Music Arcades: Pere Ubu: Apocalypse Now

Looking back in my email, I see subscribed to Pere Ubu's email list (a.k.a. communex) on 24 September 1994. Here's how the first mailing I received concludes:

A word here about Eudora and macs on the internet. Just been getting into the GetURLINIT and ICeTEe extensions and COMMAND-clicking after years of cut & paste URLs. Highly recommended and extremely groovie. That's all.

Love it: both the recollection of the days when hyperlinks in email weren't taken for granted, and David Thomas's wide-eyed joy in technical details. I still use Eudora (and a Mac, and, from time to time, the internet) — which is why I still have all my email from 12 years ago.

The reason I mention all this is that it was via Ubu Communex 8299 on 2nd August '99 that I first heard of this album. That email said (and you can read all the promotional blurb on the official website), "Apocaypse Now [sic] captures a very rare event — a band at the peak of its powers playing the perfect place on a perfect night in front of a wildly enthusiastic audience."

It was one of the first instances of what has since become quite a significant trend: the official bootleg. King Crimson have long been pioneers of this fan service. I've recently downloaded an old Tangerine Dream performance and currently have a Jon Anderson show on order. All very fashionable stuff. Ubu themselves launched an expanded range of recordings available for download, whence I got half their Amsterdam 1991 show.

The Apocalypse Now show was also in 1991, and features a couple of tracks from The Tenement Year plus several from Worlds in Collision. One thing that makes it distinctive is that the instruments are all acoustic, with the exception of a couple of tracks. The reason why is never explained. (And why doesn't David Thomas play accordion at all?) I don't buy the 'perfect' promotional hyperbole, but it's still kind of interesting — for a fan. Not in the same league as The Tenement Year.