This was officially the beginning of the live touring campaign for An End Has a Start. Gig number one of a long, long run after a break from the equally lengthy Back Room skirmishes which ended in Istanbul during September of 2006. Having decided that they weren't going to make the same mistake they made with the Back Room promotional stretch, namely overworking themselves to the point of creative amnesia, they backtracked rapidly and repeated the very same process while taking AEHAS from town to town. The lessons gained from staying out on the road a little too long would have an impact eventually, as well as the changing nature of the band members' domestic arrangements, with more manageable tour schedules following in later years.
This show was all about road testing new material and, luckily for the band, Warrington was 100% receptive on the night. An End Has a Start wouldn't be released for another month, which makes their reaction to the new material even more impressive. Tom, who for whatever reason possesses an unusually talkative disposition on the night, addresses the situation of hearing a new record by saying:-
"Like when your sister gets a new boyfriend, if you're a brother, and you've got to be nice to him even though you don't know him. These songs are a bit like that.....so thank you."
On the subject of band/audience banter, I love the way Mr Smith swears casually between songs, but then requests that the audience takes the roof off the place just before Fingers in such a wonderfully polite manner. The only thing missing is "If you wouldn't mind" at the end of it. It's excellent.
The relative virginity of the AEHAS material means that they were still chiseling the excess clay off them in terms of their eventual live presentation :-
- Escape the Nest has Tom singing along with Chris' lead guitar as it closes.
- That first airing of the new arrangement of Bones that caused so much scowling among the faithful who were weened on the previous live takes.
- Tom talking over a shortened count in from Ed for An End Has a Start.
- The build up during Smokers between the "I can't believe you, if I can't hear you", and the explosion of them all coming back is played exactly as it is on the record. Later, the gap would be widened to create more tension and there's no better example than the astonishing one they played at Oxegen a year later.
The show was recorded and originally made available online by Tarquin as a single FLAC file. The only alterations I've made at this end is to split that file into separate tracks. Many thanks to him for sharing his work, enjoy the music ;)
FLAC Files
Bones - download here
Bullets - download here
Blood - download here
Escape the Nest - download here
The Weight of the World - download here
Lights - download here
All Sparks - download here
Racing Rats - download here
Fall - download here
AEHAS - download here
Munich - download here
Encore Break - download here
You are Fading - download here
Smokers - download here
Fingers in the Factories - download here
Single FLAC file - download here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
