“I went to see them at Birmingham Odeon in 1984, we filled up the first six rows and they had to repeat some songs from the set as an encore because they had run out of material, great gig.”
Bukowski, via “thatwasmyjam”
“A friend had alerted me to the magnificence of Swoon, indicating that Paddy was the great new songwriter we’d been waiting for. After listening to it a fair bit during Easter that year, I thought I’d give the concert a go. In my memory they had released ‘When Love Breaks Down’ and were expecting it to be a hit, and boldly booked the Odeon, buut the above doc confirms they didn’t record it till August that year, and so I guess this is just me remembering the fact that it was re-released in 1985 as they were so sure it would be a hit, and it did at least reach 25 then. So Birmingham was just on the back of Swoon. They totally misjudged it and must have made a loss as there were only a few hundred in there, and I remember well the bass drum echoing off the totally exposed back wall. One little detail is Wendy Smith leaving the stage to get a jacket, and Paddy improvising a little number ‘The girl is cold’. It adds to the memory of emptiness and forlornness, but I enjoyed them a lot. The only time I ever saw them. Shame it wasn’t touring the magnificent Steve MacQueen the next year.”
Otis Westinghouse, Elvis Costello Fans forum.
