The Call - 1983-10-28 - Brest, FR (SBD/FLAC)

(Soundboard FLAC)

THE CALL 
28/10/1983 
Brest, Salle de Penfeld 
(supporting Peter Gabriel, last night of the 1983 tour) 

LINEAGE 
Soundboard -> Unknown deck cassette master -> 1st generation cassette -> Aiwa XK-009 EXCELIA -> iMac (line in) -> Audacity (24bit/96khz) -> izotope RX3 (EQed – normalised – 16/44 downsampled – tracks split) -> xACT (Flac Level 8/SBE fix)

Michael Been – guitar, vocals 
Scott Musick – drums, percussion, vocals 
Tom Ferrier – guitar, vocals 
Greg Freeman – bass 
Jim Goodwin – keyboards

01 - Peter Gabriel intro 
02 - Delivered 
03 - Tremble 
04 - War Weary World 
05 - All About You 
06 - Turn A Blind Eye 
07 - Violent Times 
08 - Scene Beyond Dreams 
09 - Back From The Front 
10 - The Walls Came Down 

Encore: 
11 - Notified (cut) 

NOTES ON THE SHOW AND THE RECORDING 
Brest, in the top north-western corner of France, was the last stop on Peter Gabriel’s 1983 fourth album (Security, to US blokes) tour. The Call had accompanied him during the summer US dates, then joined him again for the last leg of the tour in continental Europe. I did see quite a few PG dates that year, starting in Paris, with the 2 shows on July the first (afternoon and evening), and ending with the last 2 weeks in France, covering Avignon, Grenoble, Dijon, Strasbourg, Lille, Paris, Nantes and Brest… 
With my friend Mike, we mostly hitchhiked our way from one town to the next. A few times, after a freezing cold night, we resorted to catching a train just to warm up a bit, and on a couple of occasions we even met the band doing the same journey from one town to the next on the very same train. 
Peter travelled first, we were in second class, and on the trip from Nantes to Brest we shared a local train and a large compartment with The Call. They had seen us before and knew we were following Gabriel around, but they were quite happy to hear that we had grown accustomed to hearing them before the “main” act, but especially that both Mike and I absolutely loved their stuff. In fact, I must point out that for the very final couple of dates we had grown to quite a larger group of people, counting 2 French girls, 2 Britons, 2 Italians (including yours truly), one Japanese lady, and 3 more blokes from Germany, Holland and Switzerland… 
So when Mike (the German one) asked The Call’s crew if there was any chance of having a recording of the show, they had no problem with it it whatsoever: and at the end of that very night before everybody went their separate ways we did get a soundboard recording. 

The words with which PG described The Call’s songs as “music which comes from the heart” has stayed with me ever since: there was such a heartfelt passion in their exhibition and in Michael Been’s delivery that (IMHO) very few bands ever got close to it. 

That particular night the atmosphere was at the same time hot and relaxed, providing a perfect combination for a great performance. The band was even asked for an encore (which unfortunately is not complete on the tape) 
As he always did with his support acts, Peter came on stage without any make up (that was the monkey face tour) and jokingly introduced them talking in French (“I said you’re shit Michael!”)… 
I can’t remember during which song, but it must have been close to the end of the set that Peter reappeared on stage, this time wearing the monkey make up and carrying a large plant (or a small tree): he was not alone, as the other members of his band did the same and caused havoc on stage, depositing the large vases here and there while The Call kept on playing :-) 
The “favour” was later reciprocated, as all of The Call re-appeared during PG’s set: all made up with the monkey face, wearing towels made to look like giant diapers, and throwing bananas all over the place while they jumped everywhere up and down the stage. You guessed it: the song was “Shock The Monkey”, and it was PG’s turn to try and keep on going with the chorus while everybody was laughing real hard! 

What else can I say? This tape is so “loaded” with memories from one of the happiest times in my life, that even the fact we did find most of our luggage and properties gone (we had left it in a friends car that was broken into and everything was stolen after the show) recedes and fades out as not such a painful event. What does help is remembering the laughs - as well as the cries - provoked by “the Scot” in our group who kept going all night at the train station raging and spitting venom about “thieves eating frog legs” and “froggie bastards” in general…