This was a big event for yours truly this year…now the UK gets a chance
It’s no secret that the Cosmic De-Evolution Tour that North America received from the DEVO/Lene Lovich/B-52’s teamup this year was a very potent New Wave bomb of epic proportions. All of the bands were on their game and delivered their unique goods for an evening of iconic New Wave fun. And I’d long since given up any hope of seeing DEVO or Lene Lovich, so there was also that.
DEVO are more right than ever in 2025…
At the show I saw in Charlotte, there were music videos played before Lene Lovich Band opened the show. One of these videos was The Rezillos performing “Flying Saucer Attack!” At the time I marveled at the great taste inherent in picking The Rezillos to play in the mix but maybe there was more to it than that since the announcement was made a few days ago that The Mighty Rezillos will be the fourth act on the Cosmic De-Evolution UK tour along with the usual DEVO, B-52-s, and Lene Lovich!
The Lene Lovich Band as Ye Olde Monk saw them in Mt. Dora, Florida last October
The shows are in big arenas to the north and south so hopefully, any fans can make the trip. As the poster says, you can catch them at:
Sat. June 20 | The O2 Arena | London, England
Sun. June 21 | The O2 Arena | Manchester, England
Given that the driving distance between them is a scanty 4-5 hours, I don’t want to hear any moaning from the UK side on the issue of location! As an American in the US Southeast I drove over seven hours in 2002 to see The Rezillos…and luvvedit! And counted myself as miraculously lucky for the experience!!
The Rezillos rock it this year live onstage
Scuttlebutt on The Rezillos side suggests that their third studio album is nearing the end of its gestation period and may in fact be out in the world by next June, so there’s the possibility that these dates will be part of a larger UK tour on their part. But even if you can see them in a small, sweaty gig [preferable, I know] the holy union of these four bands, so deeply represented in my personal Record Cell represents a sort of Ultimate New Wave Tour while it can still happen. Since the B-52’s have put the breaks on long tours, and DEVO have gingerly skirted around the issue of “farewell tours” in the last few years, these events are not going to always be there. I suggest that fans get down while they still can.
The B-52’s have always been a unique blend of voices
The tickets are going on sale tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. GMT at the usual places. I’m not in any position to cross the pond any time soon, but I am just hoping that once album four from The Rezillos drops, that the energetic Scots can cross the pond in these dark times to add some color and pizzazz to our needy shores.
Mitch & His Gang play Let’s Active @The Ramkat [L-R]: Shawn Lynch, Jon Heames, Mitch Easter, Tammy Easter
At a quarter after nine, Mitch’s Gang ambled onstage, followed by the man himself. I’d seen Mitch earlier at the merch table before the opening set talking with someone and now he was onstage with the other five members of the band. Making this a six-piece for this evening and obviously capable of doing the Let’s Active catalog justice…and then some. The male players had coordinated their outfits to a white jeans/black shirt vibe. This evening The Gang would be Jon Heames [a member of the “Every Dog Has His Day” band] on drums, Michael Slawter on rhythm guitar, and Shawn Lynch on bass.
Mitch was playing a plethora of guitars during the evening and his guitar tech [among other duties], Jeffrey Dean Foster had his work cut out for him this evening. The guitars were a mixture of acoustics and electrics, even for Michael Slawter on rhythm guitar. Ms. Tammy Easter, who had been running merch earlier, was singing backup vocals and played loose bits of percussion as well.
They opened with the punchy title track to “Every Dog Has His Day” and afterward Mitch spoke with the crowd for the first and certainly not the last time that evening. He introduced the players onstage right up front, taking me by surprise since this usually happens either right before the encore or during it. He also explained the “rules” for the evening. They were going to play from the albums in reverse order, meaning that “Every Dog Has His Day” would be cherry picked first, followed by “Big Plans For Everybody” and then “Cypress” with “Afoot” material closing the show.
I was pleased to hear that Mitch picked “I Feel Funny” off of “Dog” to play second and I was not expecting him to perform any tracks sung by the women in the band lineups, and welcomed “Mr. Fool” into the set!
Jeffrey Dean Foster [R] was a key utility player this evening with guitar, keys, and guitar tech duties under his watch
Though I still had memories of the furious rocker “Ten Layers Down” from the 1989 gig I saw, that was not on the books for this evening, but fortunately, “Bad Machinery” was! Mitch also took the opportunity to let the audience know that they band were playing “New Wave Sets” this evening. There would be two short sets [always keep ’em wanting more] with a tiny break in between. When an artist I respect actually uses the term “New Wave” onstage…47 years after the fact, it can only be hugely endearing to me.
Then they dug into my favorite album, “Big Plans For Everybody.” First up was the vivid “Talking With Myself” and the loose-limbed rocker “Last Chance Town” was next in the chute. We tend to think of Let’s Active in terms of the songwriting chops that Mitch [and his occasional co-writers] brought to the material, but the crux of the matter was that it was his guitar prowess that really made the case for these songs on the live stage! Seeing the full caliber of the material on this show reminded me that there was a reason why Robert Plant was a Let’s Active fan in the 80s! Mitch took only the best sparks of inspiration from Jimmy Page and dropped them into his songs while avoiding all of Page’s pitfalls.
Mitch + Gang [L-R]: Michael Slawter, Shawn Lynch, Jon Heames, Mitch himself
The first set capped with the 70s callback “Fell,” whose guitar riff hook nagged at my skull…what Top 40 song of my youth was that song’s chord sequence redolent of? Maybe Climax’s “Precious And Few?” No! It was the distinctive guitar riff from Seals And Crofts“Summer Breeze!!” If that was the one [it sure sounded like it] then he really rehabilitated it magnificently! I was busy singing along to this one when the first set ended after only seven songs. He had not been kidding! But all of my fave rave cuts from “Big Plans For Everybody” had not been in evidence here this evening.
Following a break that was maybe long enough to get a swig of water, the deeper, older half of the set was about to manifest in record time. This time the “great leap forward” of the “Cypress” album would be getting the love! At the time “Cypress” knocked me for a loop moving far from the ginchy Pop sound of “Afoot,” but with a few spins, the added complexity of the songs and arrangements normalized themselves to me and we could tell that Mitch Easter had the goods to really achieve greatness in this dirty Rock biz.
The sublime “Waters Part” opened the second half of the show and it had been one of the several promo 12″ singles that I’d seen in the bins back in the day. It’s difficult to believe that there seemingly were no 7″ singles from this most adroit of Pop bands in America! The mighty interwebs tell me that only “In Little Ways” got a UK single release on 7/12 inch formats as a Let’s Active single that one could buy in record stores! Madness! Especially when taking the smoking hot coda of “Waters Part” into account.
The sublime “Ornamental” one of my favorite deep cuts from “Cypress” followed next and gave Ms. Easter a chance to really add some of those effulgent backing vocals that set up the song’s gorgeous counter melody. The chiming power of “Co-Star” would be the final song from “Cypress” this evening. The band next moved to the EP that started it all, “Afoot.” I was excited to hear that the quirkiest cut on the disc, “The Leader Of Men,” would be played this evening. I didn’t see that one coming but was happy to be in the wrong. This song had been the early outlier to the fact that Mitch Easter was happy not to be relegated to the “three chord wonder” school of New Wave.
The song that started it all…”Every Word Means No”
Then the early hit that let the world know that Mitch Easter was here and that he was capable of more than just producing R.E.M. records lit the stage. “Every Word Means No” was a powerfully Pop opening salvo to a music career, though the prehistory of The Sneakers was still shrouded in the mists of time back in the early 80s with no reissues happening until much later. This song was still a lesson in hooks as written by a master.
The band onstage would slim down as necessary as the set moved forward …into the past
We stopped to catch our breath with the winsome melancholy of “Edge Of The World,” before turning the energy up for the euphoric pop of “In Between.” A song with expertly placed “ooh-la-la-las” that knew when to hold back and when go for the throat. And with that the vibrant fourteen song set was done! There was so much more that could have been packed into the show but as The Poet has claimed, brevity is the soul of wit.
The audience in the full house clamored for more and it wasn’t more than two swigs of water before the band came back for as sweet an encore as I could have hoped for at this show. The presence of a slide on Mitch’s finger alerted me to the rip-roaring “Route 67” as the first song up and we were not disappointed! This one was the outlier to nowhere that closed out “Big Plans For Everybody” in the most incendiary fashion imaginable as Easter tore into those slide solos with plenty of verve. I was most impressed by bassist Lynch intoning the title “Route 67” in a basso voice at the exact correct moment while Ms. Easter added the requisite floor tom [not a sample this time!] to the song. Bliss!
Next came the track that now vied with “In Little Ways” for my favorite Let’s Active song of all, so you know that it’s a great one! And that song was the powerful melancholy of “Badger,” but the setup for this had the band shifting into a radically different configuration for this evening’s performance. The full band came upstage and the four players [even drummer Heames] were each tuning up acoustics while Mitch had the electric guitar; making sarcastic quips like “we’re going Bluegrass” as the players were taking the time to get settled in. But not before Easter goosed them with a good natured “this is where you start to say something like ‘boys…’ and with that they counted into a performance of “Badger” that was worth the wait!
This song really takes me places every time that I hear it, but I’ve never heard it this magnificently before. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m going to give you all a rest from my blabbering with the video below. Suffice to say that Easter nailed that amazing solo in the song’s coda…right into my heart.
What Let’s Active song could possibly follow this one but the splendid glory of “In Little Ways?” Yet I was taken unaware as I expected someone to move to the keyboard for this song, and they launched into it with no one manning the keys. The frissons happened even without piano. I swear that everyone around me was singing the backing vocals to this one as Easter’s clean treble tone cut straight to the heart of the song and he proceeded to recast the climactic piano solo in the coda on his guitar instead. And then that was a wrap! The magic of Let’s Active was back in the bottle until next time.
As with the opening set, the sound mix this evening was perfection! Full of clarity and punch with nothing harsh entering our ears. And our viscera were not feeling every drumbeat. Perhaps I could have gone without attenuating earplugs, but with my deafness, I don’t take any chances. But the songbook of Mitch Easter cries out to be heard. The gent is like the Brian Wilson of The Piedmont and the occasion of the belated appearance of the Let’s Active catalog to streaming means that perhaps it won’t be so criminally underrated. After all, you cannot love what you cannot hear. And if the presence of some under 40s here is anything to take note of, then the future ahead may be brighter than I’m ready to give it credit for.
And not just the music catalog is back. The launch of the new Let’s Active website also happened in tandem with this reissue campaign, and gloryoski… the webmaster there has already linked to the first half of this posting [in the Press page] …even as I’m writing the second half! So maybe this wonderful show was not merely a one-off, but perhaps a new beginning for Let’s Active? It would be a shame not to share these magnificent tunes with a wider than local audience! At the very least one may buy the merch that was at the show for the same fine prices. Those lovely posters, t-shirts, and I’ve got to love the “New Wave Mitch” badges featuring the barely post-pubescent Easter looking pretty Nick Lowe. DJ hit that button!
It’s been 36 years since this Monk has heard any Let’s Active songs live
Last Saturday we hit the road to Winston Salem to catch a one-off concert by Mitch Easter at a local venue to commemorate the fact that one can now hear Let’s Active’s music online in streaming and downloads. For decades, it’s been records or CDs mostly, and the CDs have been in and out of print with prices spiking in periods of scarcity. But that never threw me. I always had the latest Let’s Active released first on record and then on the silver disc. When their CDs were reissued on the Collector’s Choice label 20+ years ago I was happily able to ignore it. But that was the last time that happened, and kids today don’t have CD players so any excuse for this show was a great one for me.
The trip from Asheville to Winston Salem was a mild 2:15 and that was just enough time to listen to the compleat Let’s Active collection on the silver disc. Trundling down Interstate 40 east-bound while the early fall vistas made for an evocative backdrop to hear the sometimes jangly, sometimes Southern Gothic tunes that Easter had recorded in the eighties.
The show was intended for the Gas Hill Drinking Lounge, the smaller room at The Ramkat; a Big Kahuna club in Winston-Salem but the speed and health of ticket sales was such that the club moved the show to the main, thousand capacity room. Which is well and as it should be in the artist’s home town! After all, the tickets were merely $20 after fees [!] so the show was being performed for the best of reasons.
The view from the soundboard at The Ramkat
After a superb Indian meal we drove the six or seven blocks to The Ramkat around 6:30. We would have preferred to walk it, but freezing temperatures on the way back to the hotel would have been less than enjoyable. As it was, we arrived early enough to obtain parking in the venue’s lot. We entered the club and were impressed by the cut of its jib. The locals are fortunate to have such a top flight club at their disposal.
The club had a large stage proscenium with a fairly deep lighting rig contingent. Tables on the floor at the back were plentiful, as were the tables along the railing on the second level. That early there were about 150 in the club as the gates had opened at 7:00 p.m. The merch table was at the front left of the room and as usual, I made a bee-line there. I had seen Let’s Active twice in the 80s, but those were the t-shirt free years. I went the entire decade without wearing t-shirts until something snapped in 1990, but that was a year after I had last seen the group!
There was plenty of merch at modest price points this evening to be had
There were t-shirts at $25 each, as well as shirts from Mitch Easter’s solo album tour for “Dynamico” at closeout prices. There were a series of five eye-catching posters for the evening’s show, and I would have loved to have bought at least one but I can’t fool myself. Every music poster I’ve owned has been sold off by this point. There has never been wall space for any of that kind of decor in our small home of twenty one years. And there were plenty of badges which always makes me happy. Some large, some small. Some were even vintage badges that I already had as well as one design that I didn’t, so I popped for the t-shirt and the old badge, which was new to me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
The opening act this evening were Bass Battery, a Durham bass/drums duo consisting of Norwood Cheek on the former [with lead vocals] and Rob Ladd on the latter [with BVs]. Cheek had been bouncing around for years in various bands, all new to me. Ladd was more of a known quantity, with time behind the stool in The Connells as well as playing on Don Dixon and Let’s Active albums. They had just recorded their album in The Fidelitorium; Mitch Easter’s studio in nearby Kernersville.
Bass Battery were [L-R]: Norwood Cheek [bass, vox] and Rob Ladd [drums, BVs]
In spite of bypassing lead guitar, theirs was a program of pop rock informed by the decades of playing these two obviously had under their belts. The mix this evening was superb! Though I had attenuating plugs inserted, every element of the band’s sound, from the clear, tenor vocals of Mr. Cheek to the exciting drums by Mr. Ladd were delivered strongly at the mixing board. If I can hear a band’s music for the first time and be able to discern every word, that’s s real statement!
The band breezed through six or seven songs in their allotted space, and I was very impressed by the fact that Mr. Cheek introduced one song toward the end of their set as being a cover of a Dexter Romweber song! They actually had the brass to cover “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” from the Flat Duo Jets’ “White Trees” album! While cover versions were a significant part of the Flat Duo Jets sound, I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone with the nerve to attempt performing one of their songs! Dex was a singularly powerful guitarist with his mighty vocals being their equal. Bass Battery made certain to pull the clay of the song into a very different shape. Fascinating!
I enjoyed Bass Battery. They were a well-chosen opening act and the fact that they had ties to Mitch Easter’s studio made all the sense in the world to give them the stage for their allotment. And if the opening act had been mixed this professionally, then Mitch Easter was going to sound heavenly. Now that I think about it, why wouldn‘t an artist/producer like Mr. Easter have anything but the finest concert mix possible? Top audio quality is what his reputation is staked upon and when I mentioned this to my wife she cited the Chic concert we saw with Nile Rogers as being another example of top quality sound. The set ended and we prepared for the main event to come.
Fluid Japan are A-list Bandcamp royalty to my ears during the last few years. I’ve been trying to follow their movements closely, but with the amount of travel and concerts I’ve seen lately, this has proven tricky. But today, we are officially catching up since a pair of singles were released on Halloween, and they followed those with a remix hot on their heels.
ENCRYPTION
Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025
Fluid Japan: Encryption – US – DL [2025]
Encryption 4:34
Fluid Japan are known to me for their stock-in-trade; elegant Art Rock touched by hints of Prog and New Wave. But there are cracks in the façade. Last year they released a brief taster for an album to be called “Encryption” with a track called “A Safe Place?” That was 79 seconds of subtle environmental ambience that was all about world building instead of Pop music. It was a brief, unsettling faux field recording that was barely there. The first time I listened to it in my car I could not even hear anything!
Now they have released the much more subsbtantial title track to that album project and it was a foreboding mixture of heartbeat percussion and baleful synths spraying the atmosphere with clouds of atomized peril. It was completely cinematic and far removed from their usual tuneage. Rattlesnake percussion and unsettling snatches of dialogue; distorted and glitched out played on my mind like an anxiety inducing drug. I think the title references cybersecurity far less than rooms full of the dead, but perhaps its calling out to both. Listen now.
RISE + SHINE
Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025
Fluid Japan: Rise + Shine – US – DL [2025]
Rise + Shine 4:34
The pulsating, phased sequencers of “Rise + Shine” immediately got my rapt attention. The vibe here sounded like “European Son” era JAPAN with Gary Numan adding lead synth to the mix. In other words, peerlessly exciting to my ears! The breakneck cymbal hits ticking away throughout the song insured that the energy rush would never ebb.
However, there was a vocal, which consisted of sound bites overlaid on the music bed. With a jovial voice speaking of the beauty of the day and imploring us to “rise and shine.” The disconnect between the motorik intensity of the music and the tone of the voice created an unsettling dissonance in the early part of the song.
Then at the halfway point, new sound bites entered the track. Asking cryptic questions as the music began to meander melodically with minor keys exerting their gravitational pull. The way that vocal samples were used here made me recall The Suburbs underground hit “Music For Boys,” but where that track used a coherent source, and maintained a continuity throughout, the disparity between the two sampled vocals here served to create tension that threatened to pull the song apart to these ears.
The vibe of the track is one of my favorite sounds ever. In another world, this could have been one of my favorite songs ever, but the dissonance that the sampled voices brought to the foreground here conspired to thwart my listening in a quixotic way. It feels churlish of me to complain that a track is too complex, but I can’t help but think that “Rise + Shine” squandered its potential for fist-pumping greatness to traffic in paradox and obscurity. It still sounds fantastic, but the distancing patina the vocal samples bring takes my fervor down a notch. See what you think.
TRUTH [MAY BE HORIZON REMIX]
Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025
Steven Jones +Fluid Japan: Truth [May Be Horizon Remix] – US – DL [2025]
Truth [May Be Horizon Remix] 6:21
May Be Horizon were a known quantity from remixes they had made for Steven Jones + Logan Sky over the last few years. With this extended version of the great track “truth” they have added their [subtle] element X to the mix. Managing to nudge the track into their zone without eliminating what had been the song’s strengths in the process.
Reversed percussion loops and plaintive peals of guitar add their droning energy to the mix while vocal performance of Steven Jones has been dubbed out to create an expansive vibe. The track now echoed down long corridors of sound while every aspect that I had favored in the original version was still present to delight my ear. I especially enjoyed how the Hook-like bass lines had been transformed with a completely different envelope; yet they were still there. Listen below.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
The two new singles were space probes launched to explore new territory for Fluid Japan. While I preferred the “Rise + Shine” track, simply for its relentless energy [may we have more of this sound in service to a traditional song next time?], I get the impression that stripped of its context, the title track to the yet-to-be-released “Encryption” album is particularly ill-served in single form. I suspect that when I finally hear the full “Encryption” album, it will cohere into a powerful statement that will surpass the tentative states it generates in isolation. And more remixes by May Be Horizon, if you please!
All of these tracks are “pay what thou wilt” but the elephant in the room is the fact that you can get all 22 tracks from Fluid Japan for the low, low price of just $4.61 on Bandcamp. Even at three times that price it will be the best $13.83 you’ve spent in a long time. DJ hit that button!
Robert Elms, the gent who began his career by writing the suitably poetic liner notes to “Journeys To Glory” by Spandau Ballet, will be at the Design Museum in London. The museum is currently hosting a must-see exhibition “Blitz: The Club That Shaped The 80s” which started on Sept. 20th and will continue through March 29th, 2026.
ROBERT ELMS BLITZ DISCUSSION
We are continually entranced by the confluence of music, art, design, fashion, and media that spawned this scene that still inspires new generations of Club Kids to make something of themselves in the face of cultural indifference. Robert Elms has had a distinguished career as a writer and broadcaster after being one of those Club Kids in the late 70s who were drawn to this magnet for misfits that began as Bowie Nights at Billy’s in Soho and quickly blossomed into its proper pomp as The Blitz Club on a formerly dead Tuesday night in Covent Garden.
Mr. Elms will be attending a separate speaking event at The Design Museum this Thursday, November 27th from 2:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. with Museum Director Tim Marlowe in conversation as they discuss the the book by Elms, “Blitz: The Club That Created The 80s.” There will be a signing afterward of the book and I have to admit that my circumscribed music library is whispering in my ear that I should probably have a copy of this tome in it. Tickets for the event [if available] are £12.00/students £11.00. DJ hit that button!
ROBERT ELMS BOOK – BLITZ: THE CLUB THAT CREATED THE 80S
Faber + Faber | UK | hardcover | 304 pp. | ISBN 9780571394180 | 2025
Sporting a Steve Strange cover photo, and very proper Eurostile Bold Extended text, the book was published in the UK in September to coincide with the opening of the exhibit of the same title. I have a couple of crucial New Romantic books, and a handful of “New Sounds New Styles” magazine which were obtained at great cost 30 years or more ago, but with all due respect to the earlier efforts, this really does look like the New Romantic scene book that I have been audibly pining for as written by one of the movement’s linchpins.
The movement can almost be seen as the moment that post modernism became a part of British youth culture, with Edwardian dandies rubbing shoulder pads with astronauts and gender benders. It looked forward and backward at the same time, allowing everything as inspiration and sought to stand apart from the mainstream in any fashion that it could. Exactly what the generation raised on Roxy Music and David Bowie should have achieved.
That this small club could be a flashpoint for so many creators in the worlds of fashion, music, and art in what was a run of less than two years is a staggering authentication of its potency. Bands who were birthed there like Visage and Spandau Ballet were soon climbing the charts. And if their cloak room attendant [Mr. George O’Dowd, to you] could sell 50 million records worldwide, it wasn’t just something in the water.
The book is definitely available in the UK currently and it looks to be crossing the pond to America in the new year judging from US booksellers. It’s priced sensibly to read without heavy white gloves, even though it is literally about the art of parties. Blitz Night was a working-class party that eventually crashed the penthouses from its beginnings at street-level. The Design Museum is currently offering the book in its online shop for an agreeable £20.00/$27.00. so DJ hit that button.
For anyone in the UK reading this posting within spitting distance from London, the actual exhibition at The Design Museum must be New-Romantic catnip of the highest order. Especially as it is built around an artistic re-creation of the actual club itself to allow visitors to get a feel for how that the environment could have felt like in an immersive fashion. With video projections and a virtual Rusty Egan in residence adding to the ambience.
The required array of cultural artifacts that fed into the New Romantic movement are also exhibited. Posters from proto-New-Ro cinematic touchstones like Fosse’s “Cabaret,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and “The Night Porter” make their impressions felt here. As did the array of magazines, artworks, fashions, and of course, the records that flowed from the movement.
The call went out to all of the Blitz Kids who then provided the artifacts on display here. Many had not been publicly displayed in the better part of 40 years. With many items having been rediscovered for the curation of this show. Stephen Jones provided his design sketches for the millinery empire that grew out a space in Helen Robinson’s New-Ro fashion shop PX following seed money planted by Steve Strange himself.
The exhibition is open through March 29th, 2026 at the following hours.
M-TR: 10-5
F: 10-6
S: 10-8 [Blitz exhibition only open past 6]
Tickets are available online and for visitors on Thursdays who break out their fashion finery to attend in their best New Romantic garb there is a discount code “BLITZBESTDRESSEDTHURSDAYS” which will see their online tickets are priced at a 20% discount. Surely anyone reading this would take pains not to attend in a t-shirt and Crocs®, yes? DJs hit that button!
It’s no secret that the Men Without Hats concert we saw in 2024 is still sticking with us over a year later. It was so vibrant and exciting that it took me from a Men Without Hatsfan to possibly the next level. I now want everything I can get from the band beyond the first three albums and handful of singles I’ve had for ages. And this year they obliged me with two releases! I have the first one and we’ll review that album number two.
REVIEW: MEN WITHOUT HATS LIVE DL
MWH Entertainment | CAN | DL/LP | 2025
Men Without Hats: Live – CAN – DL [2025]
Safety Dance (Single Version) 2:53
Moonbeam 3:50
Where Do The Boys Go? 4:37
Antarctica 3:18
I Like 4:19
Pop Goes The World 4:15
Safety Dance (Extended Version) 6:04
When I saw that the same year as the pulse-pounding MWH concert I thrilled to the band had recorded their live set for a live album, I was only thrown by the lack of a CD. The band made an LP that they sold at the merch table during their late ’24 Canadian tour and this was priced too richly for my blood at $40 [though it may have been 40 Canadian dollars…the Monk muses]. Even though we tend to prefer physical albums.
I then saw that it was on the band’s Bandcamp page as a CD-res DL for the borderline insane, low, low price of just $5 CAD! For the uninitiated, $5 Canadian dollars at today’s exchange rate equals a paltry $3.54 in US currency! I hit that “Buy” button like white on rice even as I bumped my purchase price to $8 CD…because!
The show in question seemed to have been the band’s March 8, 2024 show at the Grey Eagle Casino + Resort in Calgary, Alberta. Judging from the set list and Ivan Doroshuk’s lyrical ad libs in “Moonbeam.” The set consisted of the band’s patented “this band is amazing!!” half-hour blow-away set that starts out at fever pitch with a rousing “Safety Dance” right up front and never lets up until the end.
The conceit of playing your biggest hit first is such that blows up the energy levels of the band and audience from the very start and they have more than enough strong material to moderate and even best that energy as the set unfurls. Since I’ve already reviewed the show that maps closely to this release, we’ll get into the esoterica that this recording provides.
Firstly, the recording is as robust as the performances with plenty of crowed ambience in the mix for a “you are there” vibe. This is most emphatically not one of those live albums where the audience is politely mixed down between tracks. It manages to capture the thrills of the live performance this band gives most capably. That means that the Rock elements of Sho Murray on guitar and Adrian White on drums were maximized in the mix to evenly balance out the synthesizers of Sahara Sloan.
Ms. Sloan added her vocals to her uncle Ivan’s with each of them bringing power to the mic to match the energy of the music performance. I might add that all of this managed to make the original studio recordings sound rather polite and restrained in comparison! The one difference to this set list was that instead of “I Got The Message” being played as the fifth song, the band played “I Like” instead. I certainly enjoy “I Like” but on other shows in this tour, the band played possibly my favorite MWH song, “I Got The Message” instead. Part of me likes that I get to hear the other song their were playing on other gigs than the one I saw, but that same part would have preferred “I Got The Message.” Especially since it gave Ms. Sloan a great duet to sing with Ivan.
In the best of all possible worlds, perhaps both songs would have been included in the album, but that might have ruined one of the most endearing traits of this album. Which is its integrity. It is a full recording of a single Men Without Hats show in 2024, with the performance sounding either very continuous or the product of an expert mixing session to convince me of that.
So what we have here is a document of a point in time for Men Without Hats. And that time revealed them to be in extremely robust health! Anyone who already enjoys Men Without Hats are encouraged to buy and consume this album with gusto! The same gusto that the band themselves clearly bring to the effort! If you don’t yet enjoy Men Without Hats, then this recording is an ideal gateway drug! The DL is as stated up front, the price of a latte for $5 CAD, yet so much sweeter, so join us as the DJs hit that button!
WANT LIST: MEN WITHOUT HATS ON THE MOON
With a band this hot and happening it would make total sense for the group to nail it down in the studio with all due haste…and that’s exactly what has happened as the group came off of their summer 2024 tour with two sessions that comprise their new album of 2025, “Men Without Hats On The Moon.”
MWH Entertainment | CAN | DL | 2025
Men Without Hats: On The Moon – CAN – DL [2025]
I Love The ’80s 3:43
In Glorious Days 3:41
If You Try 3:27
Run Away 4:23
Love Me Tomorrow 4:20
À Cause De Toi 4:35
Jealous Guy 4:20
The first single from this was a huge winner with “I ♥ The 80s!” Which I immediately bought since I could not wait for a new single. But later came the second single, “In Glorious Days” and realizing that an album was afoot, I didn’t immediately buy the single. The album was released on the 14th of November as a DL and on streaming [the 99%] with the final percentile of the LP or CD to follow in March 16th of 2026.
As I’m Mister Delayed Gratification, I’ll wait until I have the silver disc in hand to hear anything more, but one may currently hear the entire album on streaming or even buy the DL album in CD resolution for $11.99 CAD [$8.49] from the group’s bandcamp store.
The CD of this title is in pre-order at $14.99 [US dollars] and the LP is only $24.99. If you can wait until next year you may want to get your order in. Physical copies of recent MWH releases are not exactly cheap in the aftermarket. And the domestic US shipping in low in cost, so that’s a huge plus. The band also have value added autograph options, bundles, and strategic T-shirts so the MWH fan with money burning a hole in their pockets have many options. DJ hit that button!
Ultravox [L-R]: Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Midge Ure, Billy Currie
This arrived while I was bouncing between concert destinations like a tennis ball. It’s been a while since we had an Ultravox review. [I’m hopelessly behind on the last two ultraboxes] so why not take the effort today? When this EP was first announced, I thought it was the last bit of flavor squeezed out of the seemingly endless [and surprisingly robust] “Lament” campaign teabag. But that was not the case. Instead, this was the harbinger of the next ultrabox campaign; the one for “The Collection” that I will be passing on. But not before taking this bait and chomping down on it.
Chrysalis Catalogue | UK | CD-5 | UXC9
Ultravox: Love’s Great Adventure [Blank + Jones so80s Reconstruction] – UK – CD-5 [2025]
Love’s Great Adventure [Blank + Jones s080s Reconstruction] 5:09
All Stood Still [12″ Extended Re-Mix Extra] 7:11
Love’s Great Adventure [Steven Wilson Instrumental Mix] 3:10
Hymn [Alternative Instrumental Outtake] 6:03
Three of these tracks are Post-Modern remixes. Fiddling decades down the line with the original master multitrack recordings. The track record on this practice can be hit or miss. But the last track is a curio that by all rights should have been in the “Quartet” ultrabox. Maybe it was discovered in a tape cabinet after that one went to the pressing plant and shipped out?Perhaps it was a known quantity but there might not have been any room for it in that boxed set? Which is why I thought that this EP might have been an odds and ends project wrapping up the Ultravox saga for an audience that has supported an extensive reissue program for many years now.
I had loved the Blank + Jones ZTT so80s Reconstruction project where the DJs made brand new, 40-year-old sounding remixes of classic ZTT bands and material. It’s a conceit I can approve of, having heard many Post-Modern remixes which suck the vintage life out of tracks in order to make them sound current…and cheap. On the other hand, I felt that their take on “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” on the 12″ remix disc of the “Lament” box was fair, but was overshadowed by the Steven Wilson remixes there that utterly transformed that material into something far more stellar. I’m pleased to state that the work they did on “Love’s Great Adventure” was highly successful.
The original 12″ mix of “Love’s Great Adventure” was a pretty perfunctory affair! I swear the band just played the song through instrumentally until the middle eight and spliced it into the 7″ mix. Taking a 3:06 song to 5:40 length without very much in the way of thrills. Not so this day! Those big booming drums in the Blank + Jones mix got the blood flowing on the low end while the high pitched, wailing synths energized the top end. Leaving a space for the dignity of Billy Currie’s piano to hog the spotlight with the pulsating bass synths. Then at 1:20 in the full song erupted into vibrant life.
The mix of the song proper was punchy and slightly tweaked for better impact, too. At the end of the middle eight solo by Currie, there was a drop where the sequencers stretched out for a few bars before the pounding percussion returned for the rousing climax. I loved how the sequencers were goosed for more impact with perhaps a touch of delay to fatten them. Allowing Midge Ure to reach his climax but crucially not ending that song as was traditional. Instead the sequencers and piano had a dialogue to form a new coda of stirring beauty. This thoroughly smoked the original 12″ mix for breakfast and managed to shave off a half of a minute from the running time to boot! But don’t just take my word for it. Listen.
1981’s “All Stood Still” had been the another Ultravox 12″ version that had barely whetted our appetites for more with little more than a 40 second buildup in the intro to distinguish it from the LP version. When I was that this EP would feature a new 12″ remix that was over seven minutes long, I had dared to hop that it would redress the desire for a long version of this stellar Ultravox single. After all, it was one of the top songs from their breakthrough album. But my hopes were dashed when I heard the results on this EP.
The urgency of the pulsating synths at the core of the song was severely dissipated by the use of delay to sap the tracks energy levels down to catatonic levels from the get-go here. By the time the synths resolve themselves the moment had already been lost. Then the mix had been altered to increase separation between the elements in the formerly intense and paranoid mix. There’s way too much space here between the elements. Yet another sapping of the song’s energy.
And the vocal production on Midge Ure’s lead vocal had been given way too much spotlight. And with none of the texture to couch his performance in as the elements of the music bed were isolated and aired out, the sing simply collapsed. To say nothing of the brain-dead decision to eliminate Warren Cann’s deep backing vocals which form the basis of the track’s inimitable the call-and-response energy! Hearing the instances of the BVs with just Midge Ure present throws part of the track’s vitality right out the window. This was a catastrophically poor remix that may not have intended to destroy the formerly rip-roaring track, but ended up doing just that.
Most of the Steven Wilson remixes from the “Lament” ultrabox have been widely dispersed in vocal and instrumental form if you followed the campaign across multiple releases and formats. But the instrumental of the “Love’s Great Adventure” Wilson mix didn’t fit onto the “Lament” 2xCD Wilson edition, nor was it in the box, so it manifested here. So that we can delight in its clean, piston-pumping energy as a succinct and beautiful little gem all on its own.
Finally, there is an outtake instrumental version of “Hymn” that appears here. I’ve got to state up front that after 43 years, I’ve gotten really sick and tired of this song! It happens over time with certain songs [see also: OMD’s “Locomotion”] through overplay and over familiarity. Such songs don’t seem bad at first but after the thousand’s listening the cracks in the façade become all you can see. With “Hymn” the repetitive nature of the arrangement was its achilles heel. Lather-rinse-repeat, raise an octave, repeat again. Well, that, and the eerie similarities of the chord sequence hook to The Zones “Mourning Star;” a great song by Midge’s former Slik/PVC2 bandmates. “Mourning Star” was the better of the two songs.
This version was a completely different recording with greater emphasis on ringing guitar lines, and without the repetitive chorus being hammered into my skull, I found that I could enjoy the song more than is normal at this point. It sounded like a live recording here with a lack of keyboard overdubs. Maybe this was a demo recorded before the Monserrat sessions with George Martin producing.
Billy’s keyboard solo was all locked down but was followed on by a bass synth solo and a climax that had Warren Cann producing those stellar motorik fills that juiced the energy of the song up to peak levels as it just sort of dissolved into thin air instead of the fade that was already in the planning stages from the sounds of it. It actually managed to win me over so this was a fascinating version to hear.
This EP will be as far as I tread down the “Collection” ultrabox path, unless I get those 12-14 post-modern remixes ala carte in iTunes. I just can’t justify the cost of the next box given the huge repeat of material I already had in the earlier boxes. The days of me buying anything with the Ultravox name on it are long gone but if only for the great new Blank + Jones remix of “Love’s Great Adventure” [ironically the only track here that will be in the upcoming “Collection” box] buying this EP was worth the effort; apart from the crimes committed upon “All Stood Still.”
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