Saturday, 16 March, 1985 – Wearmouth Hall, Polytechnic, Sunderland, England

1. Copped It
2. 2 x 4
3. The Classical
4. Couldn’t Get Ahead
5. Hexen Definitive
6. Lay of the Land
7. Barmy
8. Hey! Marc Riley
9. Slang King
10. Draygo’s Guilt
11. Elves
12. No Bulbs
13. Fortress
14. Cruiser’s Creek

NOTES

• 69:43
• Middling audience tape. Everything is a bit hazy, phazy and muddy in places. The tape is dominated early on by a young lady continually asking where Les is and then chattering away in the background in places throughout.
• The first of only three gigs in Sunderland

REVIEWS

The third of four quick homeland gigs before a trip to the States and without Steve Hanley away on paternity leave.

The group is in good form and Rogers does a great job filling in for Hanley on bass. Whilst everything is played well there is not anyone thing that sticks out probably due to the quality of the recording which reduces everything to a dull splodge of sound.

“The Classical” feels incredibly rushed and verging on hard rock in places without the spiky angularity of three years before it just becoming a series of descending chords losing its unique structure.

The rest, with some exceptional exceptions, is basic country and northern and fallabilly with the band perhaps occupying a space of rest between the two albums. Indeed there appears to be none of the brio and bravado and downright insolence I saw at the International in June of this year. For me the scabrous ranting of Hex is the most complete thing of the evening closer to the Fall ethos than any of the para rock the band was playing at this time. Having said that the speedy rush through “Lay of the Land” has a certain charm and the sloppy indifference of “Barmy” is redolent of the flare wearing culture of the time.

Why the band is still handing out the grumpy revenge of “Hey Marc Riley” some two years after the poor chap has left the gruppe is beyond me – doesnt seem to have damaged his career in the long term mind you with the irony of him playing another version of same on his show around the time this review was written.

“Slang King” is excellent – a langorous self obsessed ramble of venal certitude. Muttered tapings introduce a troubled version of “Elves” which leads to a spiky speedy tumble through “No Bulbs” which suffers from something but I know not what. “Fortress” is a little rushed and inconsequential whereas the effortless “Cruisers Creek” perhaps describes where the group wants to be at this time.

Not a classic but OK for all that