XTC: BBC Radio Live Concert (1980)

The bounty of out-of-print XTC rarities will run dry but not at any time soon - enjoy this BBC concert from 1980 and keep your great COMMENTS coming!





Recorded 22nd December 1980 at the Hammersmith Palais, London

Tracklist
1         Life Begins At The Hop     3:55    
2         Burning With Optimism's Flame     4:24    
3         Love At First Sight     3:10    
4         Respectable Street     3:51    
5         No Language In Our Lungs     4:59    
6         This Is Pop     2:49    
7         Scissors Man     4:49    
8         Towers Of London     5:23    
9         Battery Brides     7:18    
10         Living Through Another Cuba     3:29    
11         Generals And Majors     4:28    
12         Making Plans For Nigel     4:29    
13         Are You Receiving Me?

So do you want to hear more rare XTC, MRML readers?  If so, let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the BBC Live link).

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Graham Parker & The Rumour Reunion OFFICIAL! (Plus Live in SF '76!!)

So the Graham Parker has officially re-joined forces with The Rumour and they have an album and two films on the go for 2012. The first film is the oft-delayed documentary "Don't Ask Me Questions" by Michael Gramaglia and the second is a Judd Aptow comedy, "This is Forty" in which the GP and the band figure prominently in the story line. The whole story (well worth the read by the way) is here and for LOTS more Parker on MRML go HERE.




To celebrate what is a fantastic thing for music fans and everybody involved in the aforementioned projects here is a crisp-as-hell-sounding GP + R show from back in the day:

GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR
THE SAVOY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA
NOVEMBER 7, 1976
KSAN-FM PRE-FM PRODUCTION TAPE

01. white honey
02. that's what they all say
03. fool's gold
04. turned up too late
05. something you're goin' through
06. pour it all out
07. back to schooldays
08. hotel chambermaid
09. heat treatment
10. don't ask me questions
11. not if it pleases me
12. help me shake it
13. soul shoes
14. kansas city
15. hold back the night

Let us know what you think of the Graham Parker and the Rumour reunion in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the San Francisco, 1976 link).

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XTC: All Along the Watchtower

(To see my list of Ten Amazing XTC Videos please visit the The Big Takeover.)

For a band who are notorious for being almost too English for their own good, XTC's early work has strong American influences. You can hear the art-funk sound of  NYC's Talking Heads, the herky-jerky rock-deconstruction of Akron's Devo plus of the very few artists XTC ever covered one would be Californian Captain Beefheart (on the B-side of "The Mayor of Simpleton" single) and of course America's most towering song-writer, Bob Dylan*.

The band's version of the oft-butchered, "All Along the Watchtower" employs some of  the electric fury of Hendrix's version and some the harmonica wail of Dylan's original acoustic one but to it all they bring an incredible nervous energy and a love of odd dynamics that makes it sound like no one else's version of the song.





For more on XTC go HERE.

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*(And yes, their cover "All Along the Watchtower" on their debut album is preceded by a paean to the "Statute of Liberty".)

The Kik: My Eyes Are Still Dry 7" (2011)

The Kik are a retro-minded Dutch power pop band, albeit one who, befitting their name, bring the necessary kickage to make sure their songs don't float away on a cloud of jangle.






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P.S. Much more XTC to come...

XTC: Rainbow Drops and Finger Pops

"Malking Plans for Nigel" from XTC's 1979 album "Drums and Wires" is one of the defining songs of the new wave era for me, alongside The Police's "Can't Stand Losing You", Split Enz's "I See Red", Squeeze's  "Misadventure" and Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man". These relentlessly up-tempo songs with choppy guitar, catchy choruses, conspicuous keyboards and deliberate quirkiness did much to fuck up my taste in music forever.

Rainbow Drops & Finger Pops - Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, UK, 1979-09-17 is another lavish XTC bootleg - worth getting just for the packaging alone never mind the kinetic live performance from the band near their peak:





01 Beatown
02 Real By Reel
03 The Rhythm
04 Roads Girdle The Globe
05 Science Friction
06 Life Begins At the Hop
07 Helicopter
08 Battery brides
09 Making Plans For Nigel
10 Scissor Man
11 Instant Tunes
12 Outside World
13 Life Is Good In The Greenhouse
14 Crowded Room
15 Radios In Motion
16 Are You Receiving Me?
17 Set Myself On Fire
18 Meccanik Dancing
19 This Is Pop
20 Dance Band
21 Statue Of Liberty

Love or hate the designation, what are your defining 'new wave' songs? Le us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the link for Rainbow Drops and Finger Pops CD).

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