Magazine – BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert | 1993 – 3

I was totally surprised when I came across this live mini-album. I was trolling the FNAC bins in Madrid in 1999 when I happened upon this little puppy, which I immediately snatched up! It doesn’t have the greatest cover, but among its many virtues is that it was the best venue of its time for presenting Magazine, live in high quality with John McGeoch on guitar. Only the three cuts from the 1st leg of the “Soap” tour that surfaced on the “Sweetheart Contract” single could make that claim before this.

The November, 1978 recording begins with a strong take of “Definitive Gaze” and contains four other cuts from “Real Life” as well as the single “Give Me Everything, which was released just days before this concert. The program is in the style of the transcription discs of the period, with a solid half hour of in concert material. Finally, the program also features a preview of “Back To Nature,” from their second album “Secondhand Daylight,” which would not see release for another four months until March of 1979.

“Great Beautician In The Sky” is typically powerful, and this disc is the only place where the song appears live. “My Tulpa” was also unique to this disc live at the point of its release, but now the 2xCD RM of “Play” contains another ’78 recording of that song. The real keeper on this program is the early recording of “Back To Nature.” It’s the strongest number here, and the style of Dave Formula’s electric piano strongly recalls the keyboard sound Roxy Music went for two years later on their “Flesh + Blood” album, albeit with an emotional intensity closer to “For Your Pleasure.” In this way, the students now seemed to be teaching the masters.

This is a hot little glimpse of a concert from the time that Magazine seemed to have a bright future ahead of them. A time before the critical backlash that accompanied their sophomore album a few months later. Until the 2009 2xCD RM of “Play,” with a whole CD worth of material from this era of the band, this disc was the most sterling testament to the vibrant guitar of John McGeoch live with Magazine.

Next: Further raiding the BBC archives…