Soft Boys - Rout of the Clones (live 1978)

‘Rout of the Clones’ bootleg

Cambridge & Leicester, UK

Live Compilation 1978

  

soundboard recordings (quality: VG+; surprisingly solid quality, given the age & era of the source tapes)
   
01 Blues In the Dark

02 The Bells of Rhymney

03 Sandra's Having Her Brain Out 

04 The Pigworker

05 School Dinner Blues

06 Cold Turkey

07 Leppo & the Jooves

08 Have a Heart Betty

09 I Like Bananas

10 Wading Through a Ventilator

11 The Rat's Prayer

12 Give It to the Soft Boys

13 Hear My Brane

14 Return of the Sacred Crab

15 Mystery Train

16 Muriel's Hoot 
     - Rout of the Clones

17 (I Want to Be An) 
     Anglepoise Lamp

18 Poor Will & the 
     Jolly Hangman*
  
*rehearsal recording, quality VG-

  

(click on artwork, right, for venues & dates) 

ROB SEZ: OK, Soft Boys & RH fans: here's another one for your enjoyment. We're going back to near the beginning of the saga, featuring live recordings from the band's second year. The Asking Tree gigography indicates these performances all took place during one week in late November 1978 — about 3 weeks after the Portland Arms gig featured here last week. The sound/performance is rough & raw in the best sense, but even at this early date, the recording shows off the band's musical adventurism and Robyn's skewed wit. Once again, I'm fairly certain we have Dr. Forrester to thank for sharing this way back ... I dunno when.

THERE'S A MYSTERY BONUS SHARE RH FANS & OBSESSIVES WILL WANT TO SNAG.

  

FLAC

  

MP3@320

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Athens, GA 1988 (sbd)

Uptown Lounge

Athens, GA

March 2, 1988

  

soundboard recording (quality: VG+; liberated bootleg, ripped from my CD; there's occasional slight distortion, but it's not intrusive)

01 I Often Dream of Trains

02 I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl

03 The Cars She Used to Drive 

04 Acid Bird

05 Bass

06 Tropical Flesh Mandala

07 Element of Light

08 I'm Only You

09 Birdshead

10 Flesh No. 1

11 Balloon Man

12 The Man with the Lightbulb Head

13 Heaven

14 Uncorrected Personality Traits

15 Listening to the Higsons

16 The Queen of Eyes

17 Globe of Frogs

  

18 Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands*

19 The Crystal Ship+

   

*Track 18 = RH live session, KCRW Santa Monica, CA

                   1989-04-24 (FM) 

+Track 19 = RH live session, KROQ Los Angeles, CA

                   1989-04-24 (FM)

Musicians:

Robyn Hitchcock - vocals, guitar, bass
Andy Metcalfe - bass, vocals, drums
Morris Windsor - drums, vocals, guitar
Peter Buck - additional guitar
  

ROB SEZ: Continuing to celebrate the musical genius of Robyn Hitchcock this month — heard here in his "...and The Egyptians" incarnation. Offered for your listening pleasure is this liberated bootleg of a lovely soundboard recording. It's from an RHE show in Athens, GA — with no venue specified, but a blog reader who remembers being there says it was at the Uptown Lounge. The helpful Asking Tree gigography tells us this show was the first American performance on the tour supporting the just-released Globe of Frogs album. Athens local / Hitchcock fan Peter Buck played supplemental guitar on many of the songs. (FYI: this one's not available via archive.org)

  

FLAC

  

MP3@320

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - 'Thoth Boys' Live Comp

'Give It to the Thoth Boys'
made-for-fans live compilation 
various venues & dates 1991-1993
  
soundboard recordings (quality: Ex-; recorded from the mixing desk)
  

01 Egyptian Cream (Tempe, AZ 1992)
02 chat about 'My Wife'
03 My Wife and My Dead Wife (Dallas 1992) 
04 Clean Steve (Dallas 1992)
05 Glass Hotel (Minneapolis 1992)
06 When I Was Dead (New York 1992)
07 City of Shame (New York 1993)
08 Only the Stones Remain (New York 1993)
09 The Live-In Years (Los Angeles 1992)
10 Globe of Frogs (San Francisco 1992)
11 Somewhere Apart (London 1991)
12 Freeze (London 1991)
13 A Day In the Life (Dallas 1992)

ROB SEZ: Anytime's a good time for a little Robyn H. — so why not late January in 2020? This collection is from a tape compilation made available exclusively to fans in 1993, with all tracks recorded by the band from the mixing board. Egyptians bassist Andy Metcalfe selected and sequenced the tracks, sold only at live shows for a time. I cannot recall my source for this, but I'm guessing it came from the mysterious & generous Dr. Forrester. He's shared a heap o’ Robyn Hitchcock goodies through the years at his excellent Just Add Cones blog, which appears to be dormant right now. Expect more RH rarities in the coming weeks...

FLAC

MP3@320

Robyn Hitchcock - Radio Sessions (50 tracks)

Radio Sessions
3 CDs (50 songs' worth)
various dates, locations, recording info
 

Disc 1
01 Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl
02 Love Is What
03 Flavour of Night
04 I Often Dream of Trains
05 Agony of Pleasure
06 Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus
07 Man With a Woman's Shadow
08 I Something You
09 Further Scenes From a Family Life
10 Cool Bug Rumble
11 Devil's Radio
12 Queen Elvis
13 Jewels for Sophia
14 NASA Clapping
15 You've Got a Sweet Mouth On You
16 Thumb Song
17 No, I Don't Remember Guildford

Disc 2
18 The Yip Song
19 Uncorrected Personality Traits

20 De Chirico Street
21 Heliotrope
22 1974
23 Let's Go Thundering
24 Gene Hackman
25 Cheese Alarm
26 Arms of Love
27 Surgery
28 I Often Dream of Trains
29 Autumn Is Your Last Chance
30 Freeze
31 I Feel Beautiful
32 Cheese Alarm
33 A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations 

Disc 3

34 Full Moon In My Soul
35 Creeped Out - Penguin of Love
36 Oceanside
37 Birds In Perspex
38 Chinese Bones
39 Ride
40 Uncorrected Personality Traits

41 Tonight
42 Mexican God
43 It's A Man's Life
44 Ivy
45 Arms of Love
46 Wreck of the Arthur Lee
47 Egyptian Cream
48 Sinister
49 Yes I Do
50 De Cherico Street

ROB SEZ: I received these without any dates, locales or recording info. But if you're a Robyn Hitchcock fan, what do you have to lose — except a bit of disc space? MEGA THANKS to Don from the old ASH blog for sharing. This comes with a shout-out to Don, since he's been under the weather lately. I do hope you're on the mend, kind sir.

MP3@320

ASH Tuesday post #70

Soft Boys - Hoboken, N.J. 1980 + Live 2001-'02

Maxwell’s

Hoboken, N.J.

Sept. 6, 1980

audience recording (VG; club show, with plusses outweighing the minuses by a solid margin) 

01 Kingdom of Love

02 Out of the Picture

03 Zip Zip

04 Human Music

05 I Wanna Destroy You

06 Only the Stones Remain 

07 Leppo & the Jooves

08 Queen of Eyes

09 There's Nobody Like You

10 Underwater Moonlight

11 Insanely Jealous

12 Astronomy Domine

ROB SEZ: I purchased this recently as a silver (pressed) boot. I transferred the files losslessly, then used Audacity to tidy them up, applying fades & enough eq to remove the uncomfortable tinny-ness that first greeted my ears. To compensate for the not-quite-ideal result, I’ve added the following two live radio sessions from 2001 and 2002. I recorded, transferred, tracked, & eq’d them for your listening pleasure. (Notice the lack of track duplication with the MBE sessions, though just 19 months apart.) If you've never had the pleasure, I highly recommend reading Kimberley Rew's eyewitness account of the Soft Boys. I have a few more Soft Boys sets I can share, but some encouraging comments will be helpful if you really want 'em...

Front Man Syndrome: does Robyn ever get tired of being the only guy in the photo?

‘Morning Becomes Eclectic’ with Nic Harcourt

KCRW-FM

Robyn has company this time, thanks to the Soft Boys

Santa Monica, CA
April 9, 2001
(broadcast date)

What an amazing radio station. Thanks, KCRW...

web stream (sound quality VG+ to VG++) 

01 intro

02 Kingdom of Love

03 Old Pervert

04 My Mind Is Connected 

     to Your Dreams

05 I Wanna Destroy You

06 interview

07 Sudden Town

08 Underwater Moonlight

09 The Face of Death

10 Pulse of My Heart

11 outro

Nov. 4, 2002 (broadcast date)

[all other info same as above]

01 intro

02 Queen of Eyes

03 Unprotected Love

04 Chinese Bones

05 Seven-Winged Bat 

06 interview

07 Narcissus

08 La Cherité

09 song intro + tuning

10 If You Know Time

11 final chat

MP3@320

Sample the tasty musical madness of the Soft Boys here (1980 live clip)

Learn more about the Soft Boys' music at 

Trouser Press and AllMusic

   

Peter Holsapple & Worst Case Scenario - Chicago 1989

The Cubby Bear

Chicago, IL

March 5, 1989

Leukemia benefit show
  

NOTE: each of the two sets has its own separate download

audience recording (sound quality VG; club show with some distracting crowd noise)

    

Robyn Hitchcock & Peter Buck, collaborating once again.

MUCH APPRECIATION to the taper and to dB’s Fan for sharing.      

Peter Holsapple setlist:

Six Degrees or less from Robyn H. & Peter B.

01 This is Where I Belong (Kinks cover) 

02 She Got Soul

03 I’m Running Over

04 Bald Headed Baby

05 Soul Kiss

06 Big Brown Eyes

07 Second Time Around

08 Lonely Is as Lonely Does

09 Next to the Last Waltz

10 Black and White*

11 Judy*

12 Neverland*        

*with Peter Buck (aka “Mr. Good Wrench”) on guitar

MP3@320
 

Peter H. called on Robyn Hitchcock & Peter Buck to play this benefit with him.
photo by k-dj via Flickr

Worst Case Scenario setlist:

01 I Wanna Destroy You (Robyn Hitchcock) --> Twist and Shout (Isley Bros. / Beatles cover)

02 Do Right Woman (Moman / Penn tune)

03 Changed the Locks (L. Williams cover)

04 Revolution Number 1 (Beatles cover)

05 Roof Is Leaking (Dion cover)

06 Queen of Eyes (Robyn Hitchcock)

07 Mr. Spaceman (Byrds cover)

08 The Rumor (The Band cover)

09 You Can’t Do That (Beatles cover)

10 It Takes a Lot to Laugh… (Bob Dylan cover)

11 Robyn speaks

12 The Bells of Rhymney (P. Seeger / I. Davies cover) end cut, faded
     

Performed, but missing from this recording:

         ·      Mr. Tambourine Man (Dylan/Byrds cover)

         ·      The Child In You (Peter H. solo)

          
THIS INFO courtesy of the fine folks at The Asking Tree (comprehensive Robyn Hitchcock fan site)

Musicians:

Peter Buck

Robyn Hitchcock

Peter Holsapple

Andy Metcalfe

Morris Windsor
 

MP3@320

FURTHER INFO about this performance:

Originally, this was to be a Peter Holsapple solo show in aid of "Concert For A Cure" to benefit the Leukemia Society of America. But with help from his friends (Peter Buck, Robyn Hitchcock, Morris Windsor & Andy Metcalfe), it turned into a "Worst Case Scenario" performance (one of the pseudonymous names used by Peter Buck, Robyn Hitchcock & various musical friends). At the time, Peter H. was a touring member of R.E.M. and Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians were a support act for R.E.M.

A similar show took place a few days later in Minneapolis (compare & contrast the setlists):

8 March 1989 - Seventh Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN

The Cars She Used To Drive / Wax Doll / Freeze / Falling Leaves / Swirling / Calvary Cross / Birdshead / Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis) / More Than This / The Lizard / Queen Of Eyes / Revolution / I Wanna Destroy You / Twist And Shout / The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show / Do Right Woman, Do Right Man / Eight Miles High / Rain

(as with the Chicago show, this was preceded by a solo set by Peter Holsapple)

ABOVE INFO courtesy of the fine folks at The R.E.M. Timeline.