Three weeks ago we got another missive from the John Foxx mothership. There was a new compilation LP gathering up all of the “Metamatic” era singles/B-sides and adjacent music on a good old fashioned black vinyl LP. 140 g one hopes. Metamatic has been busy this year with the LPs as this is the fourth one issued and it’s only June! It’s called “No One Driving” and it looks very familiar.
Metamatic | UK | LP | 2025 | META81LP
John Foxx: No-One Driving – UK – LP [2025]
Underpass (Single Edit)
Film One
No-One Driving (Single Version)
Glimmer
Mr. No
This City
Burning Car
20th Century
Cinemascope
To Be With You
Miles Away
A Long Time
All of the A-side mixes/edits and B-sides are accounted for and the two extra songs were taken from cassettes and notes and completed by Foxx for the 2007 2xCD DLX RM of “Metamatic” and have been associated with the mothership era ever since. The cover pic taken from the “No-One Driving” single sleeve makes it look dangerously close to the 1981 Canadian compilation simply called “John Foxx” and also compiled from that album era/campaign.
The LP will be released on September 12th, 2025 and to herald its appearance Foxx will be doing in-store signings in the UK. I have already ordered this and the “Evidence” LP that I was slacking on for too long today, but if it’s your turn then DJ hit that button.
JOHN FOXX IN-STORE SIGNING | UK
Friday, Sept 12 | Rough Trade East | London
Saturday, Sept. 13 | Sister Ray | London
Monday, Sept. 15 | Rough Trade | Bristol
NEU METAMATIC T-SHIRT
If you’re strapped for appropriate Foxxian garb to wear to those UK signing events, then you might be just be the target audience for a new “Metamatic” T-shirt design that 1of100 is currently offering.
A limited edition for the cognoscenti
1of100, as their name implies, make limited run, numbered T-shirts of whatever they design. The shirts are numbered from 1 to 100 on presumably the wooden button that is attached near the hem of each shirt. The interesting thing is that any buyer gets to pick the number they want. For a limited run organic cotton T-shirt the £48.00 asking price is not terribly onerous. If I didn’t have the more beautiful full color blue tee [with the full neon tube “M” that Metamatic produced many years ago and I bought for myself, because I HAD TO, I would probably want one of these! But if you want one know that there’s only three left! Numbers 72-74, for some reason. DJ hit THAT button!
Here’s another salvo of tour shirts that I once called mine before a cabinet filled to overflowing forced a culling of the casual wear one is most likely to see this Monk when encountering me in what used to be called “meat-space.” What do they call reality now? The lackluster images are the actual photos I took for the eBay postings with the second gen 1.3 MP first digital camera we got in 2001.
Looking at this garish wonder of a shirt now, I must have been sick in the head to even consider parting with this bad boy! With the electric lavender, pink, and sickly green color palette it screamed bad taste. The essence of The Cramps, yes? Plus it had the dates on the back [Orlando is at the bottom of column 2] and the show was actually on the design. It’s not always like that owing to liquid tour planning.
In 1990 I had waited a whole decade from first becoming a fan before finally seeing The Cramps live. What felt like an impossible slog through time back then! Four years later, Bryan Ferry would finally happen after a 20 year span! In 2025, I’m looking to see my first DEVO show after 47 years of fandom. Surely a record I won’t see beaten in my lifetime as DEVO date back to the year I first got a stereo.
The show had Flat Duo Jets opening and was a bracing cocktail for the senses. Watching Lux Interior climb the stacked amps in size 12 FMPs was borderline painful; waiting for the seemingly inevitable fall and splatter onstage of the practically nude frontman. The Cramps were having a moment in the sun with the “Stay Sick!” album. Where they were possibly at their peak of popularity.
It was six years after becoming smitten with them until Cocteau Twins finally did a tour of the States large enough to actually catch. I flew to Atlanta to see the show with my Atlanta friend Jeffrey [who graciously put me up in his parent’s home] as we were thrilled to see Les Cocteaux.
This was a wonderful show at Center Stage; a well-appointed PAC of modest size where I once had tickets to see a David Sylvian show that never happened. We waited to catch the band after the show and were able to chat for a minute with Liz Frazier. Telling her what it meant to us to see them live. No autographs; that would have been wrong.
This is a beautiful shirt. It’s kind of a shame that I let this one go. It’s the only cover art of theirs that was not by 23 Envelope that still looked fabulous. Of all the Cocteau Twins albums, I think that maybe I should have kept three: “Head Over Heels,” “Treasure,” and this one. But space is at a premium in the Record Cell. I’d not played any Cocteau Twins in twenty years I’m guessing.
Webb Wilder: Doo Dad 1993
This was another Webb Wilder shirt I bought that first night I saw them. I got the “It Came From Nashville” color design and the second of two “Doo Dad” shirts. I kind of went hog wild, I guess! But it was Webb Wilder! He once helped put a rubber stamp truck driving school out of business!
This “Doo Dad” shirt featured a guitar pick design with the bottlecap “Doo Dad” man from the back cover. With Webb’s tagline “pick up on it.” And The Credo on back.
I was sort of a KMFDM fan as I was listening to a lot of “Industrial” music in the late 80s-early 90s. For this I blame Cabaret Voltaire and though the band were prolific I ended up wanting more. The trouble was; most of the bands in that space were not Cab Volt! Worse yet, after a while, neither were they!
I had always loved the single “More + Faster” that I’d videotaped off of 120 minutes. When I saw that KMFDM were coming to Orlando, I bought a handful of their releases and got ready. I was working at a company doing computer-based training then and one of the interns also liked “Industrial” music, so we saw here there with her boyfriend. She did not know Killing Joke so I made her a mix tape and saved her life!
KMFDM tickets were ridiculously inexpensive – $5 as I recall, and the band were playing at “J.J. Whispers,” a huge night club complex where we rarely ventured for either dancefloors or gigs. The band by 1992 were right on the cusp of becoming a Metal act as the cross pollination of guitars into Industrial was souring the machinenmusik that had originally attracted my ear as Aggro at any cost was becoming the norm. So there were no other KMFDM shows in my future.
But this was a long sleeved tour shirt with the Virgil Finlay-esque cover art by BRUTE for the “More + Faster” single! I had to have it – especially since the ticket price was so low I felt guilty. The lyric quote on the back was certainly congruent with my sentiments.
One of two Chris Isaak shirts I bought when seeing him the second time at the Orlando Arena opening for Tina Turner in 1993. Chris and the band worked hard to make the 18,000 seat box feel more clublike as he and saxman Johnny Reno went wireless in the stands. After their set Chris told the audience to come to the merch table and say “hi” which never happens at an arena show!
So I did. I bought another design that Chris signed and drew a caricature of himself on it which I still have. But it’s getting pretty long in tooth by this time! This would be the second time I bought a Tina Turner ticket just to see the opening act having previously seen Level 42 open for her in 1987 on their “Running In The Family” tour. I never saw Tina Turner ever. And now I’m selling off most of my Chris Isaak and Level 42 collections! ironic, no?
This was from the second Man or ASTROman? concert I attended with my soon-to-be wife on our first “big date” in early 1995. We trekked to Tampa and saw MOAM play in the Stone Lounge. It was inside of a former gas station and was a very cool Punk Rock club with oodles of charm. By this time I may have been an official member of the MOAM Fan Club! The only music fan club I ever joined! You got T-shirts, membership card, various ephemera, and most importantly, a discount at the merch table, which I definitely took! For at least seven years I bought every MOAM 7″ single I saw; which was quite a lot! I liquidated them to help fund the big European tour last year.
Dick Dale was a name I remembered from my early childhood in Santa Monica, California. One of my friends would go on about Dick Dale all the time, and when I saw he was playing at The Junkyard, a big Rock/Blues club in Casselberry, Florida, I made sure to go with him and his girlfriend. My friend Sandra and her fiancee might have been there as well – my memory is a bit fuzzy. So I was expecting an evening a fun surf guitar.
What we got was POWER. The sheer power of Dick melting picks on his high gauge strings as this total guitar badass was pinning us back against the wall. Never before had I seen a show that so clearly leapfrogged my expectations by a factor of at least 20! It was all I could talk about for a month afterward! THIS was the power of music writ large. A life changing moment as this lifelong music fan finally felt the earth move under my feet. I can get pretty analytical about music and my relationship to it but this concert dared me to get slack-jawed afterward.
It helped that Dick said less than 20 words for the first half of the show. He totally let the music do the talking. Afterward he unzipped his mouth and got pretty loquacious. We all stayed behind afterward and talked with him like meth-heads, probably. Dick was an unbelievable 55 years of age then.
The show was so white hot that we told all of our friends about it and trekked to Tampa the next night with pals Rick and Jenny in tow. If Sandra and Dan weren’t there that first night they definitely went to Tampa on the second. Dick was playing the WMNF-FM Tropical Heatwave Festival and we didn’t regret the travel one bit. And it was hilarious seeing Man or ASTROman heckling Dick from the same crowd we were in.
I bought two T-shirts at The Junkyard and a VHS video I still have. I also still have the classic Tribal Thunder shirt as autographed by Dick. Dick thought that his fans who followed him around needed a name, hence this design.
Here’s more proof that almost all I need is available in the Bandcamp ecosystem. Last weekend the artist used the contact form on the website and while I had a spare moment, I was able to immediately sample and yes, buy their new EP, just released on May 30. As the world is spiraling into chaos and darkness like I’ve never seen in my lifespan, Thalie Némésis is producing the soundtrack to resist the horror.
Militaristic rhythm and drone paint a bleak image as the bass strums low and deep. A flute patch adds a contrapuntal Eastern unease to the music as the gently distorted guitar increases the tension. Which ebbs and flows in the song as Thalie sings the resolute lyric of defiance. Until the point the drums and the guitar escalate the tension into a harsh release for the final word. It’s a powerful piece as you can hear below.
“I will silence you I will erase you I will reduce you To nothing more Than a language Without sound A mirage Just as you did to me”
A Barbaric Language
“A Demi-Mots”[half-words] began with a compelling rhythm as Thalie sang in French on this song. Building the tension of the song subtly and slowly. Allowing the tension to slightly release with a watery guitar vibrato before the guitar and drums began to howl and thrash like a trapped beast. Leading into the still darker mood of “Acedia Is My Partner In Crime.” Spinning a web of palpable dread with the insect-like chittering of the rhythm track. As the song unfolded, one could sense the horizon tilting as the ground beneath our feet began to give way to the inevitable, imminent collapse that we could not forestall.
Tympani rhythms and howling synths conspired to place “Cassandra [Le Baiser De La Fin]” in a space adjacent to Gary Numan’s excellent “Absolution” single that I always liked. As Thalie recounted the tragedy of Cassandra, offering prophesy ultimately unheard, slashing guitars added their sting to the chaotic, roiling mix.
“No Surrender” began via rhythm guitar untied with an Armenian zurna for a churning mixture of Eastern and Western textures to disrupt and unsettle our expectations. Pounding drums juxtaposed against pizzicato strings mixed delicacy and brutality into a paradoxical cocktail of delicacy and force. The percussive movement of the middle eight offered a calm within the storm before the song turned back on itself to build to its climax before ultimately dropping out except for the dying embers of a loop fading out.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Thalia was drawing from Greek and Armenian traditions in creating “Catarsi Apotropaica,” or “apotropaic catharsis.” An incantation to banish curses and dark omens. Such as what haunts the land currently. More we can’t ask from music. To engage with the difficult work of righteous living in a time where fear, corruption, and mayhem drip down the walls of this mad world.
Thalie brought a voice to the music here that reminded me of Curve’s Toni Halliday. It fit the Eastern modalities at play very well, and it hardly mattered whether she was singing in French or English as the intent came through loud and clear. We are eager to see where she goes next on her journey. But is it our tragedy to ignore the voice of this Modern Cassandra? Not if we invest the $6.00 to buy this EP at bandcamp! DJ hit that button.
On the cusp of a second culling I’m considering of the Tour Shirt collection, we’re looking at the shirts sold off during the first cull in 2007. A surprising number of these were of what I’d call core collection bands; bands where I bought every single track they released, as in the case of Cocteau Twins. And yet, the fact that I was willing to sell off precious tour shirts surely telegraphed the huge CD cull I’m currently in the middle of organizing. It’s 18 years later and it’s no shock that every one of my Cocteau Twins releases [save for the one with Harold Budd] are also on the chopping block. With Cocteau Twins, they were absolutely crucial to me from 1983 to about ten years later. After that, I doubt I’ve ever played a single one of their discs more than four times. Images, as ever, are from the actual eBay auctions from where I sold them off.
The last time I saw Cocteau Twins was in Tampa at The Ritz in 1994. Their latest album, “Four Calendar Cafe” was not compelling to me. It was still Cocteau Twins, and I was still all-in on buying the tour shirts, obviously. This black one was a colorful design that was a riff on the rather uninteresting cover art, which was not by 23 Envelope any longer.
I disliked wearing this one in Florida since the heavy ink coverage on half the shirt made this one a bear to wear in the hot, sweltering Florida climate. Leading me to only wear this during the so-called winter the state barely had. That was a very practical consideration one had to have when planning your T-shirt wardrobe.
I had seen INXS three times. The first, on the “Kick” tour was fantastic. PiL opened, and was value for the ticket right there. But the band were as hot as they would ever be as their over-the-top commercial breakthrough took them from stardom to super stardom. For about five years, INXS could do no wrong as they were one of the most popular Rock bands on the planet and were, surprisingly, also one of the best. It doesn’t always flow like that!
Then I saw the “X” tour in Daytona Beach which was almost as strong, for an album I liked even better. When INXS were coming to Tampa in 1993, it was a foregone conclusion that I would be there, but crucially, I never bought the “Full Moon Dirty Hearts” album. Friends swore to me that I should pass it up. To this day I’ve not heard it. The show was in the worst venue in Florida, the USF Sundome. A college sports arena extremely ill-suited to music enjoyment. Every show I saw there was vexing, but it didn’t help that INXS were falling hard off of their pedestal on this album. Still, I bought the shirt. And sold if off!
I finally got to see Duran Duran in 1993 after being a fan for 13 years. That was the year they staged a dramatic comeback with twin top 10 singles from their strong “Wedding Album.” They also played the USF ScumDome with a highly theatrical show that kind of overpowered the music presentation, if I’m honest. It was early in the life of the album as their commercial fortunes were on the uptake after some years in the doldrums. That tour would continue for three legs and bigger and better venues would beckon.
I went a little hog wild on the tour shirts I bought. The previous year I made “collecting” Duran Duran my hobby after seemingly finishing up on Ultravox [or so I thought!] and their resurgent popularity was unexpected to me though I dove in deep and for a few years bought hundreds of DD discs. This full-wrap “photo booth” shirt with the art silk-screened on the fabric before cutting and sewing was a fantastic design that when looking at it now, makes me regret selling it off, in all candor. If you pair black ink with a metallic color [gold in this case] you can make a strong reduced palette that really pops visually.
I bought more than just T-shirts at that table. There was also a very luxe tour book, a cloisonne pin, and even a Duran Duran condom.
SIOUXSIE + THE BANSHEES: Bootleg design
I saw Siouxsie + The Banshees once. In 1987 on the “Twice Upon A Time” tour. Three years before I started buying tour shirts, so I never got a chance to buy a Siousxie + The Banshees T-shirt. Yet, when I saw this presumably bootleg Siouxsie design in an Atlanta record store, using a great Derek Ridgers photo session from 1988 with Siouxsie styled as Bastet; the Egyptian cat goddess, I, er, pounced on it.
WEBB WILDER: It Came From Nashville Reissue 1993
I first encountered Webb Wilder in a short film; my favorite short film ever! “Webb Wilder Private Eye In – The Saucer’s Reign!” I saw the first WW album a few years later but only on LP. I started buying his albums with #2 and onward on CD. Webb Wilder is a roots rocker with a sideline in comedy acting and I loved how he blurred the line between a music career and a colorful character featured in the short films of Stephen Mims.
The first time I saw Webb Wilder and The Beatnecks was a the Sapphire Supper Club and my friend and I could hardly believe we were seeing the man in the flesh. It is music that rides the razor’s edge between Country and Rock with no shortage of expertise. I went ape on the shirts on the merch table and this was the four color version of the “It Came From Nashville” artwork. That tour had the debut album finally reissued on CD which I also bought that night. Along with other shirts as well.
WEBB WILDER: Doo Dad 1993
That night I first saw Webb Wilder was technically with the “Doo Dad” album as his latest release. So I bought a few shirts for that album as well. The first was a surreal image of a gator swatting a stick man from the booklet of the CD. It had, like all Webb Wilder T-shirts, the Webb Wilder Credo on the back side. You know that band is special when they actually bother to have a credo.
The heather shirt also had one of my favorite design features: printing on the sleeve! In this case the “Doo Dad” man made of bottlecaps on the back of the CD. The garish pink lettering really stood out on the heather shirt.
I spent a lot of the 90s seeing surf bands extensively. Next to Grunge or Techno, it was a no-brainer! Man Or AstroMan were sort of “Punk Surf” with riotous live shows bursting with lo-tech multimedia overkill! All the better to enhance their wiseguy, sample-ridden material filled to bursting with grade-Z sci-fi hoo-hah!
The first time I saw them was as the band [who had just finished their own set] were heckling Dick Dale from the audience I was also a part of in 1993 at WMNF-FM Tampa’s Tropical Heatwave Festival. I would soon near their nitro-burning surf music shortly afterward on college radio and seeing them live became a must! When I saw that they were playing at The Covered Dish in Gainesville in 1994, I drove up there from Orlando to see the show.
A group of fans and I were chatting with the band before the show. Besides where to find good vegetarian dining in Gainesville, the hot topic was of the then-current “Star Trek Generations” film that united [somehow] the Classic Trek and Next Generation cast in the same misbegotten film! They were dubious. And right. They thoughtfully recorded and released the actual concert as the “Live: Transmissions From Uranus” album so now we can all hear the results!
Live, they props onstage [tesla coil!] as well as a host of TVs playing back several lurid sci-fi movies during their set, but also a 16 mm sci-fi film unspooling behind the stage on a scrim! Their AV geek dedication to their art was second to none! They spent as much time setting up and breaking down the stage as they did playing.
While I was stunned by the realization yesterday, that I was finally going to get to see Lene Lovich perform live…along with DEVO as as a bonus [!!], in came the missive from Spandau Ballet Central that coming soon was something else we’d have to save our shekels for if we wanted a copy. An expansive box covering the first two album period of the band from 1978 to 1982. Certainly the bullseye where my interests in the band lay most strongly at this point and time. Due for release on Sept 11, 2025. Just a few months down the road.
I was an early passenger on the Spandau Ballet train. I’d been hooked…hard, on Ultravox’s game-changing “Vienna” album by late 1980. Soon afterward, I caught wind of another band that Chrysalis had signed to capitalize on the New Romantic trend that seemed to follow in Ultravox’s wake. So as soon as “Journeys To Glory” was released in America, I was on a copy like white on rice. As compared to Ultravox, this band were sheer greenhorns. I was non-plussed by it all and wrote the band off as hype. I felt that there was more musical inventiveness and excitement in any single minute of any track on “Vienna” than in ten copies of “Journeys To Glory.” I moved on.
By the summer of 1981 I saw that Spandau Ballet had pivoted towards Funk from the New Romantic sound they began with. I was dismissive of it at the time and what I’d heard from the second album, 1982’s “Diamond,” was nothing that I thought I was interested in. It wasn’t until I heard the Vegas Soul of the song “Lifeline” that I thought the band were making anything for my ears. I bought the US 12″ remix single, followed by the great “True” album and was on the cusp of actually becoming a fan. Then seeing the “Live Over Britain” concert on MTV gave me a shove and I fell hard for the band. I worked my way backward and quickly came to treasurethe deeply odd [at the very least] “Diamond” album.
I then embarked on a program of buying all of the Spandau Ballet I could find and almost 60 discs later, have a rather large Spandau Ballet collection. Which I rendered down into a comprehensive BSOG [with DVD!] sixteen years ago. Now the band have crossed the line into a multi-disc box that looks set to put the 2010 2xCD remasters of their canon very much in the shade. They only had a smattering of the commensurate tracks and were brickwall mastered for poor sound. Frankly, it looks like they are following the lead of the three figure David Bowie career boxes; albeit with mixed formats. Covering a period of their career in some depth. It wouldn’t be the first time they were chasing after Bowie!
ALL YOU NEED IS ‘EVERYTHING IS NOW’
Oh dear…one of those LPs + bonus tracks on CD hybrid boxes that drive us batty
Spandau Ballet: Everything Is Now – The Early years 1978-1982 – UK – 2xLP + 6xCD + Blu-Ray + Book + T-Shirt [2025]
JOURNEYS TO GLORY LP
To Cut A Long Story Short
Reformation
Mandolin
Muscle Bound
Age Of Blows
The Freeze
Confused
Toys
DIAMOND LP
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)
Instinction
Paint Me Down
Coffee Club
She Loved Like Diamond
Pharaoh
Innocence And Science
Missionary
CD1 | JOURNEYS TO GLORY | SINGLES, REMIXES & VERSIONS
To Cut A Long Story Short (7” A-side)
The Freeze (7″ Version A-side)
Muscle Bound (7″ Version A-side)
Glow (7″ Version AA-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Version)
The Freeze (Version 7” B-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Mix 1 A-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Version) (Mix 2)
The Freeze (12” A-side)
The Freeze (Special Mix 12” B-side)
Glow (12″ Version)
Muscle Bound (12” B-side)
CD2 | DIAMOND | SINGLES, REMIXES & VERSIONS
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)(7” A-side)
Paint Me Down (7” A-side)
She Loved Like Diamond (7” A-side)
Instinction (7” Trevor Horn Version)
Feel The Chant (Short – 7” B-side)
Man With Guitar (B-Side of Paint Me Down)
Gently (B-Side of Instinction)
She Loved Like Diamond (Instrumental B-side)
Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)
Feel The Chant (Long – 12” B-side)
Paint Me Down (12″ A-side)
Re Paint (12” B-side)
CD3 | DIAMOND | 12” REMIXES FOR 1981 BOX S ET
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) (Remix)
Instinction (Remix)
Paint Me Down (Remix)
Coffee Club (Remix)
She Loved Like Diamond (Remix)
Pharaoh (Remix)
Innocence And Science (Remix)
Missionary (Remix)
CD4 | BBC SESSION 1981 / BBC IN CONCERT – BOURNEMOUTH 1982
The Freeze [BBC Session]
Mandolin [BBC Session]
Muscle Bound [BBC Session]
Glow [BBC Session]
The Freeze [live UK]
She Loved Like Diamond [live UK]
To Cut A Long Story Short [live UK]
Glow [live UK]
Paint Me Down [live UK]
Instinction / Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [live UK]
CD5 | BBC IN CONCERT | PARIS THEATRE 1982
Instinction (Version 1) [live Paris]
The Freeze [live Paris]
She Loved Like Diamond [live Paris]
To Cut A Long Story Short [live Paris]
Pharoah [live Paris]
Glow [live Paris]
Muscle Bound [live Paris]
Confused [live Paris]
Paint Me Down [live Paris]
Coffee Club [live Paris]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [live Paris]
Instinction (Version 2) [live Paris]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) (Reprise) [live Paris]
CD6 | DEMOS
Toys [1979 demo]
Age Of Blows [1979 demo]
Eyes [1979 demo]
To Cut A Long Story Short [1980 demo]
The Freeze [1980 demo]
Confused [1980 demo]
Reformation [1980 demo]
BLU-RAY | DOLBY ATMOS | PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS | AND LIVE PERFORMANCES
To Cut A Long Story Short [Steven Wilson remixes]
The Freeze [Steven Wilson remixes]
Muscle Bound [Steven Wilson remixes]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [Steven Wilson remixes]
Paint Me Down [Steven Wilson remixes]
Instinction [Steven Wilson remixes]
To Cut A Long Story Short [music video]
The Freeze [music video]
Muscle Bound [music video]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [music video]
Paint Me Down [music video]
She Loved Like Diamond [music video]
Instinction [music video]
She Loved Like Diamond[OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST/1982]
Coffee Club[OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST/1982]
Interview at the Underground Club with Pat Wadsley [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Intro/Jim Fouratt [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
The Freeze [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Mandolin [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Reformation [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Toys [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Age Of Blows [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Muscle Bound [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Confused [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
To Cut A Long Story Short [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Glow [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
To Cut a Long Story Short. 26th July 1980 [HMS Belfast footage]
44 pp. Autographed Coffee [Club] Table Book
T-Shirt
Yes, it’s true that the planners of this box were obviously looking towards the ethos behind the Go-Betweens boxed sets that managed to pair the albums on LP and the numerous bonus materials on CD. Making for a highly annoying [if you’re me] blurring of formats in a single package. If there’s anything actually worse than the dreaded redundant vinyl [CD and LP of a title in the same box] it’s this approach. As near as I can tell, the tracks in red are new to CD and or our ears. Importantly, every track variant on the many 7” and 12” singles are all present and accounted for. While most of the Bournemouth show is on the second disc of the 2010 DLX RM of “Diamond,” the Paris Theatre Show from late in 1982 seems to be a debut for us. I will admit that I’d like to hear that whole show and hope that I can buy those tracks in iTunes one day.
The semi-legendary boxed set of “Diamond” that was issued on 4×12″ singles is now a discrete disc all on its own.. in spite of the fact that the last three tracks are not actually remixed as the track list above states. Maybe they replicated the fades that the boxed version had. Famously, the LP segued the last three tracks on side two together for a stab at that David Bowie “Low” side two, sound.
The demos, for the most part, are making their debut. A pair of them figured on the 2002 “Reformation” 3xCD box that makes a fine single Spandau Ballet release if you’re only having one. Having heard the two earlier demos, it remains to be seen how different these might be. I found the 1980 demos to be neck and neck with the same tracks on the first album. I will call foul on the fact that CD 6 has a scanty seven demo tracks of probably no more than 30 minutes of music if I’m being generous. But it may have had to play out like that owing to the density of the preceding discs.
At first I was highly intrigued by the notion of Dolby Atmos® and 2.0/instrumental mixes of the material by the indefatigable Steven Wilson but apparently Wilson is human as he’s only remixed all six of the band’s A-sides from the period. A pity, as I’d really like to hear him take a stab at the Proggy side two of “Diamond!” “The Freeze [Steven Wilson Remix] is on iTunes now and sampling it revealed that he strongly reined in the effects overkill on Tony’s vocals! He’s no longer bellowing in our faces but instead sits within the music cohesively. He’s also simplified the mix and it sounds much warmer and subtler as it emphasized the rhythm guitars and plenty of spaciousness. All of the brittleness of the track is gone. Since it’s called “The Freeze” maybe this is an error? I actually liked what I had heard but my friend Echorich was scornful. Your mileage may vary.
The package has a nice new design using elements from the old days, courtesy of original designer Graham Smith. One unusual factor is that the covers to the LPs are not the original designs but a new one mapped to the parameters of the box itself. The sleeves to the LPs and CDs seem to have icons that look like they may be gold foil stamped for that extra posh look. Smith also designed the T-shirt and 44 pp. book that accompanies the box. They got all five members [presumably not in the same room] to sign 200 copies of the box both with and without the T-shirt as sold exclusively in the band’s web store. So I’m reading that as 400 signed copies en toto. And what’s the asking price for this package of Spansau stuff?
Doing a “Simon LeBon”
¡¡¡Madre de dios!!! They are asking $199.99 for signed box without T-shirt!!! And $224.99 for the signed box with the T-shirt. At that price, go for the T-shirt! Seeing as how I’m probably the target audience for this boxed set [hint: I already own five different pressings of “Diamond”], and also how there’s no way I’d begin to consider buying this at that price, I wonder if the mooted volume two, covering the supper club soul version of the band from ’83-’84 will ever take flight?
As for me, I have this bespoke box with most of what’s on offer here, and I’m happy to see if I can buy the Paris Theatre live tracks on iTunes. I have a huge collection of the group and I don’t think that I spent that much on the whole of it! Meanwhile, if you have more money than sense, are highly suggestible, and an early period Spandau Ballet fan, then more power to you! DJ hit that button!
AUTOGRAPHED BOX W/T-SHIRT: $224.95
STOP THE PRESSES! NO SIGNATURES/T-SHIRT: $99.98
Perceptive commenter strange_idol brought it to our attention that the US Rhino web store has the unsigned, and sans T-shirt box for sale in pre-order for the sensible…even possibly desirable charge of $99.98. Like The Brains said, Money Changes Everything. If you can stand just the music, the price is more closely aligned with the value. Just make sure you already have vintage [well mastered] CDs of “Journeys To Glory” and “Diamond,” like your friendly, neighborhood Monk and if you get this you’ll be golden. DJ hit THAT button!
Lene Lovich is now coming to 24 North American cities this Fall…with DEVO and the B-52’s and apart
Great Googley Moogley!!
Yesterday I heard in comments from strange_idol asking if I knew that Lene Lovich was the opening act on a tour with DEVO and The B-52’s teaming up even though the latter had officially “retired?” Uh, “NO!!!” I responded. Even though I am ostensibly a subscriber to the DEVO mailing list…specifically so I could know about any appearances live that could happen nearby.
But it’s true. The tour was sparked by both DEVO and The B-52’s playing at the SNL 50 concert at Radio City Music Hall and the bands, who were New Wave labelmate royalty at Warner Brothers Records back in the late 70s explosion of new sounds, finally discussed touring together for the first time in 50 years. Apart from festivals where both played, this will be the first time they have toured together. Fred Schneider was of the opinion that this needed to happen.
And this in spite of the B-52’s having stopped touring in 2022. They have a Las Vegas residency that is gentler but they apparently held out the notion that short tours might still happen. With suitable impetus. This will be eleven dates with the Spudboys. I’ve seen The B-52’s twice. Each time on two different legs of their victory lap “Cosmic Thing” tour of 1989-1990. The 3000 seat show on the front end of the album release at an Orlando PAC was fun but the 18,000 seat arena [following the smash hit status of “Love Shack”] was even more fun, surprisingly. And there it’s sat with the B-52’s since then. I did see Cindy Wilson live in 2017, though!
DEVO on the other hand have been a conspicuous band of tremendous value that I’ve never had the occasion to see live. The first time they played where I lived in 1980, I was too young to attend shows. The next time they played in Orlando it was 1988 and I stupidly thought they were past their sell-by date and did not go! And when I finally bought the “Total DEVO” album they were touring on the next year…I loved it.
There were New Years Eve shows at the Disney Pleasure Island complex in the late 90s but the tickets [even then] were a solid three figures at a time when a solid two figures was a high price for a concert. I blew them off again only for them to not play anywhere near me again. Oh, there was that Moogfest appearance in 2010 but as Bob 1 had severely cut his hand a few days before, they could not play as scheduled. Not that I was prepared fiscally to buy a festival ticket for one act anyway. By now I’d resigned myself to the fate of never seeing the crucial DEVO live in concert. And now it is finally happening. How was DEVO at the SNL 50 show, anyway? It looked like they were ripping it up!
But it was beyond a foregone conclusion that I’d never see Lene Lovich live and in concert! And I only have to drive two hours to Charlotte for the show! I’d drive ALL DAY to see Lene Lovich, if needed! Amazingly, Lene’s solo gigs in-between will make her tour twice as long. The one shot I had at seeing her was when I stupidly passed up her gig in Atlanta in 1993!! I had just gone to Atlanta one weekend to see Pete Burns [highly memorable, let’s say] and chasinvictoria, who I went with asked me if I wanted to see Lene Lovich the next weekend. I was single, earning more money in software development then I knew how to spend, but back then, I thought that going to Atlanta two weekends in a row was decadent, so I passed. Like a fool! Fast forward a few years later and I’d trek to Atlanta so frequently for a couple of years that I should have gotten an apartment there.
For their parts, each of the headliners were connected with Lene Lovich. Lene has been long involved with the B-52’s in PETA events over the years [see photo]. She memorably covered DEVO’s “Be Stiff” and I’d say better than anyone else on Stiff Records.And there’s this AMAZING TRUE FACT: The UPC bar code on the cove of DEVO’s “Duty Now For The Future” album from 1979 is actually from the US LP of Lene’s debut album, “Stateless” from the same year! But I want to know who was the person who first uttered her name in the planning stages as the opening act!?! And I want to send them a huge bouquet of flowers. Lene Lovich has not mounted a North American tour in over thirty years. Sure, sure. She’s been active live now for a dozen years… in the UK and Europe, of course! But this is tremendous news. Better still, apart from the eleven dates of the “Cosmic De-Evolution Tour,” Lene will be doing a sharp turn in solo shows tucked all over this great land of ours!
I’ve sampled the live release from a decade ago that Lene has released on Bandcamp and I have to say that her voice was all there at the age of 66. Recent live viddy on the web shows little or no ebbing of her vocal energies even now at 76 years of age! So the notion occurred to me…She’s doing two shows in Florida as a solo act. I’d get more than 40 minutes of Prime Lene if I were to trek down there and see those shows while visiting friends I also value highly. One of the shows is not just in a sports bar, but Florida’s Largest Sports Bar®. Surreal enough, but her other Florida gig is in the town of Mount Dora!
I saw that Midge Ure was playing Mount Dora on a recent tour where in the past not a single Florida city [no matter how populous] could support an Ultravox gig past their initial club US tour in 1980. For the 29 years I lived in Florida, Mount Dora was a town that was more properly described as a “hamlet” back then! A quaint backwater filled with retirees and citrus groves. Now they have a municipal PAC that books lots of shows I might want to see.
So tonight I’ll be calling friends up and making plans. The tickets for the big tour go on sale on Friday but the presale has already started. I hope to have tickets locked down in the next 24 hours. So what are those dates? The ones in red are the full Cosmic De-Evolution Tour with Lene opening for The B-52’s and DEVO.
Thurs 25 Sept | Clarkston [near Detroit] MI | Pine Knob Music Theatre (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Fri 26 Sept | Cleveland OH | Beachland Ballroom
Sun 28 Sept | Cincinnati OH | Ludlow Garage
Tues 30 Sept | Pittsburgh PA | Crafthouse
Weds 1 Oct | Annapolis MD | Ram’s Head
Thurs 2 Oct | Mansfield [near Boston] MA | Xfinity Center (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sat 4 Oct | Holmdel NJ | PNC Band Arts Center (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sun 5 Oct | Wantagh NY | Northwell Jones Beach (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sat 11 Oct | Vancouver | Canada Rickshaw Theatre
Fri 12 Oct | Everett [near Seattle] WA | Apex Kings Hall
Mon 13 Oct | Portland OR | Alberta Rose Theatre
Thurs 16 Oct | Mountain View CA | Shoreline Amphitheatre (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sat 18 Oct | Los Angeles CA | Hollywood Bowl (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Fri 24 Oct | Charlotte NC | PNC Music Pavilion (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sat 25 Oct | Alpharetta GA | Ameris Bank Amphitheatre (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Tues 28 Oct | St. Petersburg FL | Ferg’s
Weds 29 Oct | Mount Dora FL | Mount Dora Music Hall
Sat 1 Nov | Austin TX | Germania Insurance Amphitheatre (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
Sun 2 Nov | Houston TX | Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (Cosmic De-Evolution Tour)
If all goes well, I will be seeing three Lene Lovich concerts this Fall…in America! And, oh yeah…finally seeing the almighty DEVO live. After the news of Lene Lovich touring it all feels strangely anti-climactic, but lets hear it for the notion of weird music for weird times. I’ll take all that I can get. Watch this space.
Throughout my youth I had a tumultuous relationship with T-shirts. I occasionally wore them [never with printing] as a child in the 1970s. But as I grew older, I came to associate them with Physical Education class in secondary and high school. So much so, that when my requirement for physical education class was met in 11th grade, in 1980, I swore off wearing T-shirts [and shorts, for that matter] for good.
It also helped that my favorite new band of 1980 were Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, who had a defiantly normal “bank clerk image” of thin ties [the only kind I wear] and simple dress shirts. It was a crisp look and I joined the club. Moving to add ties once I joined the professional world. I would attend concerts looking like this during the lean times in the 80s where they were not really a regular event for me in sleepy Central Florida. And not once did I ever buy a tour shirt from the merch table. If I bought anything, it was the [very] occasional tour book.
But let me testify for you; Central Florida weather is very hot and humid! I would perform physical work dressed like that. One day I was silk-screening [ironically] some T-shirts on the porch in 90+ degree weather and sweating like a rancid chunk of pork [R.I.P. Brother Theodore!] It was then, some time in 1990, that I snapped. I went to Marshalls department store and bought some shorts, sneakers, athletic socks, and some casual shirts. The next time friends saw me they were surprised at the vast change in style to something far more casual.
And with that sea change, came the notion of actually buying the Tour Shirts that I would now actually wear. I think the earliest of them might have been the Pet Shop Boys shirt from the US debut of their first tour in Miami in 1991. After that I was pretty liberal with buying tour shirts. If I really liked a band, I would buy more than one at the merch table. And if anyone saw me back then, off the work clock, I was dressed for casual comfort. Usually sporting a Tour Shirt of some sort.
It was some time by 2007 when I was seriously running out of space in my T-shirt cabinet, so the notion occurred to maybe sell some of them off to thin the herd. If I had multiple shirts for an artist, I might narrow things down to just one. Certain other artists were too much part of my “Core Collection” and I would never get rid of them, but that was a pretty small club. So I sold off the shirts on eVilbay. Some of them netted a pretty penny with a select few scraping close to three figures. It’s nearly 20 years later, and though I’ve tried to moderate the intake of shirts from 2007 to the present, the same old problem has once again reared its head. I may have to do another culling. Soon.
With that in mind, I came across the folder of sold eBay images on my network drive the other day and thought I’d take a look at what I’ve already gotten rid of shirt-wise and try to cobble a posting [or six] out of it! Images are the actual photos used to sell the shirts on eBay, so that’s why they are small. Back then I had to host the images personally for any auctions on my own web space! But eBay look a lot less than 30% of the sale and shipping, too. If I can link to the setlist.fm page for the date, the header tour/year text will contain it. So without further ado.
I always loved long-sleeved T-shirts since in the mild Florida winters, this might be the only sartorial difference from wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt during the summer, which was nine months out of the year! This shirt also fed other T-shirt fetishes I had. It had printing on the sleeves – both of them! It had the tour dates, on the sleeve as well! And the show itself [at Fern Park Station] was a rip roaring thrill with a stripped down band featuring Boz Borer and Marco Pirroni with Adam playing a perfect selection of old and new material that was, dare I say, Peak Adam!
Since I loved this shirt an awful lot, I was happy to see this sell for over eighty dollars as I recall. I actually have spreadsheets for all of my eBay sales, but I’m not at home right now. As for the “Persuasion” album, it was the album of Adam’s that got shelved. making this shirt one of the few physical manifestations of that period.
This was a beautiful portrait of Neil Tennant and was probably designed by their top design artist Mark Farrow. It had their clean, minimal look. The logo treatment was of the era as they debuted on the “Where The Streets Have No Name” single, which dropped after the tour started.
It was 1990 and when they launched into it on stage, no one had a clue they were going to transform the U2 hit in quite the way that they did! At first, we were just stunned. There was no internet or social media for any spoilers. This date was the US debut of the band in full concert, so believe me when I say that no-one had any suspicions that they were going to pull this rabbit out of their hats.
FLAT DUO JETS: 1996
We tended to see Flat Duo Jets at least three times a year in their active mid-90s period. This was a buff colored T-shirt with a cartoon image of Dexter Romweber [R.I.P.] that I’m sure I bought at the Go Lounge where they played a lot.
I used to own a lot of Duran Duran shirts, but this one was not from a concert that I had attended. I saw three legs of the “Wedding Album” tour, and we’ll get to those shirts eventually, but the last time I saw the band was on the “Pop Trash” tour in 1998?
This was from the year before when the hull of the good ship Duran was barely afloat. Their new album “Medazzaland” had only gotten released in Japan and the US as EMI passed on it for pretty much every other territory! The tour was attended by my Durannie friend Sandra and she got this for me as a gift.
I had memorably seen Front 242 on their “Front By Front” tour in 1988 and the impact was about as high as it got! That gig had a vibe and atmosphere that was brilliant, so when they released the even better “Tyranny >For You<” album on the majors – Epic Records in America, I was primed for overkill. Though the album was great, the show itself was a notch or two down from the intensity of the earlier show.
CHRIS ISAAK: Heart Shaped World 1991
At the time it seemed like I had waited forever to see Chris Isaak! He tended to tour mostly in California. And it took until album number three before he ventured into the Southeast. I went to the “Heart Shaped World” tour in Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg with good friend The RAHB and my colorful friend John.
We were all Isaak fans and the show was a total winner! Deep cuts from all three albums along with select covers, and material that would figure on his future albums filled the set. Along with his patented wiseguy sense of humor. It was one of the best concerts I had seen by that point. Hitting on cylinders that most other artists didn’t deign to touch.
Mainstream success was still about six months into the future for Chris. “Wicked Game” only became a hit when an Altanta DJ saw David Lynch’s “Wild At Heart” and thought to add it to his playlist after hearing it there. Then the song took off like wildfire as the world world came to know Chris Isaak. But in 1991 he was at his lean and hungry peak. Lead guitar was still by James Calvin Wilsey [R.I.P.] and we didn’t know then that he only had one more album with Isaak before he was off the bus for good. I should have kept this shirt. But instead I kept another Isaak shirt that the artist himself had signed and even included a caricature of himself on.
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Post-Punk Monk 