Joy Division - Live At The Paradiso (Bootleg)

I'm sure those of you who know in depth about the many bootlegs of Joy Division concerts will know about this. I just thought I'd post the link to it for others who may not be aware of it as it really as a treasure! This isn't a review of the bootleg, I'm just promoting it really. This is from their gig at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which took place on January 11th, 1980. It's the complete show This is by far and away the best quality Joy Division bootleg I've ever heard, so much better than the sound quality at the Preston set. I'd even go so far as to say it's probably got the best sound quality of any bootleg I've heard from any artist, period! A real treat to hear, given Ian would sadly pass away in a matter of months. Highly recommended if you have an interest in Joy Division!

South Bank Show

So I've just managed to (finally) watch the Pet Shop Boys edition of The South Bank Show. The South Bank show was basically an arts programme that originally ran between 1978 and 2010 although it has came back in recent months. Anyhow, Pet Shop Boys featured on the show in the early 90s. Wikipedia states it was in 1990 although that has to be a mistake. I'm sure it was from 1992 because the album artwork for DJ Culture (which was released in that year) is shown and they reference the Performance tour being a year ago. In any case this is a really interesting documentary. I personally love watching old documentaries on artists, its like they capture a little snapshot of how they were feeling at a particular time if that makes sense? I personally found the documentary particularly enlightening on two particular subjects: firstly how Pet Shop Boys present themselves and how/why they're different to other pop artists around at that time. The documentary also features contributions from various people they have worked with over the years such as Liza Minnelli and the late Eric Watson. Eric Watson's contributions were particularly illuminating, not because of his passing earlier in the year but because I've never actually seen any video footage of him talking about working with Pet Sop Boys before. The video in this post is indeed the full documentary. It is a fascinating documentary that is well worth watching!

The Jacksons - Triumph Tour medley

This is a medley (Showing bits of Ben, Rock With You, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough) from the The Jacksons performance in Los Angeles on their Triumph tour in 1981, in support of the album of the same name. I personally feel the Triumph tour was one of Michael's most important in terms of his development of a solo artist, as some of  his signature feature's of his solo tours originated on this one. The tour is an incredibly popular one (one of my personal favorites too) but no official DVD of the tour has been released. An incomplete recording of the show were this medley was taken from can be found on Youtube, but its worth noting that the footage is split into four screens and can be pretty annoying to watch, but its better than nothing! A high quality full recording though doesn't seem to be in circulation and its for that reason that the existence of this small piece great quality footage (albeit criminally short) does puzzle me. I mean comparing the short little medley to the fuller show, its clear that the picture quality has been enhanced immensely. I'm pretty sure this medley was fan made though, simply because the Rock With You segment doesn't actually use a recording from the actual tour itself, the audio comes from the Bad Tour in Yokohama. Its not a massive issue, although you can clearly hear a female voice (who's actually Sheryl Crow) singing backing vocals, even though the other members of The Jacksons sang backing vocals on tour on Michael's solo songs. Also, a live album was released of the tour so I do wonder why they couldn't have used that audio instead.  Having said that, whoever restored this has done an absolutely amazing job with the picture, especially considering how grainy the picture quality of the other recordings are on Youtube. It also gains extra points from me for being the only live footage I've actually seen of the Triumph tour performance of Don't Stop Til You Get Enough. In many ways this is bittersweet, its a brilliant little performance, but also highlights not only how badly his estate has handled releases, but also as a reminder to what a brilliant performer he was!

Depeche Mode - Photographic (Live Something Else)

I do love  Depeche Mode's work with Alan Wilder naturally (who appeared on Construction Time Again through to Songs of Faith & Devotion). In spite of this though,  I'm actually a really big fan of their debut album, Speak & Spell, I think its prone to some unfair criticism really, and Photographic just so happens to be one of my favorite songs from the album. Having said that, I think this particular live version of the song is even better than the version that is on the album! It's a lot faster than the album version and there's much more synths in this which makes it a much more exciting track to listen to I think. The synths in this live arrangement give the track a slightly more dark flavor which is a great counterbalance to the more fluffy synthpop found on their first album. This particular performance is from the BBC show Something Else, which ran from 1978-1982 and was very much aimed at young people and featured more alternative artists (the show is perhaps best remembered for featuring Joy Division in their last TV appearance in 1979). I don't think Depeche Mode performed any other songs on Something Else although I could be wrong there. It's also one of the last Depeche Mode performances that feature founding member Vince Clarke before his departure as far as I know. The arrangement here is very similar (more or less identical really) to the original version of Photographic that appeared on the Some Bizarre album, which was actually the first ever recording of Depeche Mode to be released. You can find the original version on the very well known Some Bizarre compilation album (originally released in 1981 but reissued on CD in 2008). The compilation also contains early recordings by other groups that would become very well known such as The The, Blancmange and Soft Cell. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea though you can also find it on the Depeche Mode compilation Singles 81-85. Sadly, this particular live performance of Photographic hasn't been released officially I think. It's a pity because it's a great performance!

Pet Shop Boys - Live at the Tube 1986

As far as TV show appearances go, this is probably their most interesting TV performance that I've seen! In short, The Tube was a very popular British music show in the 80's, that concentrated on more up and coming bands or ones in their infancy (hence why all the Pet Shop Boys appearances are from 1986, they also performed Paninaro on the show). The show was innovative though because it featured live performances as opposed to the mimed ones on the slightly more mainstream Top Of The Pops. The Tonight Is Forever clip is now legendary amongst fans but the West End Girls clip was one I actually hadn't seen until very recently. To cut a long story short, I couldn't find any information about the performance; what gave it away in the end was realizing that Chris was wearing the same attire as he did for Tonight Is Forever at The Tube. Whilst reading the Tonight is Forever entry in the Please Further Listening booklet they did indeed confirm they also did West End Girls on that particular broadcast.

For those reasons, I'll assume that West End Girls at The Tube is somewhat forgotten, which is a shame because this performance of West End Girls is very unique! This is the only performance of West End Girls that features both the "Who do you think you are, Joe Stalin?" verse in the hit version (it was cut from the original version). As a bonus, it also features what some fans refer to as the hidden verse. The hidden verse is the one that appears in longer mixes of the track, such as the 10" mix, the dance mix found on Disco etc. It's the verse that starts with "You can find a place that no-one knows..." and culminates with the line "and no-one knows your name." Its one of the few times they performed that hidden verse live (I can only recall the other time being on the Performance tour in 1991). It's definitely the only time that they have performed both these segments of lyrics together though. I used to think that the Joe Stalin line was a bit corny if I'm honest but I think it was the arrangement of the original version because here they sound really good!

The second performance also is interesting but for slightly more humorous reasons. Tonight is Forever was an album track from Please that both Neil and Chris highly rated. So much so in fact that they were sure it would be the follow up single to West End Girls (the re-released version). That is, until this performance happened. There was a two hour delay between performing the two tracks, and in this time Neil drank four pints of beer due to nerves. It's important to remember that because they didn't play live concerts in their early years, their initial performances on The Tube and Old Grey Whistle Test would have been some of their first forays into live performance so I'm sure their nerves were at fever pitch. Due to the drinking though, Neil's vocals sounded a bit weaker (by his own admission the worst he's ever sounded). I think the first verse a bit flat but he sounds decent from the first chorus onwards. It is one of their weaker performances admittedly but I still think they are a bit hard on themselves over it. They were so embarrassed by it they decided not to release it as a single. I'd say this same embarrassment is why we've never heard this song at any of their concerts other than as a brief introduction to the Discovery tour.

I can understand why Tonight is Forever wasn't on Ultimate. I mean it's interesting to watch if you are a fan but as an actual live performance its hardly their best. West End Girls though on the other hand is a rare little gem that I think definitely needs more attention, not having that on Ultimate was a mixed opportunity I think!

Little gems from London Calling

So last night I watched two really interesting shows: London Calling and London Songs at the BBC. The documentary was hosted by Jools Holland and told a history of London through various songs written about places in the city. What was a real treat though was the second show which was essentially a compilation of various performances of songs written about London. I just love watching those sort of compilation shows for the variety of music. The two highlights for me though (as well as Pet Shop Boys performing West End Girls naturally) were these: Blur's For Tomorrow official video and a performance of London Calling  by The Clash but this time it was by Joe Strummer and the Mescalero's.  It's quite a bittersweet performance too I think as it was only two years before Joe sadly died rather suddenly in December of 2002. It's actually made me all the more eager to watch The Future is Unwritten. My only criticism is that it would have been amazing if, instead of showing For Tomorrow they showed Damon Albarn and Ray Davies together singing Waterloo Sunset/Parklife as it's a stellar performance. Never the less, both shows were so interesting!

From the Archives...

A bit of a non-post really, but last night I was watching two very interesting musical shows: London Calling and London Songs at The BBC. The documentary aimed to tell a history of London's history through various songs written about it. I loved the second show which was a compilation of various performances of songs written about London. Naturally great songs like Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks and London Calling by The Clash were featured, but it's always lovely to see Pet Shop Boys on one of these shows, this time with one of their TOTP appearances performing West End Girls (obviously). Many of you will have already seen it no doubt, but its always lovely to see them on such shows as they can be ignored somewhat I feel.