Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Reunion, London 2004 (sbd)

Hammersmith Apollo 
London, UK
Oct. 15, 2004
   
Instant Live limited ed. release
    
soundboard recording (sound quality: Ex; an excellent, flawless recording)

01 Rattlesnakes

02 Why I Love Country Music 

03 Speedboat

04 Charlotte Street

05 From the Hip

06 Cut Me Down

07 Brand New Friend

08 Sweetness

09 2CV

10 My Bag

11 Sean Penn Blues

12 Mainstream

13 Perfect Blue

14 Patience

15 LC banter

16 Lost Weekend

17 Perfect Skin

18 Mr Malcontent

19 Jennifer She Said

20 Four Flights Up

21 Heartbroken

22 Forest Fire

    

live photos courtesy of M.M.Minderhoud 

ROB SEZ: This one's pretty special and it's exclusive to this blog. Did you ever bid on one of those 1-penny eBay auctions? I have, but never won the "a penny plus shipping" deal — until a coupla weeks ago. That's when I bid on this rare, officially sanctioned, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions limited-edition reunion recording. I still can't believe I was the only fan in the world paying attention & bidding. A few days later, this lovely artifact arrived on my doorstep. And of course I'm sharing it with you. LC and the guys reunited to perform a handful of live shows in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Rattlesnakes, an album fully represented here, minus 1 song. You can tell the band spent 2+ weeks rehearsing for a 1-week tour: the performance is impressive for 20 years on. I thought the Instant Live artwork was boring: the CD equivalent of a brown paper wrapper. So I added the pertinent info and a photo from one of the 2004 UK shows to create custom artwork. If you like Lloyd Cole and haven't heard this, it's a must have. One more thing: I thought the straight-from-the-soundboard recording sounded kinda flat. One pass of modest compression did the trick, and now it sounds much more lively. PLEASE ENJOY. 

   

FLAC

MP3@320

   

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - FM Broadcasts 1984 + 1985

Barrowland Ballroom 
Glasgow, Scotland 
Sept. 9, 1985
   
FM recording (sound quality: VG++)
  

01 Rich

02 Patience

03 Why I Love Country Music

04 Sweetness

05 Brand New Friend

06 Grace

07 Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?

08 Four Flights Up

09 Rattlesnakes

10 Speedboat

11 2CV

12 Forest Fire

13 Perfect Skin

14 Perfect Skin (outro)

Le Palace

Paris, France

Dec. 4, 1984

    

FM recording (sound quality: VG++)

      

01 Rattlesnakes
02 Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? 

03 Glory (Tom Verlaine cover)
04 Andy's Babies
05 Charlotte Street
06 Patience
07 Speedboat
08 Beautiful City
09 Perfect Skin
10 Forest Fire
11 Glory (Reprise)

musicians:
Blair Cowan - keyboard, accordion
Lawrence Donegan - bass
Stephen Irvine - drums
Neil Clark - guitars
Lloyd Cole - vocals, guitars

ROB SEZ: Call it "coronavirus nostalgia" if you like, but lately I've had a hankering for classic artists from ages past. This extraordinary band is among them, with Glasgow & Paris being the perfect gig locations to satisfy my nostalgia. I've posted other Lloyd Cole & The Commotions ROIOs here in the past, but not these. HUGE THANKS to the original tapers as well as BBGrant for sharing the 1985 recording and to HARMONIZER09/ APOPTYGMA for sharing the Paris recording. Avid LC fans will appreciate the appearance of the rarely-played "Beautiful City" (a Rattlesnakes-era outtake) in the 1984 set. Look for another Lloyd Cole share next week — without The Commotions.

FLAC

  

MP3@320

Lloyd Cole & Commotions - Live 1984-'85

The Paradiso

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

December 6, 1984

FM broadcast (sound quality: Ex-; transfer from master tape)

LC & THE COMMOTIONS: on the set of the 'Rattlesnakes' video shoot

LLOYD COLE has new photos at his revamped web site

01 Perfect Skin
02 Down On Mission Street

03 Charlotte Street

04 Are You Ready to 

     Be Heartbroken?

05 Four Flights Up

06 Rattlesnakes

07 Perfect Blue

08 Speedboat

BIG-TIME THANKS to frankvink for recording & sharing this one. Thanks also to the Live Bootleg Concerts blog, my source for the fine set below. Visit LBC for more quality ROIOs.

Hammersmith Odeon
London, UK
Sept. 1, 1985

FM broadcast (sound quality: VG++) 

Before the wheels came off: Lloyd Cole & Co., in happier times

01 Charlotte Street
02 Down On
     Mission Street
03 Why I Love 
     Country Music 

04 Rattlesnake

05 Minor Character
06 Brand New 
     Friend
07 Grace
08 Four Flights Up
09 Are You Ready

     to Be Heart-
     broken?

10 Speedboat
11 2CV
12 Forest Fire
13 Pretty Gone
14 Perfect Skin

MP3@320

errata: title for track 13 needs to be corrected in the file tag

ROB SEZ: With the snazzy new Lloyd Cole & The Commotions boxed set just out, I thought it'd be a good time to dust off some vintage LC & Cs shows. These guys weren't exactly the most consistent live act, but the two sets I'm sharing are exceptional performance-wise, and both sound great.
  

The boxed set contains all 3 original LPs remastered, plus 2 bonus discs, a DVD, glossy hard-bound book and postcard/poster set. Here's a previously unreleased outtake, "Everyone's Complaining":
 

 

Lloyd Cole - London 1991 + bonus 1987 show

Lloyd Cole is back with a smashing new album, Standards. 
Here are two archival live shows. Rob says Lloyd’s da man!

Hammersmith Odeon

London

Oct. 26, 1991

FM capture (sound quality Ex-) 

01 Rattlesnakes

02 Charlotte Street

03 Mr. Malcontent

04 Weeping Wine

05 From the Hip

06 Patience

07 Butterfly

08 There for Her

09 Man Enough

10 A Long Way Down

11 She's A Girl and I'm A Man

12 Pay for It

13 Perfect Blue

Musicians (presumed lineup):

Lloyd Cole - vocals, acoustic guitar

Robert Quine - lead guitar

Jack Johnson - guitars

Blair Cowan - keyboards

David Ball - bass

Dan McCarroll – drums

Royal Concert Hall

Nottingham, UK

Nov. 13, 1987

BBC Radio One broadcast with Johnny Walker

FM capture (sound quality Ex-; excellent sound marred only by a half-second cut just before start of each track)

01 My Bag

02 29

03 Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?

04 Jennifer She Said

05 Patience

06 Perfect Blue

07 Hey Rusty

08 Mr. Malcontent

09 Perfect Skin

(complete broadcast, which did not include complete concert)

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions:

Neil Clark – guitar

Lloyd Cole - vocals, guitar

Blair Cowan – keyboards

Lawrence Donegan – bass

Stephen Irvine – drums

MP3@320  (second show = MP3@256)

LC: sharp-dressed man in Chinatown.

Lloyd Cole's new album is Standards.
A gutsy title, yes. But it's merited.

 


BUY Standards directly from Lloyd Cole. Or, if you must, you can give Amazon more of your money.

Learn more about the music of Lloyd Cole at the artist's official site and/or AllMusic