At the start of 2021, I revisited an old live recording of Bill at the old El Mocambo in Toronto Canada in 1984 which I attended. A small venue and amazing performance. Standout to me was Another Day, Another Ray of Hope. A fan from the 70s with BeBop Deluxe. Only time I had the pleasure of seeing him live. Here is a photo of him playing the E-Bow at the concert I thought I would share.
Thanks edmayall for the detailed info on this 1984 tour. 🙂
Information from Acquitted by Mirrors 10: This tour of North America was in Spring 1984, supporting the release of the Vistamix compilation. The band included Preston Heyman on drums, Iain Denby on bass, and three keyboardists: Mike Simmonds, Andy Davis (also on sax - Ian Nelson was touring with Fiat Lux at the time) and a music student called William Gregory. (The latter was later half of Goldfrapp.)
I have (somewhere) a copy of Vistamix signed by the whole band, but also including (I'm pretty sure) Ian.
Thanks Ken... I'm in the US and kept up with most of Bill's EPs, and such but I was never aware of the Contemplation 1983 EP (and don't see it on Discogs, only the '86 single version). But that would help explain why he was playing this material in 1983.
Was this Toronto show Ken mentioned above, actually 1984? Other mentions of this show I found online also say 1984, but out of the 7 songs I found from the setlist there were 3 that were not released until 1986 on the "Getting the Holy Ghost Across" album. Could Bill have been been trying them out 2 years before their release? Or is this a typo, if the gig was actually 1986? Also - Does anyone know who the live personnel was? (If it's 1984, I would like to think it included Ian Nelson, Mick Karn & Y. Takahashi, but I doubt it - the drums sound programmed). You can hear the 7 songs in 4 separate Youtube videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheThomasOfficial
Hey thanks! What a great photo♥️