Friday, 10 October, 1986 – Posthof, Linz, Austria

Barmy
City Hobgoblins
U.S. 80’s-90s
Terry Waite Sez
Gross Chapel-GB Grenadiers
Mr. Pharmacist
Lucifer over Lancashire
Shoulder Pads
Gut of the Quantifier
Slang King
Prole Art Threat
L.A .

NOTES

56m

Soundboard
A very good soundboard recording. The first known recording of Marcia Schofield with the band – the preceding dates being lost.

Final performance of Slang King

A noxious “Barmy” with obtuse mutterings about anal problems leads to a poppy take on “Hobgoblins” in no small part due to Marcia’s reedy keyboard sound.

Rattling synth noises dominate a funky “US 80s 90s” and a short and sharp “Terry Waite” is magnificently anchored by Hanley. A tense brooding “GC-BG” weighs in at a mammoth 9:09. Mark feels claustrophobe like as he trapped between bubbling drums and chittering guitars. A tour de force.

“Pharmacist” is languid and swampy, some self chuckling from MES as he screws up the words on the first verse. “Lucifer” is a magnificent piece of “Fallabilly” but with corrupted vox mutterings and some timing problems on Brix’s guitar bits. “Shoulder Pads” making its first known recorded outing is velvety (as I suppose it is meant to be). There is a lengthy drum intro in Gut and then for some reason on my recording a strange piece of orchestral synth music (with a Japanese feel) cuts in for 1:16. “Gut” then re-enters – clearly the original recordist had some sort of drop-in error – seems a little tenuous on this reading.

A tortured reading of “Slang King” with some fine whooping from Mark and an almost dubby drop in and out of guitars and keys in one part. Marcia struggles with the keyboard part and it all sort of struggles with its own complexity.

Utterly weird reading of “Prole Art Threat” with MES, Simon, Steve and Craig handlng chores quite well but Marcia and Brix somehow irritating add-ons that don’t quite work.

Matters are redeemed with slightly more coherent reading of “LA” wherein the gruppe redraws a motorik repetition of hypnotic intensity.

A mixed bag of a gig with the gruppe struggling at points to get it together.