Ultravox!: Live At The Rainbow 1977 – UK – STREAM [2021]
- I Came Back Here To Meet You
- Modern Love
- Slipaway
- T.V. Orphans
- I Won’t Play Your Game
- Wide Boys
- Satday Night In The City of the Dead
- The Wild, The Beautiful, And The Damned
- Dangerous Rhythm
Against all odds, the recent news of this live Ultravox! recording from 1977 has emerged of late to bamboozle This Monk with its bounty of vintage ‘Vox goodness. There are three titles here that are new to my eyes. “I Came Back Here To Meet You” and “I Won’t Play Your Game” are undoubtedly unheard material. The remaining one, “TV Orphans,” would not surprise me if it were an early live recording of the abrasive “Fear In The Western World.” A song that featured the lyric “TV orphans laugh at the confusion.”
The fact that UMG has, after 44 years of sitting on this asset, decided to release it, seemingly at a random point, is astonishing to me. The gig was one where the band were opening for their higher profile lablemates Eddie + The Hot Rods. Universal says that the “digital audio only” EP will be released on Friday, March 19th. And that’s not the least of it. Seven of the nine songs here were filmed as well and HD restored video tracks will also be available. Presumably on Y** T*b*. UMG stated that the first of these will premiere on February 15th with “I Came Back Here To Meet You.” And a different track will be released on a weekly basis.
Color me astonished.
While there’s a mountain of such performances in the UMG archives, awaiting care and attention, somehow this one, with a Foxx era gig has managed to get the nod in spite of no great commercial shakes from this phase of the band’s career. Ultravox! must have an angel at UMG watching over them for such things to happen!
So we’re on board with how wonderful this all is. On the face of it. What causes vexation is the various whispers of its availability of format. At first, the UMG webpage for this release had links to actually buy as well as listen to it on Sp*t*fy.
But any links on that page to purchase are now strictly 404. So maybe the DL option was first mooted and has now been tabled? I’m crestfallen that this will be a streaming only release, since we don’t stream. It’s bad enough that the videos will probably only be available on the onerous Y** T*b*. If this had happened 15 years ago a sweet CD + DVD surely would have been the end of it all. But now it looks like a case of watch/listen now while we let you and then withdraw it. Sigh.
But don’t be shocked at the red vinyl LP that gets the nod on some Record Store Day or Black Friday event! Whose a betting person here?
-30 –
Post-Punk Monk 
German TV recordings of TV orphans / I wont play your game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2tj7L4hX8o
Came Back Here To Meet You : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogq8flFl9yo
The link on the https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/ultravox-live-rainbow-february-1977/ page is incorrect – shows as ultravox.ink.to/LATR change the “ink” to “lnk” to give correct link as ultravox.lnk.to/LATR
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David Lusman – Many thanks, sir! But the correct link was to the Sp*t*fy signup page. I was hoping for the promised, but not delivered “buy” link. Maybe something will manifest later?
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Those videos are from the Rainbow gig in question, not from German TV.
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Correct – but they where shown on German TV :)
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When I just checked, both of the youtube links above simply say “This video is private.” #sadface
Yes, the UMG page now only has a link to Sp*t*fy, nothing else. I’m hoping it’s not an exclusive — generally record companies release to both of the two major services. I dislike Sp*t*fy for reasons related to their industry-low rate of royalty payments (I cut a mini-rant that would have gone here on that topic). Also they can’t seem to make money despite having a huge base of “paid” listeners alongside their free tier. But I digress.
I am well aware that streaming now makes up 80 percent of record industry revenue, so there’s little incentive for UMG to bother with a CD or even vinyl, but at least (allegedly) the videos will at some point be available to capture and enjoy. One hopes irrevocable damage to “physical media music” won’t be done before the pendulum swings back in the predictable Great Over-Subscribed Backlash and Resulting Industr(ies) Depression.
As someone who enjoys the benefits of both selective streaming services and buying SDLX CD sets, Blu-ray DVDs, et al, being selective about what to keep and what to “rent” is the key IMO, but I can already see that the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) amongst people who live for certain artists/tv shows/entertainment/fitness/news options is driving a frenzy of subscription that will inevitably tip back when people tot up every service they are paying for and figure out they’re overspending.
Anyway, if UMG won’t release this on physical media, maybe Rubellen Remasters will be up to the task …
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I’ve been seeing an uptick of this lately, at least when it comes to Amazon’s mp3 site…they may just not have the landing page up and running, or the URL has changed, and in the process the link might be off. Pretty sure it’ll be updated closer to the drop date.
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Jon Chaisson – Well, these are some encouraging words. Let’s see what we get in March.
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Thanks for this. Love your writings on U-Vox!
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the press music reviews – Then you’ve come to the right blog! Thanks right back at you.
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Just give us the CD. how hard can it be? and while your’re at it give us the ” Live in St Albans” on a single disc as well.
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Ade.W – Apparently, very hard. Making things and selling them is both a risk, and WORK. Labels say “waaaaaah!”
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It’s also on Deezer and with the help of a lovely little app I’ve been able to download 4 of the tracks already… in high quality flac.
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Blob – Like the man said… whatever gets you through the night! If the market won’t provide, there are alternatives. I’ve not even heard of Deezer. That’s how OLD I am.
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I’d buy the CD/LP DVD yesterday if they’d release it.
I don’t have any problems with a cheeky flac download.
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Blob – Right?! Like I said, I’d be on a CD/DVD like white on rice. I’d even buy a DL and DL video if that’s what it came to. But I just don’t stream. Doesn’t fit my life. We only just got a flat screen TV that replaced the old CRT because most movies we want to see aren’t in cinemas or on DVD any more. But streaming a movie is something I’ll do once. Not a big deal. Not important, like music is!
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I’m late to this party but, Monk, I hope you put your bet down as, guess what, the vinyl LP is to be released on Record Store Day 2022! https://recordstoreday.co.uk/media/jokfnpi5/rsd-list-pdf-08-03-22.pdf
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Richard Anvil – I know! That didn’t take too much psychic power, did it? But the big doubleshock was that it will be sold here in America’s RSD as well! But still annoyed that there’s no CD/DVD package.
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