Sunday, 1 November, 1981 – Top Rank, Plymouth, England 

I’m into C.B. (Riff medley version)
Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
Fantastic Life
Who makes the Nazis
Just Step S’ways
Fortress
Middle Mass
Look, Know
Fiery Jack
Winter
Put Away
C ‘n’ C
Gramme Friday
Jawbone and the Air Rifle
Draygo’s Guilt
Leave the Capital
Session Musician

NOTES

79 minutes

Final performance of Put Away.

Good audience recording – a tad hissy in places but generally a great listen. There is a touch of audience noise that tends to pervade during the “quieter” numbers.

The early atonal two note son of “Spoonful” version of “I’m into CB” is an unforgiving noisy thing and soon morphs into the riff medley which is essentially Psykick Dancehall and extreme silliness on kazoos. The group then launches into a tight “Casino Soul” (just released pop-pickers on the Kamera lable). The group is in full noisy garage form – even Riley’s keys have a tense no-nonsense sound about them. This is quickly followed by the “other” A-side in the form of the exceptional “Fantastic Life” taken at an energy sapping pace as tales of “Guy Burgess” and “pill pushers” mesh with squealing guitar free form-ness.

If all that were not enough to stir the sinews a bubbling tension racked version of “Nazis” has a lot of  funk in it, backing tapes into the fray half way through adding a strange 6 o’clock regional TV feel to the whole affair. It ends with more kazoo excess and after a polite request to turn the lights down (“its like a sauna up here”) the gruppe launches into a masterful “Sideways”. A short rumble through a memorable “Fortress” – with slight lyrical variation – leaps into a muttering and angry version of “Middlemass” all clashing and screaming and twangy bass from Steve. Mark indulges in some extemporisation in the closing section. Quite a bit of chatter messes up the enjoyment of the fledging “Look, Know”.

“Fiery Jack” is simply exceptional – a speed garage classic with exceptional riffing and chording and drawling laconic sneers from Mark. The band takes it up a peg or two at the end with double time drumming as it speeds up into a violent coda. This would be the last performance until 1983.

After all this madness its time for an initially slow and reverential version of “Winter” which develops into a pulsing motorik amble through the latter part – some dropped beats here and there in this. The band resurrected the catchy “Put Away” for a few of the dates on this tour – its a good version but almost a little throw away light relief in the context of the more recent and denser material.

Atonal keyboard sprawls introduce a jerky swing laden “CnC” – this is brutal stuff – the drums kick in and MES launches into it with some sprightly rhythmic lyrics – Mark advises that visits to Sheffield are not recommended – early quotes from “Mere Pseud Mag Ed” are dropped into the mix and band tumbles through to an exceptionally bluesy version of “Gramme Version” which is full of contradictions as it moves from one part to the other. “Jawbone” is stunning, and “Draygo” is full of bile and a little loose in the guitar area.

After a short encore break the kazoos return and launch into an incredible version of “Leave the Capitol” which has some remarkable drumming – this band transcends brilliance in situations like this – tight but with MES sliding all over tunescape but on the button on the choruses. It closes with a joyfully riotous “Session Musician”.

Highly recommended