NO: 25 OCT 1980 The Squat - Manchester

Setlist:

In A Lonely Place, Dreams Never End, Truth, Mesh, Cries And Whispers, Procession, Ceremony

(playlist from Fractured/Image)

I had two versions of this.  The first is from NO Anthology Part Five

at 128kbps, treated with somewhat annoying noise reduction, which has
IALP labelled as "Dreams Never End" and both Dreams Never End and Truth
as "Truth", and with "Cries And Whispers" and "Mesh" swapped.  The second
has MP3s at 192kbps, and is of unknown origin, with lots of tape hiss,
but claiming to be better quality, which for the most part it is, but
overall both are fairly poor-sounding.  Both appear to originate from
the same source.

Better sources have since shown up, though much of this account
reflects the initial MP3 versions used for this writeup.

In A Lonely Place

Intro is cymbals and melodica.  Bernard's vocals sounds like it's a
thousand miles away.  Otherwise, this version sounds fairly faithful
to the release.

A punter can be heard speaking between tracks.

Dreams Never End

Hooky complete butchers the opening bass riff, but they slough onward
anyway.  At about 34 seconds in on the 192k version, some weird backwards
feedback-y sound can be heard running in parallel to the main track.  This
may be a fault of this particular source tape, and is most probably
bleeding from the other side of the tape, because it doesn't appear
on the the Anthology version, and it's only present a few minutes in,
consistent with blank space at the end of the other side of the tape.
The 128k version has a high-pitched whine throughout this and the
remaining tracks.

Truth

The backwards playing is more audible through the opening, but thankfully
stops at 27 seconds in (after pausing for a second after 0:14).  A punter
says something about "yelling" during the intro.  Bernard says "promise
of your lies" instead of "promise I made once".

Mesh

Hooky appears to be doing vocals.  The lyrics for his version are
completely different than the recorded version with Sumner's vox.
It's too bad I can't make out any of it.  The guitar work is pretty
funky, probably because the guitarist is freed from having to sing.

Cries And Whispers

Opens with a synth wash and Hooky's galloping bass.  I believe
Hooky's doing vocals as well, which are also different than the
release version, and the main guitar riff is slower.

Procession

More developed than the former two tracks.

Bernard says something about turning down the "fucking lights",
at least twice.

Loud cheering at the end of this.

Ceremony

Hooky or somebody mutters at the start of this.

A rousing round of applause at the end.

BS:  "Thank you all for coming, that's it.  Thanks a lot."

Stamping and cries for "More!" as the recording fades out.

Versions

AUD #1 unknown taper / equipment

The description above tracks to this recording.

In August 2020, one John Hall (as part of a collective "we") mentioned that NO played as an unannounced headliner after Durutti Column, and they had to tape over the DC to capture their live set. Has to be confirmed whether John Hall recorded the extant version or his was another recording entirely.

This also appeared in City Fun...so we now know of another source, taped by none other than Hooky. Hoping this wasn't some sort of prank by the City Funsters, who were known for pranks...I would guess he got it back since he was known to have taped subsequent shows (see Lot 403 of Hooky's 2021 Omega Auction)

from parttimepunksla