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Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Riley Smith Hall, Leeds University, Leeds (1973)

Track listing:
  1. Hair Pie: Bake III 2:26
  2. Suction Prints 5:38
  3. Sue Egypt 2:20
  4. Mirror Man 6:29
  5. Low Yo Yo Stuff 3:51
  6. Crazy Little Thing 3:06
  7. Band Intro 2:05
  8. Sifter Solo 2:13
  9. Band Intro 0:45
  10. Sugar 'n Spikes 3:21
  11. I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby 8:22
  12. Electricity 7:13
  13. Peon 4:06
  14. I Am A King Bee/Sugar Mama 10:26
  15. Click Clack 5:25
  16. Alice In Blunderland 5:06
  17. Abba Zaba 3:12
  18. Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man 9:58
  19. Big Eyed Beans From Venus 5:31
  20. Golden Birdies 3:48

Notes

Excellent gig from an excellent tour with a very special lunar note.

Audience
Quality: 8/10

Captain Beefheart/Don Van Vliet: vocals, harmonica
Rockette Morton/Mark Boston: bass guitar, guitar
Oréjon/Audi Hon/Roy Estrada: bass guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo/Bill Harkleroad: guitar, slide guitar
Alex St. Claire/Alex Snouffer: guitar, slide guitar
Ed Marimba/Art Tripp: drums, percussion


Colin David Webb: Since The Who's classic live album, Leeds had taken on a mythic status in the rock world. By 1973 it may well have been living its reputation down as a venue, and certainly the small hall/room at the university was not the thing of which rock legends are made. Nevertheless Beefheart put in a good set lasting for the best part of 90 minutes. Suction Prints was the opener after Rockette's Toast, and the band were soon into a selection of recent material with much from the Clear Spot album. Low Yo Yo Stuff; Crazy Little Thing (with its amazing drum rhythm); I'm Gonna Booglarise You, Baby, and Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man all played to perfection. At the end of Crazy came something referred to as Sifter Solo. After a rapturous applause for Ed Marimba he starts off a 30 second metallic drum roll that sounds like a marble being spun inside a metal basin.

The set also contained the blues work-out King Bee, by now a Captain Beefheart regular. To end, what else but the twin attack of Big Eyed Beans and Golden Birdies. In the mid-seventies a bootleg LP of this set was said to be in circulation. I've never seen a copy but plenty of fans say they know a friend of a friend who knows someone who had a copy! Another urban myth in the making?
(Blimp Over Europe #1)

mirrorboy: The 2nd of May 1973 at Leeds University and Rockette Morton wearing a magnificent suit and fedora hits the darkened stage playing a bass solo at full bore in the Riley Smith Hall at Leeds University. One by one, the rest of the Magic Band take to the still darkened stage and lock into a finely meshed boogie from outer space. You can just about make out the band in the half-light as your eyes adjust to the scene. Then a howling harp is heard in the distance and it rises to a crescendo as Captain Beefheart joins his Magic Band for the thrash on stage. The hard boogie finishes after a few minutes and Beefheart steps up to the microphone stand and the atmosphere is totally electric in the silence and the semi-darkness.
Then the good Captain speaks with the most amazing authoritative voice,...... "TURN THE LIGHT ON!" The house lights go up to reveal Captain Beefheart in that Nudie suit and cape and it's straight into "The Spotlight Kid". What an incredible opener, I'll never forget it.
(Fender Discussion Page: Moe's Tavern)