1983 Scottish radio recording of Elvis to be released?

[johnfoyle]

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=400112004

Blast from the past

FIONA SHEPHERD


It reads like a movie script. A man lies awake at
night, tossing and turning. Have I paid the gas bill?
Where did I put my Bruce Lee cufflinks? And what
happened to the gazillions of live recordings made by
Radio Clyde and Radio Forth throughout the 1980s, not
to mention radio sessions recorded by artists
stretching as far back as 1973? Cut to the morning:
Scottish Radio Holdings’ chief executive Richard
Findlay (for it is he) orders a search that uncovers a
generation’s worth of musical memories on analogue
tape.

Now, what to do with a catalogue amounting to 3,000
different recordings? Set up a record label, of
course, and get those babies back out to the punters
they were originally meant to entertain. And so River
Records opens its account with a batch of artist
recordings - an inhouse session from folk duo
Gallagher & Lyle, a live recording of mighty rockers
Nazareth and a live/session mixture from veteran
songwriter Rab Noakes - to inaugurate a series called
The River Sessions.

The SRH archive reads like a Who’s Who of 1980s music,
ranging from the coup of capturing U2 in 1983 on the
cusp of international stardom, or early shows by
Simple Minds and New Order and events such as Rod
Stewart at Ibrox to pop dregs such as Wang Chung,
Shakatak, Hazel Dean and the dreaded T’Pau.

Just the names of the venues - Tiffany’s, Nightmoves,
Henry Afrikas, Zanzibars, the Mayfair, Ultrateque -
provoke nostalgia for seeing a cool indie band in a
naff 1980s nightclub. There’s a socio-musical history
there, before you even get to the legions of shows
recorded at important historical venues such as the
Glasgow Apollo and the Barrowland ballroom.

An introductory sampler for the press captures
snippets of some of these performances (fortunately
not Wang Chung). River Records is in the process of
clearing the release of these recordings but the
potential is substantial, just based on one
tantalising minute each of Roxy Music performing
Jealous Guy at the Apollo in September 1982, Elvis
Costello at the Locarno a year later, the miraculous
voice of Billy Mackenzie at an Associates gig from
1983, Perfect Skin still sounding fresh and cool from
a 1985 Lloyd Cole And The Commotions gig, Spandau
Ballet being (mercifully) drowned out by their
screaming fans at Ingliston in late 1984 and numerous
hoary old rock recordings of the likes of Thin Lizzy,
Rory Gallagher and Uriah Heep from the last years of
the Apollo.

One such gig is captured on Nazareth: The River
Sessions. By September 1981, Nazareth were Scotland’s
elder rock statesmen. This Apollo gig, with extra
material from a show in Houston, Texas, captures their
fluent diversity. The band demonstrate exactly how you
deliver a rock ballad with a gruff, soulful Love
Hurts, unleash the archetypal blues boogie of Tush,
dust off some lighter-waving AOR with Hearts Grown
Cold, display a playful glam side on the enjoyable
drivel, Razamanaz, and demonstrate a pervasive reggae
influence on tracks such as Cocaine and Let Me Be Your
Leader. And you’ve got to love a live recording where
the singer informs the audience "yiz are braw!"

Also currently available is Gallagher & Lyle: The
River Sessions, an immaculate, evocative treat from
the archives, composed of a quality Clyde session from
late 1974. The pair deliver 14 tracks of pastoral folk
pop, rootsier hoedowns and melodic acoustic
melancholy, plus one previously unavailable song,
First Leaves Of Autumn. Like the Nazareth CD, the
sleeve notes are cursory.

Of similar rootsy songwriterly interest is Rab Noakes:
The River Sessions, which is among the next batch of
releases. It blends a Radio Clyde session from 1982
with contemporary live recordings from Aberdeen Music
Hall and the Kelvingrove Festival, but still maintains
a cohesive sound. This time, the copious sleevenotes
are equal to the material, with Noakes supplying
song-by-song observations.

But River Records will not solely be concerned with
the SRH archive. They are also making Jesse Rae’s
album, The Thistle, available on CD for the first
time, which will please those (and that includes the
man himself) who regard Rae as one of the unsung
heroes of Scottish pop music and will alarm those
unaccustomed to hearing suggestive funk sung in a
broad Scottish accent by a man wielding a claymore.

Over the next few months, the label is planning the CD
release of Gallagher & Lyle’s and Kevin McDermott’s
back catalogues, a new album from Scottish songstress
Julienne Taylor (released jointly with the Music
Kitchen) and further River Sessions from Bert Jansch,
Maggie Bell, Lindisfarne and Magnum. Already, River is
in spate.

CDs of the Week
Nazareth: The River Sessions ***
RIVER RECORDS, £9.99

Gallagher & Lyle: The River Sessions ****
RIVER RECORDS, £9.99

Rab Noakes: The River Sessions ***
RIVER RECORDS, £9.99


• For more information on the label, visit http://www.riverrecords.com

[johnfoyle]

According to Going Through The Motions - an early 1980`s Costello book - Radio Clyde broadcast songs from a show at Tiffany`s , Glasgow ( October 6 1983) .

The Oct.17 `83 was broadcast on BBC Radio One and is widely available on boots . I`m listening to it as I type - and it`s a cracker! Promoting Punch The Clock , Elvis and The Attractions are accompanied by the TKO Horns and Afrodiziak.

[wehitandrun]

Yes I have that too, I like it a lot.

[Gilbert]

I don't have the bootleg but was at the show.
My girlfriend of the time really didn't like the show but I thought it was fine. (Despite the Afrodiziak singers wearing silly plastic raincoats, I seem to remember.)
Anyway, it was held at Tiffany's on Sauchiehall St, not the Locarno.

And I kept the girlfriend...
(She enjoyed the North show at the Concert Hall a wee while ago, so her taste has improved.)

[martinfoyle]

See

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... php?t=6278

[Man out of Time]

Updating the link to River Records, whose website http://www.riverrecords.com, is now a dead link. Details for the label are here:

http://www.themusicindex.com/commerce/p ... /river.htm According to which:

The Label is presently working with Artists, Managers, Record Companies and Music Publishers in order to bring this wealth of extraordinary musical performances to the public.

This seems to be a long and drawn out process, unless you happen to be a fan of Gallagher and Lyle or the Kevin McDermott Orchestra.

MOOT

[johnfoyle]

This recent addition to youTube is a handy way of hearing one of the 1983 shows -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTfurBqOlP4

Elvis Costello & The Attractions live at the Hammersmith Palais, London on 17 October 1983, recorded for the BBC and first broadcast on 17 December 1983.

Tracklist:

1. Let Them All Talk (0:27)
2. Possession (3:50)
3. Watch Your Step (6:21)
4. The Greatest Thing (9:50)
5. Man Out Of Time (13:09)
6. From Head To Toe (17:34)
7. Oliver's Army (20:24)
8. Shipbuilding (23:30)
9. The World And His Wife (28:05)
10. Alison (including Living A Little, Laughing A Little) (31:00)
11. Back Stabbers / King Horse (34:50)
12. Clowntime Is Over (39:18)
13. Everyday I Write The Book (45:10)
14. TKO (Boxing Day) (49:18)
15. Pump It Up (including Ain't That A Lot Of Love) (53:10)

[terryhurley]

thanks for the link John. I had worn out my old cassette of this brilliant show.