One of the few details that stays with me about the watershed gig at the Luminaire on 8th January 2008 (it was a watershed moment for me, not the band) were the repeated calls from the audience for House on Fire in every pause between songs. After a while, Alasdair Maclean got wise to this and pre-empted it with an easy charm topped with simmering malevolence: "Yeah, yeah, I know, House on Fucking Fire."
They didn't play the song, of course. I'd never really noticed it before, but went back and checked it out afterwards. It's beautiful, isn't it? I got the CD single as part of my subsequent hoovering up of everything I could find in their catalogue.
The House on Fire heckles went into hibernation for a while after that, only to re-emerge at this April's ICA show. This was reported in The Independent's review, though the reporter was imagining things if he thought they obliged by playing it.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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