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)

The Kindest Cut's The Cruelest Part

The Lexicon Of Love by ABC regularly features in "Greatest Albums Of The 1980s", usually to be found in the Top 10, often in the Top 5. I loved the singles, I loved Martin Fry's gold lamé suit, I loved the lush orchestration of the songs. All that and I didn't own the album until I bought the 30th anniversary deluxe CD of The Lexicon Of Love in 2012. 

 

It was buying belated sequel The Lexicon Of Love II in 2016 that finally prompted me to catch up with ABC's back catalogue, seven further albums in the 34 years between each Lexicon.

 

Through the 1980s, the stable core of a revolving line-up was Martin Fry and Mark White. White retired from music after 1991's Abracadabra album and ABC has continued with Fry as the sole founding member ever since.

 

It's been an interesting ride: second album Beauty Stab tried so hard not to be The Lexicon Of Love II and was a relative commercial failure, but the album reveals some great pop songs nevertheless. How To Be A... Zillionaire! and Alphabet City brought back some of the more familiar ABC sounds whilst being more firmly rooted in the 1980s than their arguably timeless debut. I remember being appalled by how awful When Smokey Sings was when I first heard it. The UK record buying public disagreed and I'll admit that I've grown to like the song over subsequent years.

 

Up and Abracadabra were blatant attempts to tap into the dance/pop crossover, 1991's Unlock The Secrets Of Your Heart name checking Shoom and The Hacienda (808 State's Lift, anyone?) At the time, I considered ABC past their sell-by date. Martin Fry already seemed old as the hills - he was actually in his early 30s - and it was hard to imagine him throwing shapes in a club. These songs have perhaps dated the most but on reflection, Fry and White's knack for a good tune and lyrics was pretty spot on.

 

The 'solo' albums Skyscraping (1997) and Traffic (2008) are lost gems, familiar ABC characteristics intact, both recalling Beauty Stab's (synth) guitar-heavy sound. Something that I'd missed/forgotten until returning to write this post was that much of Skyscraping was co-written with Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory, who also contributes keyboards. On Traffic, Fry reunited with former ABC drummer David Palmer, one of two co-writers and performers on the album, the other being Rod Stewart collaborator Chuck Kentis.

 

So, here's my first ABC selection, a C90-friendly side of eleven songs, spanning all nine albums providing a healthy dose of sunshine pop, grit and glitter, strings and tears. 

 

The title for today's selection is a line from All Of My Heart. The cover photo is from a school trip to Paris, circa 1986, and I'm guessing is a view atop the Arc De Triomphe. As the photo was taken on an (even at the time) crappy old camera and is blurred, dull and out of focus, I've applied a Leonardo Da Vinci filter from LunaPic to zhuzh it up a bit.

 

1) The Love Inside The Love (2016)

2) When Smokey Sings (7") (Remix By Bernard Edwards & Julian Mendelsohn) (1987)

3) Unlock The Secrets Of Your Heart (1991)

4) That Was Then But This Is Now (1983)

5) All Of My Heart (Album Version By Trevor Horn & Gary Langan) (1982)

6) Ocean Blue (Pacific Mix By Julian Mendelsohn) (1985)

7) One Better World (Album Version By ABC, Graeme Park & Mike Pickering) (1989)

8) Think Again (1987)

9) Life Shapes You (2008)

10) Ask A Thousand Times (1997)

11) Be Near Me (Album Version By ABC, Martyn Webster & Julian Mendelsohn) (1985)

1982: The Lexicon Of Love: 5

1983: Beauty Stab: 4

1985: How To Be A... Zillionaire!: 11

1985: Ocean Blue EP: 6

1987: Alphabet City: 8

1987: When Smokey Sings EP: 2

1989: Up: 7

1991: Abracadabra: 3

1997: Skyscraping: 10

2008: Traffic: 9

2016: The Lexicon Of Love II: 1

The Kindest Cut's The Cruelest Part (46:25) (KF) (Mega)

Your Life Will Surely Change

As a follow up to Sunday's post, more The The, this time a selection of their videos, which are all rather wonderful. I still have Infected "The Movie" on VHS tape, unfortunately our video player is long dead, so I haven't been able to watch it in years. I remember seeing the whole thing on Channel 4. I loved the album but the video experience just blew me away. It was a really powerful visual and aural statement in the midst of mid-80s MTV pap.

 

Side One


1) I've Been Waitin' for Tomorrow (All of My Life) (1983)


2) I Want 2 B U (2020)


3) Pillar Box Red (2002)


4) The Beat(en) Generation (1989)


5) Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire) (1986)


6) Kingdom Of Rain (1989)



 

Side Two


1) Infected
 (1986)

2) Dogs Of Lust
 (1993)

3) This Is The Day
 (1983)

4) Sweet Bird Of Truth
 (1986)

5) We Can't Stop What's Coming
 (2017)

6) Love Is Stronger Than Death
 (1993)

 

Kingdom Of Rain features vocals from Sinéad O'Connor, who unfortunately doesn't appear in the video itself. All of the videos are taken from The The's official YouTube page, with the exception of This Is The Day.

Testament To Reality

Happy 60th birthday, Matt Johnson. 

 

Sides 1 & 2 of a mixtape, recorded 21st October 1989. Cassette sleeve 'inspired' by the cover to the Gravitate To Me 12" single. Like many, Matt Johnson's albums, singles and B-sides were the soundtrack to my teenage years.

 

Side One (45:32)

1) Good Morning Beautiful (Album Version): The The (1989) 

2) The Sinking Feeling (The Original Version): The The (1982)

3) Sweet Bird Of Truth (12" Version) ('45 RPM' Album Edit): The The ft. Anna Domino (1986) 

4) Perfect (New Version): The The (1983)

5) The Nature Of Virtue (Version II): The The (1983)

6) Gravitate To Me (Little Version): The The (1989)

7) Giant (Album Version): The The ft. Thomas Leer, Jim Thirlwell, Zeke Manyika & Camelle Hinds (1983)

Side Two (46:03)

1) Harbour Lights (Single Version): The The (1986)

2) Heartland (Album Version): The The (1986)

3) Soul Mining (Album Version) (Edit): The The (1983)

4) Song Without An Ending! (Album Version): Matt Johnson (1981)

5) Bugle Boy (Album Version): Matt Johnson (1981)

6) Slow Train To Dawn (12" Version) (Edit): The The ft. Neneh Cherry (1986)

7) Infected (Album Remix) (Edit): The The (1986)

8) Flesh & Bones: The The ft. Jim Thirlwell (1985)

9) Uncertain Smile (Album Version): The The ft. Jools Holland & Camelle Hinds (1983)

10) Beyond Love (Album Version): The The (1989)

Side One (45:32) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two (46:03) (KF) (Mega)