R. E. M. + X T C - One Night in Athens, GA 1981-04-24 (NEW SOUNDBOARD source)

B & L Warehouse
Athens, GA
April 24, 1981

soundboard & audience recordings (M1 soundboard source for R. E. M. set)

R. E. M. - opening set

soundboard recording (M1 - transferred from analog safety copy)

01 Radio Free Europe (fades in) 

02 Burning Down

03 Dangerous Times

04 All the Right Friends

05 Shaking Through

06 Body Count

07 Pretty Persuasion

08 (Don't Go Back to) Rockville

09 Hey Hey Nadine

10 That Beat*

11 Sitting Still

12 9-9

13 Windout

14 Gardening at Night (fades out)

 

      *live debut — as best I can tell

X T C - headline set

  

excellent audience recording (low generation source, exact lineage unknown)

01 Respectable Street

02 Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me) 

03 No Language In Our Lungs

04 Ball & Chain

05 Paper & Iron

06 Love at First Sight

07 Roads Girdle the Globe

08 Scissor Man

09 Towers of London

10 Burning with Optimism's Flames 

11 Living Through Another Cuba

12 Generals & Majors

13 This Is Pop

14 Making Plans for Nigel

15 Helicopter

16 Outside World

17 Statue of Liberty

FLAC

 

MP3@320

ROB SEZ:  Something brand new here, along with something pulled from the archive. What's new is the soundboard recording for the R. E. M. set. My source is Pat the Wiz, the legendary sound tech whose superb recordings are revered in and around Athens, GA. This recording has been digitally transferred from Pat's first-generation analog copy of the master reel, digitally revised by Pat. It's as close to perfect as you can get, absent a new transfer from Pat's master.

According to Remtimeline, the only other known recording for the R. E. M. set is a so-so sounding audience capture that's been in general circulation since 2011. By contrast, this pristine first-generation soundboard recording represents a very significant upgrade, which I'm happy to put into general circulation. When I received the source files, they only needed tracking and fading. No eq, no compression, no jiggery pokery. As far as I can tell, Pat didn't hit record until a minute into set opener Radio Free Europe, and his tape apparently ran out about a minute into closing song Gardening at Night.

HUGE THANKS to Pat the Wiz.

The X T C set comes from an excellent, low-generation audience recording, for which I am indebted to the kind souls at the now-defunct XTC4U and XTCWeeds.

There's a bonus goodie for X T C fans baked into the download. 

READ a 2018 remembrance of this show by Vanessa Briscoe Hay (of Pylon / Pylon Reenactment Society fame) at Flagpole, with quotes from Mike Mills.

PLEASE ENJOY. Still more to come.

   

 

X T C - Black Sea Demos (etc.) 1980

1980 Polygram Studios

London, England

 
studio recordings (sound quality: VG to VG+; faint hiss is audible at times, but it won't ruin your listening enjoyment)

 

Cracks me up
I think this cover art (courtesy of Trystereo) is hilarious

ROB SEZ: Thanks to Hans de Vente, we have here a gem of a rarity: band demos (and perhaps also rough mixes) from sessions for the fourth album. Oddly, there are also three solo demos from Mr. Partridge (#8-10). These were on the tape that AP sent to Hans (see below), so they've been preserved in their original running order. However, you might want to move them as you arrange the tracks for your listening pleasure. Believe it or not, these have never seen an official release (even on the seemingly endless Fuzzy Warbles collections).

01 Living Through Another Cuba  
     [instrum.]

02 Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

03 Rocket From a Bottle

04 Towers of London

05 Smokeless Zone [instrum.]

06 Ban the Bomb [instrum.]

07 No Language In Our Lungs

08 Pearl [APartridge solo]

09 Holding the Baby  
     [APartridge solo]

10 Monkeys In Human Skin Suites
     [APartridge solo]

11 Burning With 
     Optimism’s Flames

12 Paper and Iron 
     (Notes and Coins) 

13 Travels In Nihilon

14 Don't Lose Your Temper

15 Respectable Street

16 Generals and Majors
 
TT: 63 mins. 

 

REPERCUSSION: Several of our heroes have named X T C as an influence, and no less than Chris Stamey wrote a very catchy song not long ago called "You 'n' Me 'n' X T C" — recorded with musical advice from a certain Mr. Partridge. (Wanna hear it? Go here).

SKYLARKING AGAIN?  X T C in their 1980s heyday

MP3@320

X T C:

Andy  Partridge - guitar, vocals

Dave Gregory - guitar, vocals

Colin Moulding - bass, vocals

Terry Chambers – drums

Learn more about the music of X T C at Wikipedia, Andy P's official site, &/or this impressive fan site