Blimey. Yes, this is indeed from the Hallamshire 28th Feb 1982. Taped by Murray Fenton, who was later the guitarist in Artery amongst other bands. Murray played me this in about 1997 or 8 when I interviewed him and this is definitely the same tape - you can tell from the way the speed fluctuates, think his tape battery was running down!

No idea how this has ended up on YouTube or why half the songs are missing. It doesn't have appear to have been uploaded by Murray, anyway.

Wow!

Is it me or does this sound like "...My Girl?"

Process of elimination:

It's not Bath Uni from 16th January because "Zhivago" is different and "...My Girl" wasn't played
It's not the Limit from 13th April because "How Could You?" is different and neither "Zhivago", "...My Girl" nor "Thrash" were played
I severely doubt that it's the Marples from 15th / 18th February because that was described in the article a few years ago as good enough quality to release
We don't know of any other recordings from 1982

I'd say it's from the Hallamshire (28th Feb) myself because:
A recording is likely to exist
There's no other known performance of "...My Girl"
"How Could You?" sounds a bit messy compared to the Limit version performed 6 weeks later when they'd had more chance to practice it

Finally, how good is "Zhivago"? Whilst I can understand them shelving it when they recorded "It" in 1983, I'm surprised that they never attempted to record it when they did the Rotherham demo. Presumably they were limited in terms of time and money.

from the bunch of tracks leaked by Jason last year, from what gigs are How Could You and Teen Angst?
I know the other ones, but somehow I didn't write down the dates for these two.

Ian wrote:

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Finally, how good is "Zhivago"? Whilst I can understand them shelving it when they recorded "It" in 1983, I'm surprised that they never attempted to record it when they did the Rotherham demo. Presumably they were limited in terms of time and money.

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 I agree with this! Zhivago is probably one of the best (alongside Please Don't Worry and Crabs) of the pre-It era in my opinion. It's very compact and packs just enough of a punch!

Could I also possibly get a link/location on where to get some of the files linked a year ago? I'm mainly looking for a live version of any of the John Peel songs or You Go First/You've Got A Face.

-- Edited by nrb602 on Saturday 18th of July 2020 11:07:09 PM

Hours of searching for music on Soulseek by my friend. I don't think he knew what it was at the time, but he downloaded it and sent it to me. I then downloaded the software to look for anything else but the other four songs, but found nothing. I had yet to see this upload anywhere else so I uploaded it. At the time I was still sort of unfamiliar with this place. 

Oh...and...
The wiki setlist is absolutely accurate, however, I've never heard a copy that includes 'why live?
He introduces it but it cuts to 'how could you?
That would explain the track numbers confusion..

Does this mean that all of the eleven otherwise unrecorded Pulp tracks from those four 1982 setlists (Jan in Bath, Feb at the Hallamshire, and Apr at The Limit) now circulate in some form?

Checking through, it looks like there were:

Thrash - Bath, Hallamshire
Zhivago - Bath, Hallamshire
How Could You? - Bath, Hallamshire, Limit
Teen Angst - Bath, Hallamshire, Limit
Why Live? - Bath, Hallamshire
I Scrubbed the Crabs that Killed Sheffield - Bath
What's Wrong with my Girl? - Hallamshire
Red Letter Day - Limit
Barefoot in the Park - Limit
You've Got A Face - Limit
You Go First- Limit

'cos that's a whole unreleased album's worth, for anyone who wants to take on the task!

-- Edited by Stephen on Thursday 23rd of July 2020 08:04:39 AM

-- Edited by Stephen on Thursday 23rd of July 2020 10:23:18 AM

Heat of the Day was on the Spice Demo and Mr. Morality was allegedly recorded during the It sessions, and the only set I could find with all three was the Crucible Theatre in late 82, after Dalton and Pinchbeck's departures. Unless we find that there was any recordings from the Crucible or frankly any recordings from 1983, the recorded versions are the likeliest to circulate.

-- Edited by nrb602 on Wednesday 22nd of July 2020 07:35:24 PM

February Limit??
There's a set list but certainly no recording Stephen..

Based on information from this forum and the PulpWiki, for reference purposes, I've done a rather rushed write-up of what exists (or may exist) recordings-wise of pre-1984 Pulp:

Feb/Mar 1980 - City School, Sheffield
Recording may exist - a cassette recording was made by a school friend, but they couldn't find it as of 1997. Another recording was also made by Jarvis's teacher, however apparently this was taped over shortly after.

7 Aug 1981 - Ken Patten demo
A tape of this demo was given to John Peel by Jarvis, which led to Pulp's first Peel session. 'What Do You Say?' was released on the 'Your Secret's Safe With Us' compilation LP by Statik Records in 1982. The rest have not been circulated.

7 Nov 1981 - Peel session
All four songs from this session were commercially released on the 'Pulp: The Peel Sessions' CD in 2006.

16 Jan 1982 - Bath University
Recording exists, following tracks have appeared online: 'Please Don't Worry', 'Zhivago', 'What Do You Say', 'Teen Angst', 'I Scrubbed the Crabs that Killed Sheffield'.

15 Feb 1982 - Marples, Sheffield
Recording exists on 7.5ips stereo half-track tape. Owned by Jamie Smith. In 2019, there was talk of this tape potentially going up for auction, but as of July 2020, this has not yet happened.

28 Feb 1982 - Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield
Recording exists, and was partially circulated in July 2020. The following tracks have appeared online: 'Thrash', 'Zhivago', 'How Could You?', 'Teen Angst', '(What's Wrong With) My Girl?' The full recording may be missing the song 'Why Live?'

13 Apr 1982 - The Limit, Sheffield
Recording exists, following tracks have appeared online: 'How Could You?', 'You've Got A Face', 'You Go First'.

18 Apr 1982 - Rotherham Demo
None of the songs on this demo are in circulation. A write-up of this demo is included in the book 'Truth and Beauty: The Story of Pulp', so the recording presumably still exists (or did so at the time of the book's writing). It is confirmed that a copy of this demo does still exist in listenable quality, however the owner isn't willing to provide a copy as they didn't feel Jarvis would want it to be made available.

22 Aug 1982 - Spice Demo
One song is definitely in circulation: 'Sickly Grin' was included in the Caff Records 'My Legendary Girlfriend' 7" single in 1992. The version of 'Sink or Swim' from this demo is probably the one included in the 2012 reissue of 'It'. It seems that the tape may have deteriorated somewhat, as both 'Sickly Grin' and 'Sink or Swim' exhibit the same sort of tape distortion.

27 Nov - 10 Dec 1982 - It LP sessions
In addition to the songs included in 'It' and the 'My Lighthouse' single, there were three additional tracks from this session. 'Please Don't Worry' was included in the 2012 reissue of 'It'. 'Sink or Swim' and 'Mr Morality' were left unmixed, and are not in circulation.

16-21 Feb 1983 - Joplin's Wine Bar, Low Pavement, Chesterfield
An attempt at breaking the world record for longest non-stop cabaret, there is an outside chance that footage of Pulp appearing at this event may exist, as it was covered by the ITV regional news show Calendar. There were hundreds of acts performing at this event, so it's very unlikely that Pulp were featured.

4-5 Jun 1983 - Everybody's Problem session
Both songs were released on the 'Everybody's Problem' single.

Edit: Added some additional information provided by Stephen; many thanks. :)

-- Edited by salmon92 on Thursday 23rd of July 2020 01:20:10 PM

-- Edited by salmon92 on Wednesday 29th of July 2020 03:35:12 PM

Feb/Mar 1980 - City School, Sheffield
Recording may exist - a cassette recording was made by a school friend, but they couldn't find it as of 1997.

> Made by a teacher, I'd thought! I think we can assume this is long lost now.

7 Aug 1981 - Ken Patten demo
A tape of this demo was given to John Peel by Jarvis, which led to Pulp's first Peel session. 'What Do You Say?' was released on the 'Your Secret's Safe With Us' compilation LP by Statik Records in 1982. The rest have not been circulated.

> It's not believed that even the band have a full copy of this.

7 Nov 1981 - Peel session
All four songs from this session were commercially released on the 'Pulp: The Peel Sessions' CD in 2006.

16 Jan 1982 - Bath University
Recording exists, following tracks have appeared online: 'Please Don't Worry', 'Zhivago', 'I Scrubbed the Crabs that Killed Sheffield'. Recordings of 'How Could You?' and 'Teen Angst' may also have appeared online, however these could also have been from the Limit gig (13 Apr 82).

> The sound quality between the Bath and Limit gigs is a little different, so could be used to differentiate what's from where. If I remember rightly, when some of the other songs were uploaded last year, the uploader noted which venues they'd come from.

15 Feb 1982 - Marples, Sheffield
Recording exists on 7.5ips stereo half-track tape. Owned by Jamie Smith. In 2019, there was talk of this tape potentially going up for auction, but as of July 2020, this has not yet happened.

> Indeed. A sore point, this. Numerous attempts have been made to talk to this guy, but we still don't even have the setlist!

28 Feb 1982 - Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield
Recording exists, and was partially circulated in July 2020. The following tracks have appeared online: 'Thrash', 'Zhivago', 'How Could You?', 'Teen Angst', '(What's Wrong With) My Girl?' The full recording may be missing the song 'Why Live?'

> That's my understanding of it. Possible the point at which the tape was turned around or something.

13 Apr 1982 - The Limit, Sheffield
Recording exists, following tracks have appeared online: 'You've Got A Face', 'You Go First'. Recordings of 'How Could You?' and 'Teen Angst' may also have appeared online, however these could also have been from the Bath University gig (16 Jan 82).

18 Apr 1982 - Rotherham Demo
None of the songs on this demo are in circulation. A write-up of this demo is included in the book 'Truth and Beauty: The Story of Pulp', so the recording presumably still exists (or did so at the time of the book's writing).

> Happy to divulge some more info on this. I was in contact with someone who is on this tape some time ago. The tape still exists, and is listenable, but the owner wasn't willing to copy it as they didn't feel Jarvis would necessarily want it being made available.

22 Aug 1982 - Spice Demo
One song is definitely in circulation: 'Sickly Grin' was included in the Caff Records 'My Legendary Girlfriend' 7" single in 1992. The version of 'Sink or Swim' from this demo is probably the one included in the 2012 reissue of 'It'. It seems that the tape may have deteriorated somewhat, as both 'Sickly Grin' and 'Sink or Swim' exhibit the same sort of tape distortion.

> See above!

27 Nov - 10 Dec 1982 - It LP sessions
In addition to the songs included in 'It' and the 'My Lighthouse' single, there were three additional tracks from this session. 'Please Don't Worry' was included in the 2012 reissue of 'It'. 'Sink or Swim' and 'Mr Morality' were left unmixed, and are not in circulation.

16-21 Feb 1983 - Joplin's Wine Bar, Low Pavement, Chesterfield
An attempt at breaking the world record for longest non-stop cabaret, there is an outside chance that footage of Pulp appearing at this event may exist, as it was covered by the ITV regional news show Calendar. There were hundreds of acts performing at this event, so it's very unlikely that Pulp were featured.

4-5 Jun 1983 - Everybody's Problem session
Both songs were released on the 'Everybody's Problem' single.

-- Edited by salmon92 on Thursday 23rd of July 2020 01:20:10 PM

---

 

I think its safe to assume that the unreleased sink or swim IS the one on the it reiussue

Thank you for your notes on the list Stephen. It's reassuring to hear the Rotherham demo still exists in listenable quality, and it is understandable that the owner of the tape would hold that stance regarding circulation. I do hope that they have made a digital copy for preservation purposes, though.

My notes on the school gig in 1980 were based on the PulpWiki's notes about there being two potential recordings made; one by Jarvis's maths teacher (which was promptly taped over) and one by a school friend on cassette. The former one is definitely gone now, and it's very likely that the latter is, too. It would take nothing short of a miracle for this to appear; arguably the Holy Grail of live Pulp recordings!

Regarding the two recordings that either belong to Bath Uni or The Limit ('Teen Angst' and 'How Could You?'), I was sure their definitive sources were mentioned too, but a quick look through the forum postings made at the time didn't yield any definitive info. I found info on some of the other tracks that were shared, but not those two specifically. It's quite possible I missed something though (I knocked up the list on my lunch break, so it was a bit rushed).

JASON wrote:

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I don't remember which live tapes i shared these tracks from..
However, the Bath Uni recording sounds more 'live' and the vocal distorts compared to the Limit club recording which sounds more 'studio' and no distortion..
Does that help identify which tracks have come from where?

---

Ah yes, that helps greatly, thank you. (And thanks again for the tracks themselves)

Based on that, I'd say my original hypothesis is likely to be correct:

• Teen Angst - Bath Uni
• How Could You? - The Limit

Theres definitely a lot more vocal distortion on 'Teen Angst' than there is on 'How Could You?', at least to my ears.

A shame in that case that the rest of the Spice demos weren't included on the 2012 It reissue. Maybe they gave all the tracks a little bit of remastering treatment but Jarvis only agreed to include Sink Or Swim for whatever reason. I guess he had already dug out Sickly Grin in 1992 for the Caff vinyl issue of My Legendary Girlfriend. So that just leaves an early version of Boats And Trains which is a slight, short little thing anyway and The Heat Of The Day.

This list just about sums it up. Brilliant. From what I've heard from the Limit show in April as well as descriptions of the songs that haven't circulated from that show, the show must have been a strange one with the mix of their early power pop, that ska attempt, and ballads (How Could You? as well as the desc. of Red Letter Day).

-- Edited by nrb602 on Friday 24th of July 2020 05:38:44 PM

-- Edited by nrb602 on Friday 24th of July 2020 05:39:21 PM