Well I always enjoyed Lee and the boys live. Actually to be honest I probably enjoyed myself more than I should’ve done and have no real recollection apart from sweaty jumping around in dark smelly bars.
I like The La’s album well enough, it misses the mark on so many levels of what they were like live. I am however over the poseur approach to never listening to it, it is after all the lasting legacy of a band that could have been so much more. Of course this is the ragged memories of an aging old fart remembering. It is inconceivable it was over 30 years ago.
So the BBC Sessions is on very cool green vinyl, it’s numbered, my guess however there was in inconceivably large number made, mine is one thousand and something. Most of the songs from the album are here played with the ragged energy and sense of urgency that I remember. Like The Kinks met the Hollies in a dark alley and decided to become the Stones. Jangly and off kilter, it would be sacrilege to refer to the B’ band in reference to The La’s and maybe not relevant.
There is the myth of the band and then there is the legacy of the recordings. They made one really good pop album, yes it could have probably been better but there really is a point when perfectionism has to give way. The BBC Sessions is a good addendum, it’s rougher it’s more immediate and maybe better, that is however probably more to do with the limitations of recording for the BBC reducing the possibility of getting that perfect take.
It did however manage to distract me really well for two hours, that’s almost three and a half plays in regular time. I danced around the living room, sashayed in the kitchen and rhumbaed in the bedroom before taking a nap.
timeweleftthisworldtoday 