- “guitar practice”
- Jawbone and the Air Rifle
- Totally Wired
- New Face in Hell
- Gramme Friday
- That Man
- C ‘n’ C
- S.Mithering
- The Container Drivers
- Rowche Rumble
- In the Park
- Pay Your Rates
- A Figure Walks
- City Hobgoblins
- The N.W.R.A.
NOTES
54 minutes
Middling quality recording. Some wow and flutter and volume dips and some minimal audience noise. However audible and the gig can be enjoyed – albeit from a distance
A special gig. The agenda is set with the band playing a loose guitar riff over which Mark comments on the band, its reputation, its relationship with the music industry and then exhorts the band to get on with it.
Tonight Mark is stunning. He moves the band on, he covers several octaves with shrieks and yelps and he tangles and mangles his words in coruscating patterns over an extremely tight band. He is declamatory and baleful, alive and intense.
Most of Grotesque and the attendant singles are played and we get the pleasure of a couple of old tunes and a new one to balance out the set. From “Jawbone” inwards this is a riffy and sensuous performance. The vocal acrobatics on “Wired” are amazing and Riley’s incredibly funky keyboard on “New Face in Hell” is a revelation.
Mark addresses the fellaters in the audience and launches into a swinging and stomping take on “Gramme Friday” – full of tension and release and interlocking sounds. A quick gallop through “That Man” leads to an intense “S.Mithering” complete with MES keyboard noises and an interjection from Kay Carroll.
“Container Drivers” is fast and tight, “Rowche Rumble” complete with keyboard scrapes is suitably scrabrous. “In the Park” just about hangs together as the band is pressed into a speed trial…..into a fast paced “Pay Your Rates”. The pressure is lifted as the band rolls into an excellent version of a “A figure walks” – memorably mesmeric and motivational.
The “City Hobgoblins” tap-tap-tap their way into Cavendish and pogo round the room in manic glee as Mark slides the words around the riffs. And as if the audience havent had enough excitement the gig closes with a memorable ramble through the majesty that is “The N.W.R.A.” – Mark gives a broad introduction to the Totale dynasty and then scourges the audience into willing submission.
Despite the poor sound this is an essential gig.