Sunday, 29 July, 1979 – Marquee, London, England

Before the Moon Falls
Stepping Out
Printhead
In My Area
Rowche Rumble
Psycho Mafia
A Figure Walks
Rebellious Jukebox
Muzorewi’s Daughter
Your Heart Out
Dice Man
Various Times
Choc-Stock
No Xmas for John Quays
Psykick Dancehall
Put Away

NOTES

70 minutes

Very good audience capture for its age. Everything is very clear.

The first gig after the departure of Yvonne Pawlett. The band would enter Cargo Studios in Rochdale four days later to record the “Dragnet” album. The mutation from the early punk ethos now fully complete to create the early Fall garage noise. Mark introduces the songs and provides quite a bit of inter-song narrative!

This is an exceptional performance of a band trying very hard to stamp its schema on a diffident and wasted extant music scene.

Some wordplay kicks off “Before the Moon falls” which leads to a gig interspersed with the new material. The duelling guitars on “In my area” are a revelation. Stunning bass from Hanley on “Rowche” defies description. Lyrics from “Spector vs Rector” presage and interpolate a muscular/angry “Psycho” which is probably the highlight of a very fine gig indeed

“We lost our keyboard player this morning, so this is for her” introduces a brash and vituperous “Rebellious Jukebox”. “Heart Out” is nearly perfect as is “Dice Man” and Mark is suitably arch when introducing “Various Times” he suggests “even our record company is changing its name to “Step Backwards””.

We get the heavy metal recorded in the back bar of “The Dog and Bucket” in Heckmondwike version of “John Quays” which would clear the palate of the most jaded lotus eater with its abrasive noise fest. Compare this with the hypnotic rumble of “Dancehall” which offers a sensuous journey into a parallel cosmos.

Mark sings accapella to introduce “Put Away”, urges Marc to play, tells the Londoners that their “city is dead” and then launches into a protean version full of dynamics.

So in essence you get the whole of the Dragnet album net of “Flat of Angles” and “Spector vs Rector” just before its recording.

Mike Leigh’s recollection of the gig is as follows:

“We were all disappointed at Yvonne’s departure, but I think it made us more determined and everyone tried to do more to compensate for her loss. The crowd were fantastic!

Just after the sound check, we discovered a very early McDonalds restaurant. The booths and seats were green then and I discovered the joy of their strawberry milkshake, to which I am still addicted today!!

This was my second gig at The Marquee and we were told that fans who had no tickets for the sell out gig were trying to bribe doormen to let them in.

We realised that we would be able to adapt to any challenges after that gig and there were smiles all round.”