Live Stiffs Live | ||||
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Live album by various artists | ||||
Released | 17 February 1978 | |||
Recorded | 3 October – 5 November 1977 | |||
Venue | University of East Anglia, Leicester University, and Lyceum London | |||
Genre | Rock, new wave | |||
Label | Stiff | |||
Producer | Tim Summerhayes, Mick Crickmer | |||
Stiff Record Compilations chronology | ||||
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Music for Pleasure re-issue cover | ||||
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [2] |
Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records. [2] It compiles concert performances by several of the record label's artists recorded during the "Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977. [3]
Among the recording artists featured on the album are Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis. The album opens with tour MC (and later Clash road manager) Kosmo Vinyl calling audience members away from the bar and introducing the first act as "Nick Lowe's Led Zeppelin". The final cut of the album is a performance of Ian Dury's hit, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" performed by all of the tour's artists and crew.
The album has various names from Stiffs Live Stiffs, Stiffs Live and Live Stiffs. The correct name of the original Stiff Records release on 17 February 1978 was Live Stiffs Live. [4] The album was later re-issued on Music for Pleasure (MFP 50445) as simply Live Stiffs. [4]
The album entered the UK Albums Chart on 11 March 1980, eventually peaking at number 28. [5]
Live Stiffs Live was later released by Demon Records on CD in 1994 (Demon 621) and re-released in 1997 (Edsel 621 & Diablo Records 851). [6]
Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote:
"Elvis the C provides a brand new existentialist pronunciamento, 'I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself,' but the real threat there is Nick Lowe's 'Let's Eat,' which garnishes a hot-and-greasy Mitch Ryder organ pump with lyrics like 'I wanna move move move move move my teeth' and 'Let's buy two and get one for free.' Filling out the good side are 'I Knew the Bride' (Lowe's answer to 'You Never Can Tell'), Larry Wallis's 'Police Car' (grand theft automatic), and two cuts by Wreckless Eric that seem unlikely to be eclipsed by their studio versions. Unfortunately, Costello's live 'Miracle Man' and the three Ian Dury performances were eclipsed before they came out." [2]
In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "the entire record captures the wild, careening spirit of Stiff — it's fun, trashy rock & roll." [1]
Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop (side one, tracks 1 & 2)
Wreckless Eric & the New Rockets (side one, tracks 3 & 4)
Larry Wallis' Psychedelic Rowdies (side one, track 5)
Elvis Costello & the Attractions (side two, tracks 1 & 2)
Ian Dury & the Blockheads (side two, tracks 3 & 4)
Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London, England, by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007.
My Aim Is True is the debut studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, originally released in the United Kingdom on 22 July 1977 through Stiff Records. Produced by Stiff artist and musician Nick Lowe, the album was recorded from late 1976 to early 1977 over six four-hour studio sessions at Pathway Studios in Islington, London. The backing band was the California-based country rock act Clover, who were uncredited on the original release due to contractual difficulties. At the time performing as D.P. Costello, Costello changed his name to Elvis after Elvis Presley at the suggestion of the label, and adjusted his image to match the rising punk rock movement.
Larry Wallis was a British rock guitarist, songwriter and producer. He was best known as a member of the Pink Fairies and an early member of Motörhead.
Eric Goulden, known as Wreckless Eric, is an English rock and new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single "Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. It was also acclaimed as one of the "top 40 singles of the alternative era 1975–2000".
"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" is a song and single by Ian Dury. It was originally released as a Stiff Records single, with "Razzle in My Pocket" as the B-side, on 26 August 1977. The song was released under the single name "Ian Dury", but three members of the Blockheads appear on the record – the song's co-writer and guitarist Chaz Jankel, Norman Watt-Roy on bass and drummer Charlie Charles.
Kilburn and the High Roads were a British pub rock band formed in London by Ian Dury in 1970. The band released one studio album Handsome in 1975, disbanding the same year. AllMusic credits the band with being "an undeniable influence on punk and new wave".
The Attractions were an English backing band for the English new wave musician Elvis Costello between 1977 and 1986, and again from 1994 to 1996. They consisted of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Bruce Thomas, and Pete Thomas (drums). They also released one album as an independent entity, without Costello, in 1980.
Labour of Lust is an album by British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe. Produced by Lowe, it was released in 1979 by Radar Records in the UK and Columbia Records in the US. It was recorded and released at the same time as Dave Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary and features the same Rockpile personnel. It led off with "Cruel to Be Kind," Lowe's only major US hit.
New Boots and Panties!! is the debut studio album by Ian Dury, released in the UK on Stiff Records on 30 September 1977. The record covers a diverse range of musical styles which reflect Dury's influences and background in pub rock, taking in funk, disco, British music hall and early rock and roll, courtesy of Dury's musical hero Gene Vincent. Consisting mostly of love songs and character stories based on the working-class people of the East End and Essex Estuary areas where he grew up, the songs are frequently ribald and profane, but also contain humour and affection for his characters.
Brutal Youth is an album by English musician Elvis Costello, released in 1994. It contains the first recordings Costello made with his band the Attractions since Blood and Chocolate (1986). Brutal Youth was the third, and most recent of Costello's albums, to peak at number two in the UK Albums Chart, following on from Armed Forces (1979) and Get Happy!! (1980).
Michael William Gallagher is an English Hammond organ player best known as a member of Ian Dury and the Blockheads and for his contributions to albums by the Clash. He has also written music for films such as Extremes (1971) and After Midnight (1990), and the Broadway play Serious Money (1987).
Do It Yourself is a 1979 album by Ian Dury & the Blockheads. It was the first album to be credited to Ian Dury & the Blockheads rather than Ian Dury alone, although Dury had used the full band name for the "What a Waste" 7" single of 1978. The album was released in the wake of the chart-topping hit single "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick", and reached number two in the charts, behind ABBA's Voulez-Vous. Do It Yourself sold around 200,000 copies, and was Dury's second Platinum album.
Laughter is the third studio album by Ian Dury and the Blockheads; released in 1980, it was the last studio album Dury made for Stiff Records. It was also the last studio album he made with the Blockheads, until 1998's Mr. Love Pants, though a live album Warts 'n' Audience was produced in 1991.
Lord Upminster is the second solo studio album by the English rock and roll singer-songwriter Ian Dury. It was released by Polydor Records in September 1981.
Apples is the sixth studio album by Ian Dury, released in October 1989 by WEA. It was the soundtrack to his short-lived stage-show of same name though it was recorded before the show opened. The album contains twelve of the twenty tracks from the show. The album was reissued with no bonus tracks on 31 October 2011 by Edsel Records.
Wreckless Eric is the debut album by English musician Wreckless Eric, released on 31 March 1978. It reached number 46 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Blockheads are an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Originally fronted by lead singer Ian Dury as Ian Dury and the Blockheads or Ian and the Blockheads, the band has continued to perform since Dury's death in 2000. As of March 2023 members included Chaz Jankel, Nathan King (bass), Mick Gallagher, John Turnbull, John Roberts (drums), and Mike Bennett. There is a rolling line-up of saxophonists that includes Gilad Atzmon, Terry Edwards, Dave Lewis, and from time to time, the original sax player, Davey Payne. Between 2000 and 2022, the band's lead vocalist and main lyricist was Derek Hussey.
"Whole Wide World" is a song by English rock singer-songwriter Wreckless Eric, who wrote the song in May 1974, and recorded it in 1977, whilst an original member of the Stiff Records label. Additional musicians on the record were Nick Lowe on guitar and bass, and Steve Goulding on drums.
Norman Joseph Watt-Roy is an English musician, arranger and composer.
"I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song written by Nick Lowe and first popularised by Dave Edmunds. It was released on Edmunds's 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop on Live Stiffs Live.