Saturday, 10 April, 1982  – Paard Van Troje, The Hague, The Netherlands

  1. Look Know
  2. Middle Mass
  3. I’m into C.B.
  4. Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.
  5. The Classical
  6. Tempo House
  7. Solicitor in Studio
  8. Joker Hysterical Face
  9. Hexen Definitive
  10. Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
  11. And This Day
  12. Just Step S’ways
  13. Who Makes The Nazis

NOTES

64 minutes

An excellent recording of the second night of the short tour of Holland which split the 1982 UK Spring gigs.

Fat English Tourists in Mexican Hats are given short shrift during “Middle Mass”

Mark appears to be in particularly intolerant frame of mind when he shouts at them to “wake-up” at the beginning of “CB”. Which is somewhat ironic given he messes up the words fairly early on in the song.

Notably the tune has the got to the shape it appears in on the single release by this point of the tour. Interesting to track it as a developing piece of work from late 1981 to this point.

A fascinating first reading of “Tempo House” is significantly different from the version that would emerge over the next few gigs. Mark almost raps the words over the jaunty, almost funky, twin drum line up – Riley delivers atonal keyboards and harmonica which are the main lead instruments. There is significant lyrical variation and limited use of bass and guitars, Steve Hanley plays a minimal bass riff.

The tenth outing of “Solicitor in Studio” has also settled down into the version we recognise from “Room To Live”

This is a particularly important gig in the canon given the quality of the recording and the development of the songs with the added attraction of the first play of “Tempo House”.