Birdland: Live

label

 

Lazy Recordings 1989.  lazy 16T

Discogs

Back in the 1980s, the economics of music were different.  Going to see bands was pretty cheap, but buying recorded music was expensive.  In those days, touring was a way of drumming up record sales, whereas now it’s reversed and the prices reflect that.  So it was astonishingly generous of Birdland to give this album away at gigs.  OK, it’s one sided and has no cover or tracklisting, but for free, who’s complaining.

The band used to drink in the same pub as me and I found them annoying.  They’d hold court in the corner of the pub with their bleached hair and glamorous looking entourage, while I’d be sitting elsewhere, not looking good, with my mates who were also not looking good.  I must admit that I did quietly rejoice when they fell out of favour as quickly as they arrived.  I really wanted them to be a terrible band, but the problem is, they weren’t, as this live album shows.  They did loud, chaotic punk influenced rock’n’roll, with no quiet songs to show their sensitive side.  That this live album, which I assumed would be quite rare turns out to be close to worthless demonstrates that the uncoolness they acquired so quickly has never gone away, and perhaps that explains why their career was so short.  The performance here is a bit of a shambles, and the sound isn’t great – although there was little audible bass on their studio recordings too, but it captures the energy of a really exciting live band.  Listening to it now after many years it’s actually better than I remember.  This kind of music is timeless, and I’ve long since forgotten how annoying they were in the pub.

I didn’t quite get the tracks divided properly when I ripped this, so one of the files has 2 songs.  I could fix it, but it’s late and I want to go to bed.  Sorry.