XTC Live at Emerald City (April 17, 1981)

Most of this concert appears on the bootleg "Fab Foursome in Philly" (though it actually took place in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA). This is the full WMMR broadcast recording, with the downtime between encores removed.
0:00 Intro
1:35 Real By Reel
5:17 Life Begins at The Hop
9:06 When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty
13:14 Respectable Street
16:53 Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)
20:46 No Language in Our Lungs
25:32 Ball and Chain
29:30 Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)
33:57 Love at First Sight
37:03 Roads Girdle the Globe
41:32 Scissor Man
47:48 Towers of London
53:35 Burning with Optimism's Flame
57:57 Making Plans for Nigel
1:02:35 Living Through Another Cuba
1:07:45 Generals and Majors
1:12:15 This is Pop
1:14:42 Helicopter
1:18:19 Statue of Liberty
1:21:00 Outside World
/ discord

[@nancyhancock9003]

I was at this show and it is one of the absolute highlights of my long life (I’m 58 now). Forty years and it’s still amazing!! I now live in England and get to see EXTC featuring Terry Chambers. They are great! By the way, I was literally the only audience member who took them up on their invitation to come backstage at the end. Spent the evening hanging out with XTC.

[@danbenoit1841]

This band re-shaped my life in the '80's, thanks for this story wish it had been me there....

[@jameswelle1101]

I saw them opening for The Police and over the hundreds of shows I’ve seen it still remains one of the best. I can still vividly recall No Language in Our Lungs with Andy beating on his chest. Chills. We were front row and they blew our little 21 year old minds. Had tickets for English Settlement, but we all know what happened there. One of the greatest bands of all time. Cheers!

[@Jonskful]

Incredible band in all the ways that matters! Seeing EXTC this weekend!

[@Bedrock1966]

What a brilliant recording. An absolute gem for any XTC fan. Terry's drumming is fantastic, the tempo is high and he's still bang on it.

[@NothingWasEasyTilNow]

Un-freaking-believable how good this show is NOW at THIS moment in time. I live near the site of Emerald City. I can hear XTC in the wind as I pass by.

[@diggerthegroundhog8799]

When they tore EC down it broke my hear. 104 straight Thursday nights and at least 70 shows.

[@101Volts]

Out of all XTC concerts I've listened to, this ranks as one of the best, if not the best. It's recorded well, it's not an audience recording, and the band's in top form. If you listen to the concert from March 8, 1982, it's also great.

[@beandipcartography]

Agreed. This one is tops in my book. Best I've heard. Twin guitar headphone Heaven.

[@zappledd6598]

I have this concert on a bootleg cassette that I've treasured for many, many years. I agree with the comments, this is one of my favourite XTC live recordings. The audio mix is great (thanks to WMMR), XTC are as tight as f**k, Andy & Colin are in great form and the audience are totally engaged. I only wish I could have been there to witness it all! I missed out on seeing them live in Bristol for a gig that was cancelled in '82 for reasons we all now appreciate. At the time I was gutted.

[@diggerthegroundhog8799]

I was at this show. I had no idea they would never tour again. What a great show at the great Emerald City.

[@nancyhancock9003]

So many great shows at Emerald City. They had great music on Thursdays! I saw this show as well as Joe Jackson and The Romantics.

[@101Volts]

-It wasn't long after Andy's wife threw out the Valium, so I heard. That would have been just a few weeks earlier: April 4th (or so.)- Andy didn't like touring in the first place, and he had been heavily on valium since about a month before he turned 13 (he said he was taking handfulls of it.) When he went cold turkey all of a sudden (and this was before it was widely known that you shouldn't,) it severely messed with him. He was having muscle spasms, _forgetting who he was,_ and forgetting how to play guitar.

[@101Volts]

My previous comment seems to be wrong, and the valium might have been tossed in November 1979 instead.

[@diggerthegroundhog8799]

@Nancy Hancock I saw easily over 50 shows at Emerald City. Just the Ramones alone, probably 4 or 5 times. All the bands that had nowhere else to play. The best was probably The Cure actually opening for The Buzzcocks. But yes those Thursday night dance nights. I only missed one night in Two years. When it closed we were all destroyed. There were only tiny clubs that had no atmosphere. It was so depressing.

[@ianhendry4448]

The energy that this band is great, being a local I always created good feeling in the town for 41 years!

[@SonicVineyard]

Ball and chain...that wasn't even out in 81!...what a treat!

[@101Volts]

It's an earlier version, too. Note Colin's bass doesn't have the high part where the trumpet would also play.

[@crazybunkum]

How many other bands had this level of live energy, excellence and life-affirming enthusiasm whilst also going on to be masters of their domain in the studio? I can only think of one.🎉

[@annode]

I was near front stage ctr watching Collin.

[@101Volts]

It's not the only time XTC were at Cherry Hill. They played two gigs there earlier, on Jan 25th and 26th 1980. I haven't heard any bootleg audio from those concerts, though.

[@rogerpatton2242]

This was taken off the radio.. WMMR broadcast it live..

[@lisaburns6359]

I was fortunate to have been at that show. I love XTC!

[@PraetorClaudius]

Scissor Man gives me chills!

[@timelordjoe]

1:07:19 "stick my fingers in Dave's ears" That's how to change a lyric 😂Also the transition from Cuba to Generals and Majors is so fucking cool!!!

[@ARTP1G]

BLESS YOU for uploading this! I was there and remember NONE of it. Damned quaaludes. It's better than I could've even imagined.

[@101Volts]

Here's another one, from 1982, to hear some of their English Settlement material: March 8, 1982 (Pre-FM Version) (Missing the first 3 tracks, which are available in the Audience Mic version.) archive.org/details/08-all-along-the-watchtower Audience Mic Version (not in as good audio quality, but it helps:) archive.org/details/xtc1982-03-08t11.flac16.aud.hansdevente Also, the Rehearsal Tape (Includes the only "live" version of "It's Nearly Africa:") archive.org/details/xtc1982-03-08t01.flac16.aud.hansdevente.soundcheck

[@namph72]

Brilliant cheers for uploading

[@williamwoolley9255]

I remember being really amped to see this show. It is a great performance and recording

[@arcrs40]

LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE XTC

[@sandiscott4640]

So amazing live!!! What a gift!!!❤❤

[@WarrenCromartie2]

Great recording of a brilliant set. I miss XTC.

[@lesgl]

One word...''Magniicent''

[@rogerpatton2242]

I was right up front.. I believe that annoying whistling is me and my friend.. you can also hear me yelling HELICOPTER! between a few of the songs.

[@adrianwallace6819]

One of the few times a video recommended by KZbin turned out to be good

[@sandiscott4640]

Truly amazing 👏!!!love 💘

[@radiorock]

I was at their show at Rutgers a few days before this. Was amazing.

[@101Volts]

Here's where you can download it: archive.org/details/xtcw05_april.17.1981_11

[@beandipcartography]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@paulkuzmanovski2836]

Born too late but XTC fan for life!! They absolutely burn through Ball and Chain and it’s beautiful! I have an EP of Love on a farm boys wages and on the B side it’s a live version of English Roundabout dated 1981, before Settlement came out. It’s an unbelievable performance! Does anyone know what concert they played it at?

[@aydnofastro-action1788]

That picture -rightly -makes the look like GODZ.

[@lesgl]

''Thank you Philladelphia'' ???

[@101Volts]

Cherry Hill, New Jersey is just over the river from Philadelphia.

[@LukasMatejka-du5hb]

they don't make bands like this anymore

LINK MP3 DOWNLOAD?????

[@101Volts]

Here. archive.org/details/xtcw05_april.17.1981_11

[@forasec]

so why do they say philly if its nj?

[@rogerpatton2242]

It's literally 5 miles across the river from Philadelphia..