What are you listening to, right now?

At the time 4AD were the label of all my favourite bands. I was Birthday Party crazy from the first time I heard them in 1980 until their demise. I still think they were my favourite ever live act. Even topping the Cramps with Bryan Gregory.

The drunken Strayan banhammer is likely to land upon you. Terry does not approve of the Birthday Party at all.

Enjoy your ban :unamused:

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what would he know he’s Australian :upside_down_face:
The bloods constantly rushing to his feet up here.

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Anyhooo, this has been playing for the last little while:

Ovoc

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Fuck - I would have loved to have seen The Cramps with Bryan Gregory,

I think the Cocteau Twins loom so large now for 4AD that people forget just how many amazing bands were on the label over the years. Remember an amazing gig by Xmal Deutchland at Nighmoves in Glasgow - Anja Huwe was fucking gorgeous.

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image

Fuck it why not - Mr Clarinet is a great way to start any album :+1:

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I like the Cocteaus, but there was something missing live until later on in their career. I saw the Cocteaus outplayed by their support Dif Juz in Dublin. Dif Juz were astonishing. Similarly I saw several Cocteaus/Wolfgang Press double headers. TWP were regularly better. I also loved early shows by Dead Can Dance touring the first three LPs.

It was the first time I saw them, supported by the Fall :grinning: They absolutely blew my mind. I can still remember the impact they had. Poison Ivy was like a goddess :heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

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I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would when it came out so when I found a new copy for a tenner yesterday, it seemed rude not to.

My favourite Cramps gig was Brighton in 86 - the crowd was mental. There were so many Psychobilly crews it ended up total carnage - fucking brilliant.

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Dif Juz were tremendous as were Rema Rema. TWP were mental :+1: Never got to see Dead Can Dance in their early days unfortunately.

There were no such psycho billy types when I saw them in 1980, mainly mesmerised Fall fans.
However saw them again in 1981 ( Leeds) and the Theater of hate guys had arrived. Lots of argy bargy at Cramps gigs from then on. Lux was one of the very best front men ever. He gave his all every time I saw them. I remember they stood in for Killing Joke at futurama after their drummer broke his thumb. They rocked the place crazy, and ruined the audience for the headlining Bunnymen. I Mc was clearly rattled by the crowds annoyance that the Cramps set was over.

That would have been excellent - I love the Bunnymen but McCulloch always got on my tits. I remember seeing them in Edinburgh and he had tonsillitis so the band played without him and were tremendous - Will Sargeant played a blinder.

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He always came across as an arrogant git on stage, I think that’s why I never liked them as much as I should have. I really loved the bands that interacted with their audience.

That’s brilliant, good on them. I saw PIL once where Lydon had an argument with the rest of the band during the soundcheck and told them to fuck off. He did the gig solo with a backing track on cassette playing through a ghetto blaster on a table next to him :grinning:

That’s the kind of stuff I love.

We went to see Bauhaus in Nightmoves and someone gobbed on Pete Murphy who stormed off and never retuned. Meanwhile the guilty party was dealt with so the band played the rest of the gig without Murphy. Happy days.

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Bauhaus were another great live band. Very happy days indeed :+1:

My two favourite gigs -

Bauhuas the second time they played Nightmoves in Glasgow and Julian Cope at the Escape Club in Brighton in 86 when he was on acid.

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Anytime in the eighties? :grinning: