I sent Michael a text earlier to request that this bootleg was included in the album by album review and he said “off you go, then” so here goes.
A rough quality audience recording from 1970 and much about it is curious. Incredibly rare on (original) vinyl and reissued on CD twice with very different mixes – the Italian label Aulica released it as “The Honest One” with a different cover, slightly cleaned up sound but all the stage announcements lopped off and funny stereo panning, and Point’s reissue with original sleeve and title reverted back to (I suspect) transcription straight off a copy of the LP, stage announcements reinstated and silly panning gone but slightly muddier sound (but for my money the easier variant to deal with).
Yet more contention surrounds the date – claimed to be May 1970 when most reckon October of the same year. I’m sure I recall a debate whether it is the Stadtpark in Hamburg or the Ernst Merck Halle. Some say it was the first gig of the Ace/Williams rhythm section. Will we ever really know?
What’s to defend about it – it is a fascinating listen! Julian Gough said that 2ozOPWAHITM was a band who’d hit upon something but didn’t know what to do with it yet, and this is that same thing magnified tenfold. Deke had gone and come back again, Ray and Jeff had gone (and so had all the material from their tenure barring The Storm) and the seminal Ace/Williams rhythm section was in place.
Spunk Rock had started to evolve. The “formal” intro is still there but by now Clive hollers the song not unlike a less-modulating Chappo might have sung it. Great solos from everybody – Clive is on fire especially!
Would The Christians Wait Five Minutes? is embryonic and suggests this began life as something that the Deke-less band had rustled up. The main theme is there, but none of the studio cut’s spacy middle section - instead Ace bursts into song about “a beautiful day in summer” and Deke’s infamous tin whistle can be heard too! There is also no sign yet of the ascending-then-descending chord end mantra that graced the studio cut.
(Note it seems like there are four eras of WTCW5M?TLAHAD mainly centred around what to do in the middle: 1) the version on this bootleg with Ace’s summer song included and a reprise of the opening riff as an ending; 2) the Beat Club variant with Ace’s song eschewed in favour of some vocal effects by MJ and the ending in place; 3) the studio cut with spacy middle section; 4) the song abandoned formally but a beefed-up version of the ending retained in jams as per the last few mins of Padget Rooms)Alchemist of The Mind/Scholar of Consciousness is a pair of jams from which not only do we get the familiar Alchemist riff (which I always thought out-Sabbath’d Sabbath) but a very early glimpse of the “My Eyes Are Burning” riff from MACBFGU, more than a whole album too early!
Blistering guitars on
Daughter of the Fireplace which at this stage lacks the cowbell and one-chord backdrop that would eventually underpin Deke’s solo.
The Storm is a relatively faithful run through the familiar studio arrangement (no Prelude) with the centre section suitably beefed up by organ and electric guitars.
And of course, the only easy way of hearing
Conscience which again with hindsight sounds like something that Ace had got together during Deke’s piano factory period – a riffy rocker that was not persevered with long and I can see why, as it strikes me as a tune that works well live but would go nowhere in the studio.
It’s impossible to separate To Live For To Die from this clip, it really is more of the same, but recorded much better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSjL-rGsCUw
08/12/2023 -
Supported by The Trembling Knees, Man at The Bunkhouse in Swansea.
02/02/2024 -
Man at Backstage at The Green Hotel in Kinross.
15/02/2024 -
Man at The Half Moon, Putney in London.
