This 29-song live mix collects as many “Get Happy” songs as possible (16 of 20), plus contemporary non-album originals and covers that occupy similar territory (e.g., soul, R&B, Sun Studio rock). Four songs appear twice, three in contrasting arrangements, so 25 different songs are represented.
All material is unreleased, as far as I can tell.
This is my favorite era of The Attractions as a crack live combo. They were making up fabulous arrangements (and rearrangements) for dozens of songs at a furious rate, in a seemingly almost co-equal creative partnership.
The 2003 Rhino reissues of this period’s albums provided a lot of great live bonus tracks, as well as amazing studio outtakes. Nonetheless, I’ve continued to want a big double live LP that captures the thing that these guys were pursuing between “Armed Forces” and “Trust.”
Many thanks to @tywilc and @louchelarue for helping me find additional sources for this mix. I’ve had a half-baked version of it sitting around for a long time. Thanks also to the band for playing nine “Get Happy” songs in a row in Liverpool in February 1980. That performance makes up a large portion of LP2.
I’ve balanced the volume and made EQ tweaks to tamp down sources with high-end stab, to add a bit more dimension to flatter sources, or to reduce a noisy frequency band somewhere.
There’s not much “album sequencing” on this mix. I kept songs from the same shows grouped together, so there would be as few sonic change-ups as possible, and then sorted them into two, LP-length sequences, both of which begin with "B-Movie."
All source dates, cities, and guest-musicians are noted in the song title tags.
85-minute mp3 mix zipped up here
LP 1:
- B-Movie
- So Young
- Girls Talk
- Don’t Look Back
- Help Me
- One More Heartache
- Need Your Love So Bad
- Little Sister
- Temptation
- Secondary Modern
- Clowntime is Over
- New Amsterdam
- High Fidelity
- Opportunity
LP2:
- B-Movie
- Sad About Girls
- Big Tears
- Motel Matches
- Opportunity
- I Stand Accused
- Possession
- King Horse
- Girls Talk
- 5ive Gears in Reverse
- The Imposter
- Human Touch
- High Fidelity
- I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down
- Beaten to the Punch