Live Stiffs Live
Live album by
various artists
Released17 February 1978
Recorded3 October – 5 November 1977
VenueUniversity of East Anglia, Leicester University, and Lyceum London
GenreRock, new wave
LabelStiff
ProducerTim Summerhayes, Mick Crickmer
Stiff Record Compilations chronology
Hits Greatest Stiffs
(1977) 		Live Stiffs Live
(1978) 		The Stiff Records Box Set
(1992)
Music for Pleasure re-issue cover
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[2]

Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records.[2] It compiles concert performances by several of the record label's artists recorded during the "Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977.[3]

Songs

Among the recording artists featured on the album are Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis. The album opens with tour MC (and later Clash road manager) Kosmo Vinyl calling audience members away from the bar and introducing the first act as "Nick Lowe's Led Zeppelin". The final cut of the album is a performance of Ian Dury's hit, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" performed by all of the tour's artists and crew.

Release

The album has various names from Stiffs Live Stiffs, Stiffs Live and Live Stiffs. The correct name of the original Stiff Records release on 17 February 1978 was Live Stiffs Live.[4] The album was later re-issued on Music for Pleasure (MFP 50445) as simply Live Stiffs.[4]

The album entered the UK Albums Chart on 11 March 1980, eventually peaking at number 28.[5]

Live Stiffs Live was later released by Demon Records on CD in 1994 (Demon 621) and re-released in 1997 (Edsel 621 & Diablo Records 851).[6]

Critical reception

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote:

"Elvis the C provides a brand new existentialist pronunciamento, 'I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself,' but the real threat there is Nick Lowe's 'Let's Eat,' which garnishes a hot-and-greasy Mitch Ryder organ pump with lyrics like 'I wanna move move move move move my teeth' and 'Let's buy two and get one for free.' Filling out the good side are 'I Knew the Bride' (Lowe's answer to 'You Never Can Tell'), Larry Wallis's 'Police Car' (grand theft automatic), and two cuts by Wreckless Eric that seem unlikely to be eclipsed by their studio versions. Unfortunately, Costello's live 'Miracle Man' and the three Ian Dury performances were eclipsed before they came out."[2]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "the entire record captures the wild, careening spirit of Stiff — it's fun, trashy rock & roll."[1]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "I Knew the Bride" (Nick Lowe) - Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop - 3.25
  2. "Let's Eat" (Lowe) - Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop - 2.44
  3. "Semaphore Signals" (Wreckless Eric) - Wreckless Eric & the New Rockets - 3.25
  4. "Reconnez Cherie" (Eric) - Wreckless Eric & the New Rockets - 3.45
  5. "Police Car" (Larry Wallis) - Larry Wallis' Psychedelic Rowdies - 3.59

Side two

  1. "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - Elvis Costello & the Attractions - 2.27
  2. "Miracle Man" (Elvis Costello) - Elvis Costello & the Attractions - 3.56
  3. "Billericay Dickie" (Ian Dury) - Ian Dury & the Blockheads - 4.24
  4. "Wake Up & Make Love with Me" (Dury) - Ian Dury & the Blockheads - 3.32
  5. "Sex Drugs Rock & Roll & Chaos" (Dury) - All artists - 5.41

Personnel

Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop (side one, tracks 1 & 2)

Wreckless Eric & the New Rockets (side one, tracks 3 & 4)

Larry Wallis' Psychedelic Rowdies (side one, track 5)

Elvis Costello & the Attractions (side two, tracks 1 & 2)

Ian Dury & the Blockheads (side two, tracks 3 & 4)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Live Stiffs Live at AllMusic
  2. ^ a b c Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: S". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 13, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. ^ Balls, Richard (2000). Sex & Drugs & Rock'N'Roll: The Life of Ian Dury (1st ed.). London: Omnibus Press. pp. 176–184. ISBN 0-7119-8644-4.
  4. ^ a b "Stiff discography". Stiff Records. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  5. ^ "Stiffs Live Stiffs". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  6. ^ Allmusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Retrieved 25 February 2009
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