Set Listing
01. Appetite
02. Tiffany’s
03. Don’t Sing
04. Hallelujah
05. Green Isaac
06. Moving the River
07. Wicked Things
08. Lions in My Own Garden, Exit Someone
09. Cruel
10. Dublin
11. Goodbye Lucille #1
12. Cars and Girls
13. Horsin’ Around
14. Bonny
15. When Love breaks Down
16. When the Angels
17. Faron Young
18. I Couldn’t Bear to Be Special
19. Ghost Town Blues
At least two recordings of this concert exist – the first which has been circulating for some time is a poor audience tape, very toppy vocals, verging on A second recording came to light in August 2010 and is also an audience tape with less background chatter and although muddy has depth and a reasonable sound. A matrix recording combining both sources was made available online in 2012, which although not perfect is highly enjoyable.
“In 1986 I was 16 and still a bit young for the Sprouts, so although I went along and had a really good night, all these years later I can remember little about the show other than that they played loads of stuff from Steve McQueen. It was a 5-piece band, and Wendy was painfully shy and didn’t speak to the audience all night.”
Anselm, sproutnet discussion board
“Not too much to tell about the Hammy Odeon show. I’d wanted to see the Sprouts after hearing Couldn’t Bear To Be Special and Here On The Eerie on Radio 1 (thank you Janice Long and David ‘Kid’ Jenson, I am eternally grateful). Anyway I’d somehow completely missed the 1985 tour, but must have seen the March 1986 date in the NME and persuaded my then girlfriend, now wife, and a friend to come along.
“As a poor student at that time I think I only had a cassette of Swoon (which I still have) and played it to them to their bemusement. But, they still agreed to come.
“Hurrah! were the support, and I remember them being noisy and a bit distorted. It was only later I found a vinyl copy of Boxed (which unfortunately I no longer have) and discovered how good their songs were.
“The Sprouts were great, a good selection of early songs. Years later I got hold of the live show on mp3 and it was every bit as good as I remember.
“I came out buzzing. I’ve seen the Sprouts a few times since then but it’s never felt as enthusiastic or spontaneous as that show, which I guess was one of the bigger shows they’d played at that time…
“Back To 1986. My girlfriend humoured me (she still does) and my friend described the whole evening as ‘random’ and has never elaborated… nor shown any interest in hearing any more Sprouts. Hey ho!”
Stewart K, via “Save our Sprouts”
