year

4) I Don't Want To Hear Any More Music

5) [Do You] Remember?

6) She's Got The Music

7) One In A Hundred

8) Floating Through

9) Get In The Zone

Five of the songs have been released via Bandcamp (links above) in the past year or so, accompanied by videos, combining silent cinema, home movies and road trips to great effect.

 

 

 

If that's whet your appetite for more, head over to Bandcamp for more, including It's Jo And Danny, Bluetrain and Kodiak Island as well as her solo work, including this single from last June which doesn't appear on Ghost Tapes 1 To 9. 

 

 

The summer has officially started.

 

....

As a completely unrelated footnote, you may have spotted a theme that this week's posts have all featured artists with surnames beginning with B. 

Today's post was planned for today to tie in with the release of Ghost Tapes 1 To 9, but the rest was initially an accident. I started off on Monday with Emily Breeze, then noted the coincidence that I'd found the videos for Boris Blank's current album the following day. Wednesday's random shuffle seemed to have broken the cycle with T. Rex, until I quickly realised that really, the post was all about Marc Bolan. I'll 'fess up, having embraced the inevitable, yesterday's post about Kate Bush intentionally sought out another B-surname artist.

Normal service will resume tomorrow with (if I can get my act together) a delve back into my dusty box of cassette compilations.

Wow

Kate Bush performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 13th May 1979. 

 

These dozen songs were released on VHS in 1981, culled from a mammoth 21-song set, with additional dance interludes, Kate's brother John Carder Bush reading poetry and more costume changes than your brain can process.

All of this took place a couple of months shy of Kate's 21st birthday. 

 

Wow doesn't even begin to describe how amazing this woman is.

 

00:00 [restoration notes]

00:18 Moving

03:50 Them Heavy People

07:53 Violin

11:25 Strange Phenomena

14:50 Hammer Horror

19:15 Don't Put Your Foot On The Heartbrake

23:08 Wow

27:14 Feel It

30:11 Kite

36:41 James And The Cold Gun

45:25 Oh England My Lionheart

48:45 Wuthering Heights

The Runes Of My Tunes

The Soul Of My Suit by T. Rex shuffled into play as I was driving home from work, a lovely journey after a strange day, sun shining and carpets of spring flowers in the countryside creating a lovely counterpoint to the various towns and villages that I passed through. 

 

Windows down, volume up, The Soul Of My Suit is a real singalong (with apologies to any who were "treated" to a fleeting excerpt of my vocal efforts), all the easier as there are limited lyrics, oft repeated.

 

(In a tip of the hat to Charity Chic's excellent Saturday Shuffle series, I'll add that The Soul Of My Suit was sandwiched between Give It Up by Talk Talk and Jesse Malin's cover of Harmony, so it was in very good company indeed)

 

By coincidence, The Soul Of My Suit was released on 18th March 1977, although by 24th April it had exhausted a three week run in the UK Top 50 singles chart (#'s 50, 42 and 46 consecutively). There were two more singles that year - a remixed and re-recorded version of album title track Dandy In The Underworld, followed by a standalone single Celebrate Summer - but The Soul Of My Suit was the last T. Rex song to chart in the UK before Marc Bolan's tragic death on 16th September 1977.

So, as a nod to one of my favourite songs from the T. Rex catalogue, harking back to past glories but also nodding to a possible future, here's not one but four versions of The Soul Of My Suit, found on t' internet.

 

Opening up is an official video for The Soul Of My Suit, filmed less than a week before the single release on 12th March 1977. T. Rex had played the song at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester the previous evening (supported by The Damned, fact fans) and stayed in the city, using the Hall Of Mirrors in the Belle Vue zoo and theme park as a location. The video was not shown at the time and languished in the EMI vaults until 1999 and finally got an inevitable upload to YouTube at the tail end of 2020. It's slightly at odds with the song and visually not overly exciting but Marc himself looks fantastic and sometimes that's all you need.

 

Top Of The Pops broadcast The Soul Of My Suit on 24th March 1977, Marc and the band performing in the round, elevated above a shuffling, somewhat soporific audience. Marc swaps his jacket from lilac to banana yellow, which makes him pop out against the technicolour backdrop. I'm less sure about Herbie Flowers' dungarees or Dino Dines woolly hat, though!

 

A change of scene but not wardrobe for a follow up performance on ITV kids show Get It Together, broadcast on 27th April 1977 by which time The Soul Of My Suit had dropped out of the singles chart. Get It Together had premiered on 6th April 1977 and was co-presented by Roy North, his first major gig after securing a place in history as Mr. Roy, straight man/sidekick to Basil Brush...

 

Ignore the constant split screen 'mirror' video effects (had the producers seen the video in the Hall Of Mirrors, I wonder?), this is a great clip, the band performing live and extending the guitar break and Marc looks like he's having more fun than in the mimed TOTP performance.

Finally, a full on live performance of The Soul Of My Suit. I've no idea where or when this concert took place: the YouTube labelling indicates 1976; Setlist claims the song had it's live premiere in Newcastle on 10th March 1977; Iffypedia states that The Soul Of My Suit was recorded in the spring of 1975 in Munich. 

 

Perhaps reflecting the support act, there's another shift in Marc's style: the tousled, tangled hair more closely cropped, banana yellow limited to a stripe on his wide tricolour tie, short sleeve dusky jacket, make up reapplied. It's a great look, even if the rest of the band clearly didn't receive the memo. Again, the song is teased out, Marc slowing the vocals down, making for an enjoyable alternative take.

Marc, I love you, yeah yeah

Going Blank Again

With all the hustle and bustle of a new year, not not so new, I missed that Boris Blank released an album in February.

 

Taking a deep dive into ambient waters, Resonance comprises a dozen pieces of music surfacing from a commission for the FORTYSEVEN thermal wellness spa in Switzerland, designed by Mario Botta and situated in Baden on the River Limmat. Somewhere that's likely to be beyond my reach but at least Boris' music can help me get there in my imagination.

 

Having been immersed in the music of Mixmaster Morris / The Irresistible Force recently, and regularly dipping into Richard Norris' continuing Music For Healing series, Boris' work flows naturally from this and is a welcome pool of calm in a sea of chaos, to paraphrase one of my previous mixtape titles.

 

Four songs from Resonance have been released with videos so far, the most recent last Friday. In reverse chronological order by release, here are Elements Of Life, Angel Base, Defying Gravity and Resonance.

Lovely, just lovely.

 

 

 

Young And Dumb And Full Of Shit...What A Beautiful Thing

The Second Rodeo EP by Emily Breeze was released in full this weekend, with a great video for lead song 1997.

 

Previous release The Beatniks is up next, followed by We Were Lovers. 

 

 

 

Rounding off the EP is a barnstorming version of Graceland by Paul Simon, which was also the set closer to Emily Breeze's superb gig at The Fleece in Bristol, which I raved about back in February.

But don't just take my word for it, Emily has posted performances of 1997 and Graceland from that very gig on the band's YouTube page. It's every bit as good as I remember. In fact, look closely and you may spot me in the crowd, having a great time.

Emily has indicated that the 4 songs will appear on a bigger, physical release later in the year. In the meantime, get down with the digital.

On And On And On The Story Goes

Last Sunday's post about The Woodentops and the chasm between the cost of creating music and it's monetary value in a world of instant gratification provoked a lot of visits, interest and reflection. 

 

A week on and I'm surprised and delighted to say that the eagerly anticipated album, Fruits Of The Deep, is suddenly here with us. Since receiving the mailing list announcement on Saturday afternoon, I've only had time for a few looped listens to the album so far but...wow, it's fantastic.

 

Thirteen songs, fifty three minutes and thirty six seconds, with a bonus fourteenth track taking the album into an hour of varied and wonderful sounds. As Rolo McGinty notes in the album release mailshot,

 

It is like any album form the Woodentops, a scattershot of different ideas, originality and stretching as much as possible the idea of a rock and roll band, from songs to the cinematic.

 

The opening quintet of Liquid Thinking, the singles Dream On and Ride A Cloud, then Too Good To Stay and Lately set the tone, indie pop par excellence bathed in the Balearic sunshine. You're hopefully familiar with the two singles by now, so you'll be right to sense that this 5-song set is an incredibly strong opening statement.

 

 

The cinematic adjective feels particularly apt when describing Hotel and City Wakes, both feeling like they're excerpts from a film, where things have become somewhat unhinged and unsettling for one of the lead characters. Hotel contains (to paraphrase Rolo) a "sad robot" vocal. City Wakes is an instrumental with deep bass horn from Jeff Miller, and Rolo's nighttime field recordings of trains rattling on tracks at the back of his home and the glass clatter of empties being tipped into the recycling bin at the local pub.

 

 

It's worth mentioning at this point that the Bandcamp page for Fruits Of The Deep also includes lyrics and sleeve notes which provide a brief insight into the origins, inspiration and recording of the songs. It's been a decade since The Woodentops' 'comeback' album Granular Tales, though elements of the songs on this album stretch back even further. 

I Can Take It was developed and completed following a period where Rolo was studio neighbours with Richard Thomas, though the lyrics scribbled down by a 16 year old Rolo after a week in jail. The accusation was false and the appeal was a success, but the words capture the period between the two. 

Singing as a man
words written as boy
[...]
It fed my resilience
You achieved nothing that day
when you put me away
I can take it

 

The closing song of the album is The Fishermen Leave At Dusk. In the accompanying notes, Rolo writes "I do not think I will ever write anything better than this" and you may be forgiven for thinking, "What? But what about [insert list of classic Woodentops songs here]?!"

But you know what? Rolo knows what he's talking about. He goes on to describe The Fishermen Leave At Dusk as "not a quick pop tune, its a more a movie with the visual content in your imagination" which is far better than anything I can come up with to describe it. 

The song reflects on Rolo's long stay trip in the Paradise Beach cabanas in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. There he got to know the locals: the very young people in the lace works along the shore; a man with a book autographed by Rick Stein, proclaiming his tiny seafood stall offers "the best hot seafood sauce in the world". 

 

This would have been late 2004 as shortly after Rolo left, Indonesia was devastated by an earthquake and consequent tsunami that resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million people. Rolo's lyrics reflect on the people he'd met and the horrific though that, if they were going about their business that day, they will not have escaped.

 

It's a heart-wrenching eight minutes, swirling acoustic strums, found sounds, ringing keyboards and sad sax flowing in and out of the song. It's incredible.

 

  

The bonus track is also eight minutes, an instrumental called Bathyscaphe which as the title suggests is inspired by the deep sea submersible ("that magnificent machine") used to explore that alien world within our own world, still full of mystery, uncharted territory and life that evolved, survived and thrived in an environment that we could not without a thick metal shell around us, with oxygen pumped in, carbon dioxide pumped out and pressure regulated to keep us alive.  

Bathyscaphe is driven by "drum hits" from Simon Goodchild and split into two sections (or "dives" as described in the notes) with a brief moment of calm separating the two. Rolo does everything else, including "razor blades to get between the wire wind of the strings" and it's an - excuse the pun - immersive experience. Fitting then, that this version is the stereo mix, with a Dolby Atmos total immersion mix of Bathyscaphe coming soon.

 

All of this as a digital purchase for a tenner. If you hear the album, you'll know that it's worth more.

 

I'm holding off my purchase for a little bit longer, partly because I don't get paid until the end of the month but also so that I can buy Fruits Of The Deep on Bandcamp Friday (3rd May). I know that this will impact on the album's first week sales performance, but I'd rather that as much of the money I pay gets to the artist as possible. 

 

On which note, there was a helpful reminder on the back of last week's post to avoid using PayPal if you can. Whilst Bandcamp waive their fees on the titular Friday, PayPal do not!

I think I say this every year, but 2024 has been a brilliant year for new music so far and the addition of an album by The Woodentops has just made it so much better.

Music For Small Bedrooms But Spacious Minds

A special Dubhed selection today, featuring The The live in concert, 1989 to 2018. 

 

Fellow blogosphere traveller Strictly Rockers reached out on Friday to say hello, a familiar name not least for his impressive run of Imaginary Compilations over at The Vinyl Villain. In fact, his debut ICA inspired one of my first ICA contributions a few years later and the format of today's selection. 

 

We both grew up in Bristol, have never knowingly met but likely were at the same gigs, pubs and record shops in our callow youth. In the very full Venn diagram overlap which is our music collection, you'll find The The.

I've previously posted a mixtape that I recorded in 1989 and a late-period The The compilation but never a live selection. I've only seen The The live in concert once, a relatively intimate gig at the University of Bristol's Anson Rooms in 2000. As this selection will demonstrate, regardless of the band performing with Matt Johnson, The The live is an exciting proposition. 

I already had quite a few live songs from various singles, a collection that's been added to considerably in the last couple of years by The Comeback Special album and ongoing series of Official Bootlegs, available via The The's official website.

So, the real challenge was keeping this selection under 100 songs and twenty-odd hours! I'd (over) ambitiously aimed for 10, failed spectacularly and ended up with 16 and even then there are glaring omissions. However, I think I've largely managed to stitch the sequence into a largely seamless set and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you get the same enjoyment from listening to it...!

 

1) Dogs Of Lust (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

2) Sweet Bird Of Truth (Live @ Sony Music Studios, New York, 6th May 1993) 

3) Flesh & Bones (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

4) The Sinking Feeling (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

5) Helpline Operator (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

6) (Like A) Sun Rising Thru My Garden (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

7) The Mercy Beat (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

8) GIANT (Live @ somewhere, The The Versus The World tour, 1990) 

9) Soul Catcher (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

10) Love Is Stronger Than Death (Live @ Sony Music Studios, New York, 6th May 1993) 

11) Armageddon Days Are Here Again (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

12) Voidy Numbness (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

13) Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire) (Live @ somewhere in the USA, The The Versus The World tour, 1989)

14) Uncertain Smile (Live @ Later...With Jools Holland, BBC2 TV, 11th June 1993) 

15) Beyond Love (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

16) True Happiness This Way Lies (Live @ Brixton Academy, London, 5th June 1993) 

 

1992: Dogs Of Lust EP: 15

1993: Love Is Stronger Than Death EP: 4, 7, 11

1993: Slow Emotion Replay EP: 2, 10

2021: Official Bootleg 002: 8

2021: Official Bootleg 004: 16

2023: Later... With Jools Holland (bootleg): 14

2023: Official Bootleg 007: 1, 5, 12

2023: Official Bootleg 008: 13

2023: The Comeback Special: Live At The Royal Albert Hall: 3, 6, 9

 

Music For Small Bedrooms But Spacious Minds (1:23:17) (KF) (Mega) 

 

I've refreshed links to my previous The The selections as well...

Testament To Reality (October 1989)

Truth Is Nothing But A Point Of View (August 2022)