Sunday, 20 August, 1978 – Lyceum, London, England 

Rebellious Jukebox
Like to Blow
Frightened
Stepping Out
Mess of My
It’s the New Thing
Various Times
Bingo Master’s Breakout
Industrial Estate
Music Scene

NOTES

 34 minutes

There are a couple of photos of this gig in the Paintwork book

Medium quality audience tape. Some crowd noise. Very little bass.

This is an excellent performance by the “Witch Trials” band. A pity that the quality of the tape is not more superior.

Features the first available recorded performance of Various Times

Smith is in fine form throughout, introducing the songs in that disdainful manner he had back then, spitting and yelping and driving the material, sounding like a hyperactive announcer at a Working Mans Club. “Mess of my” is stunning but gets little applause strangely. After this Smith announces “Its the New Thing” saying “…this is for all the egg-heads…if you didn’t get the last one you won’t get this one”.

A breathless “Bingo Masters” leads to a clamourous “Industrial Estate-ah” and then an amazing “Music Scene” with a Crackerjack type moment where Smith gets the “kids” positioned on stage and then leads them into a mad accapella intro.

The gig is short as the band were supporting “Penetration” along with “Ed Banger”, “Group Therapy” and “Punishment of Luxury”.

Its mystifying why this excellent performance did not realise a warmer audience response.

Given the paucity of material from the late 70s this is worth getting despite the less than perfect sound.

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