Live Stiffs Live | |
Type: | live |
Artist: | various artists |
Cover: | Stiffs_Live.jpg |
Released: | 17 February 1978 |
Recorded: | 3 October – 5 November 1977 |
Venue: | University of East Anglia, Leicester University, and Lyceum London |
Genre: | Rock, new wave |
Label: | Stiff |
Producer: | Tim Summerhayes, Mick Crickmer |
Chronology: | Stiff Record Compilations |
Prev Title: | Hits Greatest Stiffs |
Prev Year: | 1977 |
Next Title: | The Stiff Records Box Set |
Next Year: | 1992 |
Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records. 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.[1]
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.
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.[2] The album was later re-issued on Music for Pleasure (MFP 50445) as simply Live Stiffs.[2]
The album entered the UK Albums Chart on 11 March 1980, eventually peaking at number 28.[3]
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).[4]
Reviewing in (1981), Robert Christgau wrote:
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."
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)