Audience Master cassette
Richard Thompson
Linda Thompson
Simon Nicol
Dave Mattacks
Pete Zorn
Here we have a very good audience recording of the opening night of the "Shoot Out The Lights" US tour.
Referred to by the band as "The Tour From Hell", Richard and Linda's marriage hit the rocks before the tour and they were barely speaking to each other, other than the yelling and Linda kicking him on occasion,, that in turn generated some intense performances on stage.
Despite the stage announcement on the Crash Landing boot, this was actually the start of the U.S. Richard & Linda tour. All the shows from this tumultuous time are probably essential listens, and this gig includes a rare outing for Night Comes In (the only other performance of this track I'm aware of on this tour is from Washington the follow night). It's a wonderful version, although the ending sounds rather sudden, and is one of a few slightly rushed edits. Otherwise, a fairly acceptable audience recording for the time, despite some talk-over in places.
"Dave and I maintained that Richard would make out the all the set lists for everyone and pass them out, and all you had to do was look at the first five numbers, and it was like "Man In Need", "Walking On The Wire", and you'd go "Oh nooo..." There was no pussyfooting around"-----Pete Zorn (as quoted in Richard Thompson-A Biography)
"There were apparently some extremely highly charged performances-so I'm told"----Richard Thompson quote
"The tour was a fantastic success. Linda sang like an angel, all that nervousness just went. It was clear from early on that it was a fantastic show-Linda's singing, Richard's playing, the whole thing was so intense"------Joe Boyd
"Suffice it to say the atmoshphere on the whole tour was...tense. Simon, myself and Pete Zorn took to running away. There was some great stuff on stage, but it was not a plaesant tour...They were communicationg, when she wasn't kicking him...I don't blame him, I don't blame her. If I was in her postion, I couldn't have got up there and sang "A Heart Needs A Home"----Dave Mattacks