Wednesday, 21 October, 1981-  Xtreems, New Regent, Brighton, England

  1. Blob 59
  2. 2nd Dark Age
  3. Deer Park
  4. Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
  5. Session Musician
  6. Look, Know
  7. Who Makes the Nazis
  8. How I Wrote Elastic Man
  9. Winter
  10. Leave the Capital
  11. Just Step S’ways
  12. C ‘n’ C
  13. S. Mithering
  14. Prole Art Threat (cuts)
  15. Jawbone and the Air Rifle
  16. Fantastic Life

NOTES

70 minutes

Audience Audio

First documented live rendition of Just Step Sideways. Final appearances for Blob 59, How I Wrote Elastic Man and S.Mithering.

Front of house noisy sprawl type recording. Damn good – just like being at the gig. Not the highest fidelity – but hell who gives a hoot!

Absolutely stunning.

The group are firing on all cylinders and more. Its hard to single out any one track here. But one has to try!

It starts with an awesome bass driven, kazoo mithered version of Blob 59/89 with Mark doing his best WMC vocal performance and launches into a violent “2nd Dark Age” which benefits from the two drum drive. Breathtaking in your face version.

Scribbly guitars, rampant riffing bass, and speedy drums push “Deer Park” into classic garage band territory….similarly “Lie Dream” cuts across and accelerates into nerve jangling dance pattern….the immense “Session” is dominated by Hanley S and worries itself into history as an immense piece of Fall pre-cog.

Again Steve ploughs a deep bass furrow on “Look Know” – an early take where Mark takes all the vocal chores – intense take on this song – Mark does not give a shit what he looks like when he goes out and rants about it with pleasing abandon.

The version of “Nazis” is exemplary……

Mark berates, not without some humour, the audience and “Plastic Man” starts and the crowd acclaim – and so they should – nervous, jittery, and sublime. Declamatory magnificence over the swampiest beat since “Clear Spot”.

The audience howls in the opening “quiet” section of Winter – soon all is quiet as Mark’s tense delivery pushes the noise down to a background cackle. This is funky – its a funky tune….pure magic. The intensity of this performance defies description.

Soon keyboard improv leads to a sexy “Capital” with sliding lyrics and hip shaking rhythmical interplay….the riff of “Just Step” is vital and Marks vocal histrionics are superb.

Strange juddering noises lead into a cough and phlegm and keyboard swirl rumble through “Mithering” – riffs jump from the keyboards amongst the fettling noises – Mark rants and opines over the sparse but intense riffing – at 5:08 it jumps into a menacingly fast “Prole Art Threat”.

“Jawbone” cycles inexorably into a an excellent version of “Fantastic Life”.