XTC
Live at Paradiso, Amsterdam
March 8th, 1982
English Settlement Tour
Recording Quality : A/A+ (audience + SDB)
Setlist :
00:00:00 - Bushman President (tape intro) (aud)
00:03:04 - Respectable Street (aud)
00:06:37 - Burning With Optimism's Flame (aud)
00:11:28 - Runaways (SBD + aud)
00:15:47 - Jason And The Argonauts (SBD)
00:21:15 - Melt The Guns
00:28:09 - Snowman
00:32:33 - Ball And Chain
00:37:00 - No Thugs In Our Home
00:42:16 - Senses Working Overtime
00:46:58 - All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover)
00:55:43 - No Language In Our Lungs
01:00:29 - Towers Of London
01:05:57 - Making Plans For Nigel
01:10:35 - Living Through Another Cuba
01:15:01 - Generals & Majors
01:19:27 - Reel By Reel
01:22:55 - Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)
01:28:43 - Life Begins At The Hop (with Hans DeVente)
+
01:33:47 - It's Nearly Africa (soundcheck bonus)
Notes :
Last months, I took a deep dive into XTC's discography, finding some really nice "new" music to listen. They soon became another of my favourite bands and I love how they sound both intelligent and about to blow up at the same time.
As we all know, XTC stopped touring during the English Settlement Tour in early 1982. Andy Partridge, guitarist, singer and "leader" of the band did not want to perform live anymore for various reasons. Live appearances by the band were not rare during the late 1970's and early 1980's, but what is rare is finding good bootlegs of the last few shows the band performed in 1982. Before Andy collapsed on stage in Paris, they had the time to do a small bunch of shows in Europe, including this very one, when they got on stage at Amsterdam's Paradiso, on march 8th.
That performance is absolutely awesome and the setlist is incredible; with the band performing many great songs from their first LPs and a few "new" songs, from their last album at the time. They also perform a BADASS version of "All Along The Watchtower" and I must say I never heard something as mad as this...
This bootleg was recorded (both audience & soundboard sources) by Hans Devente, called "The Mad Taper". He was known as a big fan of music at that time and had the chance to climb up onstage to sing the choruses of "Life Begins At The Hop".
The soundboard part of the gig was already sounding good, but I reEQed some parts of it. Then, since the first three songs were missing, I added them from the audience source, mixing both sources during "Runaways" and then leaving the rest with the DeVente soundboard. I also took the liberty to add "It's Nearly Africa" from the soundcheck and same tape. As we know, XTC never had the time to perform the song live in front of an audience, but they did "try it out" during the Paradiso gig soundcheck, recorded by DeVente. It's one of the funkiest XTC song and I thought it would be a nice addition to this whole bootleg.
As always, thanks to the taper and all the people involved in sharing this absolute gem.
XTC were (1982) :
Terry Chambers - Drums
Dave Gregory - Guitar, keys
Colin Moulding - Bass guitar, vocals
Andy Partridge - Vocals, guitar
Picture by Jean Christophe Prunet (taken during XTC's short appearance at Le Palace in Paris a few days later)