03/20/85 - London, England @ Institute of Contemporary Art 

Date: Wednesday, March 20th, 1985
City: London, England
Venue: Institute of Contemporary Art
SET LIST NOTES 
Halloween 
Death Valley '69 
Brave Men Run 
I Love Her All The Time 
Ghost Bitch 
I'm Insane 
Brother James 
Kill Yr Idols 
Flower 
The Burning Spear 
--
The World Looks Red
  • A London showcase that found the band delivering a ferocious set. Per "Confusion is Next", the band decorated the stage with jack-o-lanterns and Kim fell off the stage while singing "Shaking Hell". The band played primarily Confusion and Bad Moon Rising material. Michael Stipe came backstage after the show, as he was in town recording 'Fables of the Reconstruction'.
  • Like many recollections, I'm skeptical when comparing them to the tape that circulates with this date. "Shaking Hell" is not on the tape, and while Thurston recalls the first song being "Burning Spear", he was apparently shivering with fear prior to the show, so his memory may not be trustworthy (and wouldn't opening with 'Halloween' be much more calming?). Thurston may have been thinking of the 04/28/85 London show, where they did open with Burning Spear. Given the pumpkin motif, it makes more sense that they would be leading with the Bad Moon material, too. For now, I'm listing this set list as is, and if you have any information on whether it's mislabeled, please let me know.
  • Supposedly footage of "Brother James" is included on the "Impact (auto-edit)" compilation video?
  • This video clears almost everything up! It is "Brother James" from this show, with the stage covered in jack-o-lanterns, and Kim does fall off the stage - it just wasn't "Shaking Hell".

    QUOTES

    - Halloween [segue into "Death Valley '69"]
    - Death Valley '69 [w. Lee singing Lydia's part]
    T: "1 2 3 4!"
    - Brave Men Run
    ["Not Right" tape plays]
    - I Love Her All The Time [segue into "Ghost Bitch"]
    - Ghost Bitch [segue into "I'm Insane"]
    - I'm Insane
    ["We Belong" by Pat Benatar plays]
    T: "This next song's called 'Kill Yr Idols'. No, no it's not! It's called, uh, 'Brother James'."
    L: "[????] 1 2 3 4!"
    - Brother James
    - Kill Yr Idols
    - Flower
    - The Burning Spear
    L: "Thanks a lot, thanks for staying with it!" [tape cuts] "Hey listen, listen! We're really wasted and if we did anymore we'd just be wankin' off up here, we practically were doing that as it was. We really appreciate that you came out to see us, we're playing a couple times again the next week, just come on down and see another gig, okay? Thanks a lot." [crowd protests] "We really..."
    T: "No no! We'll do some more, he's just kidding around. Hey LEEEEEE! HEEEEEEYYY!! Hey Lee? Come on man, don't be an asshole! Just a bunch of...we're a bunch of New York snobs."
    L: "It's wanking you want? It's wanking you'll get."
    T: "Hey, I'd do 'Confusion is Next' but they won't do it."
    - The World Looks Red
    T: "Bye! Thanks a lot. We'd like to thank everybody for letting us play here, it was uh... We appreciate it."

    OTHER PERFORMERS

  • Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey
  • Tools You Can Trust

    MEMORABILIA

    Have any information on this show? E-mail me!

     

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