reviews 
in each issue, editors david and elina review bootleg(s) and give the disc(s) marks out of 10 for both interest and sound quality. in this issue, we also have reviews of gigs: suede's final three shows in madrid.

classic suede disc 1: so young, so gone
by david gejlemo

cd-rs should not be confused with proper factory pressed bootlegs (silvers). because everyone with a cd burner has already made 50 of his own, cd-rs are not really collectibles and should be regarded as this generation’s c60s. i never let my cd-rs anywhere near my collection of silvers. burn them, trade them, listen to them, enjoy them! just don't pay for them because you'll get ripped off. i think it is immoral to sell homemade cd-rs.

however, i will make an exception this time, because this is too bloody good.

a few months ago, there was a bloke in camden town selling a new series of bootlegs he called classic suede. on enquiry he said they were his own old live and rare recordings. but they’re not just any old junk; this is top stuff!

the first cd (out of 4 in the series) is called so young, so gone. the artwork is not that bad and is printed in color. the record boldly starts off with “she's not dead” with different lyrics, even darker if you ask me as brett cries "so alone, so alone somewhere, stay away, stay away from her". this track alone is worth a trip to camden (or at least worth installing soulseek for) :-) then comes “pantomime horse” and “moving”, followed by a excellent instrumental mix of “animal nitrate” that i just love! the guitars are quite different on this one (try to resist singing along). then there’s “animal lover”, “sleeping pills” (with slightly different lyrics) and last but not least “animal nitrate” again, this time with vocals. these tracks are listed as “demos recorded in 1991” but they are in fact rough mixes of the album tracks from late 92/early 93.

now it gets even more interesting! a live recording of an early gig from 1991, about simon's second or third gig with Suede. It’s listed as camden falcon, 92/2/28, but it must be from 1991. it begins with a previously unreleased track called “maid in london”, definitely a must-have for all the diehard fans. unfortunately it's quite obvious why this track was dropped at an early stage. let's just say it's not very good and leave it at that. one can't help wondering if simon misspelled "made" or not :-)then a rocker, classic b-side “painted people”, followed by an extremely rare live performance of “be my god”. after the sound of about five people clapping, brett thanks the "audience" and kicks out “animal lover.” then another shock - not even listed on the cd sleeve - another unreleased full-length track called “going blonde”. it's better than “maid in london” and features brett screaming "terry, oh terry, you're going blonde!".  justine took the lyrics with her when she formed elastica and the song re-emerged as “see that animal”. it’s a shame the quality of this gig is a bit on the crap side.  the last track, introduced as "a brand new song", is called “the bike tragedy”. the verse on this version goes "aha, aha aha ha ha".  i must say they really improved it before releasing it as “to the birds”; nevertheless, it’s an interesting track.

it's not over yet! there are also five songs from an in store gig at virgin megastore, manchester, october 1992: “metal mickey”, “my insatiable one”, “animal nitrate”, “sleeping pills” and “the drowners.”

if you just got into suede after picking up singles on sale, or generally can't stand noise, hiss, cracks, pops, mono, crap sounding recordings, or crowd noise, this may not be for you. but if you can live with that, what you have here is a great cd with truly classic suede. did i mention the unreleased tracks!!? :-)
david’s score:
interest: 10/10
sound: 5/10		 elina’s score:
interest: 10/10 
sound: 6/10

classic suede disc 2: pumped up with valium 
by elina nuutinen

the cd-r that is part 2 of the classic suede series has been named pumped up with valium/pumped up on valium (both names are mentioned on the cover) and consists of two different parts, nme’s “on for 92” night at the venue, new cross, london, 3rd of january 1992 (which the sleeve notes name as the 2nd gig by the band – hardly true, though!) and “the black sessions”, studio 105, paris 28th of january 1993, suede’s first ever set outside the uk.

as the “black sessions” show has been widely available on bootlegs ever since it was recorded, the first part of the cd is the more interesting one. the venue gig kicks off with brett introducing the band and the first song: “hallo, we’re called suede, the song’s called ‘dolly’. the recording has brett’s vocals clearly up front and the band in the back, most notably in the first couple of songs. “dolly” is followed by “the drowners”, which brett seems to feel necessary to introduce both at the beginning and at the end of the song. the song itself seems to move like it had been slowed down and brett has a lot of time to stretch the vowels in different tones. one of the highlights of this gig is “moving”, which sounds refreshingly different from the album version and very good indeed. “metal mickey” stands out because of some weird screeching towards the end of the song. sounds like brett has something very sharp in his throat. (for more info on the screeching, see phillip williams’ text accompanying the “rogues gallery” pics) sound quality of the whole gig is surprisingly good and with very little crowd noise if any.

highlights of the “black sessions” are “my insatiable one”, “he’s dead” and “so young”, which brett introduces as a new song that hasn’t even got a title yet. as this is a recording of a radio show the sound quality is nice, too, and besides music this includes quite a lot of speech (talking?) by the presenter of the show. this might be of interest to the people who actually understand french. sadly, i’m not one of them so it is just about of no interest to me, except for the part prior to “pantomime horse”, where i can understand words like “problem” and “guitar” when the band is just going through some technical difficulties including that guitar. luckily, they get them solved and play a nice version of the song. even the audience seems to like it, though it’s been said that the band didn’t quite succeed in pleasing the french audience with this gig (see love & poison, page 105). 

the artwork on the cd is quite alright, though i think an older photo on the front cover would have been more appropriate. i find it quite respectable yet funny that the maker of this series has gone so far that he has even designed a logo (see the lower right corner of the cover) to emphasize the fact that this indeed is a series of bootlegs (read: cd-rs). 

in whole this cd falls far behind the interest level of the other parts of the series. of course the early shows like these are always nice and interesting to listen to, but there are no unreleased tracks and very few alternate lyrics in this one. the one thing that makes pumped up with valium definitely worth having is the sound quality. it’s quite a rare treat to hear old recordings of such good quality. the only minus is that the mixing sometimes drowns the music somewhere far behind brett’s voice. yes, i assure you that this can be a minus!

track listing of the cd is as follows:

the venue: “dolly”, “the drowners”, “painted people”, “metal mickey”, “moving”, “pantomime horse”, “animal lover”, “to the birds”

black sessions: “metal mickey”, “my insatiable one”, “animal nitrate”, “pantomime horse”, “he’s dead”, “the drowners”, “so young”, “sleeping pills”, “to the birds”

elina’s score:
interest: 7/10
sound: 9/10

   david's score:
interest: 7/10
sound: 9/10		  

the last spanish party
words by christine andres
photographs by ana b. fernández

day 0: 21-22 november 2003: the nenas and sergei arrive in madrid
the spanish gang arrived in madrid. forum members sadie black, love and poison, edeus 78, and sergei all congregated in the orange temple (a.k.a. my home) to celebrate (with ana) suede’s last official gig in spain, let´s party!

day 1: 22 november 2003: the wedding engagement, oh, and the riviera gig
queenie (ana) arrived at la riviera at 10 a.m.! she wanted to be the first one but she wasn’t, well, she was the 2nd, hehe. at 3 p.m. suede arrived. there were just 6 people waiting outside but the band looked as scared as if there were 2500. brett was brave and stayed long enough to pose for an engagement pic with ana. as an engagement gift, ana gave brett a bracelet that was later seen on simon´s drums during the gig! 

at 7.30 we entered la riviera, ana took her place in first row (as ever) and i was in the 6th (thanks to the charming and very tall guy who let me move in front of him). first up was astrud, a silly spanish pop band. well, it’s too difficult to explain the kind of music they play, instead i’ll just provide a sample of their lyrics: “i’m a triangle that turns into a rectangle….”, very funny. after the comedy show, the veils were on. they were a bit girlie-looking for me. after that - suede!

la riviera set list
"introducing the band"
"animal nitrate"
"filmstar"
"so young"
"lost in tv"
"she's in fashion"
"lazy"
"metal mickey" 
"the wild ones"
"attitude"
"everything will flow"
"can't get enough"
"trash"
"beautiful ones"
"music like sex"
"the 2 of us"
"positivity"
"new generation"
"saturday night"

day 2: 23 november 2003: chesterfield café acoustic set
first of all, thanks to ben who got tickets for this gig for the fanclub members. it was a new feeling being on the vip list - hee hee!

ana was the second person to arrive again, this time her victims were richard and alex. shy richard looked embarrassed, as ever, but playboy alex was obviously in heaven. we met sherish in the queue, the most cheery one around, and arturo was behind me (well i know that now, but at the time he was the mysterious missing arturo).

all the band members must have been partying the day before, because brett was drinking chamomile tea and looked as if he was experiencing the worst hangover of his life. thank god there were the breasts of the girls in the first row to cheer him up a lot. we know you liked them brett, ha! ana tried to take a picture of mat, but he was hiding the whole time. alex the gentleman came to the rescue, though, and ana managed to get several nice shots of him.

it was a typical acoustic set, except for “by the sea,” that was the surprise. the gig was too short but very moving. one of the best moments of the afternoon was when a girl told brett “see you in the next life” and he smiled at her very, very sarcastically. after “trash” they left the stage and ana began to scream, “alexxxx a pick!!!” they returned to play “beautiful ones” (the maracas made an appearance at last!) and alex gave ana the pink pick, he’s a nice guy indeed. after the gig, it was the “cup moment”: all the girlies taking pics of the chamomile tea cup as if it was a relic, like the holy grail. sometimes i feel happy that i’m a bit older…

after the gig all the girls (ana, bruna, elena, lola, noemi and me) had our own afterparty in a madrid restaurant. we were all alone at the back of the place, so we were absolutely noisy. how can you feel so drunk after only diet cokes?

chesterfield cafe set list
"oceans" 
"the wild ones" 
"everything will flow" 
"by the sea"
"saturday night"
"the 2 of us"
"she's in fashion"
"trash"
"beautiful ones"

day 3: 2 dec-2003: 10 years of fnac, 10 years of suede
the biggest store in madrid was celebrating 10 years of existence, so they did a vip-only party and the stars of that party were suede. suede and fnac are related: the band have presented lots of their records there, like the world premiere of a new morning (ana was there as ever).

i was chatting on suede.net (how odd, indeed, hehe) when i got a phone call from my friend elena, who was by fnac’s doors. she said she could see and hear suede from inside as they were rehearsing, so, obviously, i had to go! when i arrived, ana was there with her nose stuck to the glass, of course! (aye don’t kick me, ana!) we can call this concert “the frustrating one” for us and for suede, i think. brett didn’t look very happy and they all seemed very tired. (you had a great afterparty in copenhagen, didn’t you?) ben couldn’t get any tickets for the fans so we had to watch it from outside on a cold december evening. they had some technical troubles with “indian strings” and then they began “down”, it was so long since i had heard it (since 1999 in fact). it wasn’t a very different set list but we didn’t care: the same songs sound different each time.

the boys were smiling at us the whole the time, as if they were playing for us more than for the beautiful people inside. it was also an important moment, as suddenly the boy in front of us turned to ask ana if she was queenjeangenie. we’d met arturo at last! 

when the gig had finished, simon appeared from inside the store after 30 minutes and asked a security guard to let us in. but the guy said no, then simon said, “then let me out” and he left! simon’s style! i left too, although not with simon, while ana stayed on. 10 minutes later the rest of the band appeared, and ana had her special alex moment. she got a pic with him and they chatted for a while. he wished her a happy birthday and told her “see you in london?” (well, if you could see her face now just remembering it - hahaha! she says alex has wonderful eyes.) ana asked brett if they were going to be back soon and brett said, “sooner than you expect!”

those were the last days of brett and the boys in spain, for the moment… thank you suede!

fnac set list
"indian strings"
"down"
"the wild ones"
"everything will flow"
"obsessions"
"she's in fashion"
"saturday night"
"trash"
"beautiful ones"

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