Eleven songs, over an hour, the cream of four separate 1978 gigs. In one sense, Live 1978 is not a crucial release, since a good half of the band's seminal debut, The Image Has Cracked, was also recorded live in 1978, on July 2 at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, and the studio stuff on that LP was so spontaneous and nicely rough, it may well have been recorded live in the studio! So these versions of "Nasty Little Lonely," "Still Life," the immortal "Splitting in Two" (the song the Chameleons cover on Live in Toronto -- in the mid-'80s a later Alternative TV lineup opened for Chameleonsat a live gig, and Mark Perry came out and sang it with them!), and the crunching "Viva La Rock 'n' Roll" (ever hear Savage Republic's scorching of this?) seem like duplication of effort, sadly missing "Action Time Vision" too! However, these vintage recordings do catch Perry and pals in their creative prime, part punk, part garage, part Zappa/Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd art rock, with the most direct street-bound intellectualism around, so any new recording is welcome, much less one of this high quality. "Still Life" in particular is even more menacing (no kidding!), and unfamiliar material such as "Going Round in Circles" and "Graves of Deluxe Green" are an added bonus. There's no fat here, thanks to skillful editing by John Henderson and another famous fan, Steve Albini. Besides, don't you want to hear every "anything could happen" recording of "Alternatives" (Here "Alternatives to Normal Eating Habits") ever salvaged and extent? Rock 'n' roll was rarely that unpredictable. ~ Jack Rabid

Rovi