Set Listing
TV Broadcast:
01. Couldn’t Bear to be Special
02. Don’t Sing
03. Walk On
Audience Recording:
01. Couldn’t Bear to be Special
02. Ghost Town Blues
03. Technique
A partial audience recording of this concert exists. Good to excellent audience recording. Only the three listed songs were recorded as the taper had used most of what tape he had to record Hurrah! who were supporting.
“1983 wasn’t a great year for music. Looking back thru my record collection I’ve bought less records from 83 then any other year! So I was looking for new. Reading an interview with Elvis Costello in the NME he name checked this new young band from Newcastle called Prefab Sprout. They had a single out called Lions In My Own Garden which I heard on Kid Jenson. My interest was piqued.
“Fast forward five months and Prefab Sprout are playing the Hacienda in Manchester. Now in 84 the Hacienda was not the global phenomenon it turned out to be. We had been a couple of times on a Saturday but preferred ‘Exit’ just off Deansgate (Johnny Marr used to hang around the DJ booth!). So me and my mate Glenn bowl along to the Hacienda to see “our new favourite band”. Over the next 75 minutes we were mesmerised by songs from the recently released Swoon. My memory tells me the place was only half full but I do remember sitting on the side of the stage for the encore transfixed.
“And so began a life time love affair with the magic of Prefab Sprout, Thanks Elvis!” (Colin Green, E-Mail)
This show was recorded for the BBC Bristol based arts magazine, RPM, presented at the time by Andy Batten-Foster, with a broadcast of “Couldn’t Bear to be Special” and “Don’t Sing” on the 21st May 1984, with “Walk On” being shown in a compilation programme on the 1st June. Don’t Sing was repeated about a week later in the second part of the compilation.
RPM is fully archived at the BBC
A soundboard recording was made for the audio portion of the broadcast, but it’s not known if this still exists.
