album // Play
And thus it starts. Play. Melbourne Festival Hall, 6th September 1980.
'And now, three little words' Howard Devoto is heard to say ahead of 'Give Me Everything''s onslaught of muscular guitars, grinding bass and Clint Boon-prefacing organ and spiralling keyboards. Devoto, live, has a raw and obvious quality, and here you can truly believe that he once fronted the doyens of the Manchester scene, Buzzcocks. 'Song From Under The Floorboards', here seems rendered with even more peaks and throughs, crashing cymbals and near silence, as well as a rich tapestry of jazzy piano riffs from Dave Formula. The predatory menace of 'Permafrost', with its isolated high-octave Barry Adamson bass line (what is it about Manchester bass players and playing melodic high notes?), is here rendered with chilling excellence, despite the replacement of key player, guitarist John McGeoch; while Robin Simon may at times play far too closely into the realms of axe-wielding prog virtuosity, there's no denying that he gells well with the band.
The switch from 'Permafrost's icy chill to the snare-driven 'The Light Pours Out Of Me' - by way of a Simon guitar distortion improvisation - is effortless, the track growing in noisy intensity as it progresses, despite the fragility of Devoto's mysterious half English, half French vocal. The hyperactive 'Model Worker', clearly an inspiration for fellow Mancunians Inspiral Carpets, is exacting, finding Adamson's bass and John Doyle's drums anchoring the track while Dave Formula gets a bit too carried away on his keyboards.
'Parade' begins quietly, almost gingerly, before a trio of bass, drums and reedy synths rise up and move this 5 minute epic forward; drawing on the same atmosphere that breathed cold air through 'Permafrost', Devoto's ruminative vocal is swathed in a sinister garb, while Adamson delivers one of his finest - and most intense - bass performances with the band.
Magazine then proceed to funk their way through Sly Stone's 'Thank You', here much slower - but funkier - than the version that appears on The Correct Use Of Soap, Devoto finding a different point of inflection on the chorus. In contrast, the rolling drums and spiralling guitar passages of 'Because You're Frightened' is harder, faster and louder, flailing cymbals at the chorus, more expressive guitar on the verses; the track unleashes the intensity hinted at, but restrained in Martin Hannett's clipped album version production.
A standout performance, the Adamson-led bass-heavy 'Twenty Years Ago' starts as a raucous, beautifully messy jam, with screeching sax, guitars and synths, before settling into a somewhat more organised track. Even Devoto's vocal, despite proper words, feels improvised, his faltering, jittery style mirroring his band. The track evolves seamlessly into 'Definitive Gaze', albeit at a faster pace than one is used to; Adamson's anchoring bass and Devoto's confrontational vocal are unchanged, but the keyboards and guitar are heavily cloaked with filters and effects.
And then it's gone. Stop.