Paris Incident (Virtuoso 103/104)
Le Stadium, Paris, France – March 13th, 1979
Disc 1 (68:10): Danger Money, The Only Thing She Needs, Rendezvous 6:02, By The Light Of Day, Presto Vivace, Drum Solo, In The Dead Of Night, Nothing To Lose, Bass Solo, Thirty Years, Carrying No Cross
Disc 2 (58:32): Alaska, Time To Kill, Violin Solo, Time To Kill (reprise), Caesar’s Palace Blues. Bonus Tracks: Nothing To Lose (Single Version), In The Dead Of Night (Single Version), Night After Night (Single Version), When Will You Realize? (Unreleased Track). Nakano Sunplaza, Tokyo, Japan – May 29th, 1979: Danger Money, The Only Thing She Needs. Audimax, Hamburg, Germany – December 9th, 1979: Waiting For You
One of the best recordings of the latter day U.K. is the Paris, France soundboard recording. Right around the time of the release of their second and final studio LP Danger Money, it was produced as a potential source for their planned swan song live album Night After Night, but they went with a recording of the June 1st Tokyo show instead.
Previous pressing of the Paris soundboard include Parisian Rendezvous (Dynamite Studio DS91E016/017) and Parisian Welcome (110279), both very good but from a high generation cassette with loud hiss. Virtuoso utilize a lower generation tape for Paris Incident which is very dynamic and almost hiss-free.
Virtuoso also offer the correct information about the show. Previously it has been dated February 11th in Le Pavillion. But recently the taper of a newly circulated audience recording confirmed this show to be March 13th at Le Stadium (he has the tape and a ticket stub to support his claim). The label uses twenty-eight seconds of the audience tape for the beginning of John Wetton’s bass solo on disc one.
Danger Money, the first UK album to feature the band as a three piece with John Wetton, Eddie Jobson and Terry Bozzio, was released in March 1979 just as they were playing in Paris. The set focused upon the new songs and an adaptation of the highlights from the first album. Allan Holdsworth’s guitar parts were compensated on the keyboards.
The tape begins right where the slow and heavy “Danger Money” starts, followed by the upbeat “The Only Thing She Needs” and Wetton’s Crimso-style ballad “Rendevouz 6:02.” It’s the first side of LP in a different sequence.
The coda from “By The Light Of Day” serves as a prelude to “Presto Vivace” and a very energetic drum solo by Terry Bozzio. They follow with the first song from the debut album “In The Dead Of Night” and “Nothing To Lose” from the latest album.
Wetton’s solo spot is quite melodic, combining the lyricism of Chris Squire with the heaviness of John Entwistle. The set ends with Eddie Jobson’s electric violin solo in “Time To Kill.” Jobson’s solo is uneven, meandering between ecstatic sublimity and confused hesitancy. The new song “Caesar’s Palace Blues” is the only encore and closes the show. Overall it’s a good show, but not nearly as good as the Japanese shows and the ones played in Europe later in the year. It’s apparent why the Paris tapes were shelved for the live project.
The first of the bonus tracks is the “Nothing To Lose” single. It’s the same as the studio cut but about by about thirty seconds. The B-side is a re-recorded version of “In The Dead Of Night,” the opening track from the first album but rearranged to fit the three piece.
“Night After Night” is does not appear on any studio release by the band but was released as a single (in a slightly edited version), taken from the live album Night After Night.
The B-side is a non-LP studio track titled “When Will You Realize?” Although it has yet to appear on any CD, it was re-recorded with different lyrics on John Wetton’s solo album Caught In The Crossfire in 1980. It was included as a bonus track on When Will You Realize? (TNT 030125/26) with the May 31st Osaka show. It’s thought that this track is the one that caused enough strife in the band to break them up.
After the unreleased track, two songs, “Danger Money” and “The Only Thing She Needs,” are taken from the May 29th show in Tokyo. These two also appear as bonus tracks on Danger Unit (Siréne–128), but have been slowed down to play at the correct pitch and the entire show from an alternate tape source can be found on Midnight Mass (Virtuoso 053/054) and Presto Vivace (Sirene-057).
The final bonus track is the rarity “Waiting For You” from the Hamburg show on December 9th, 1979, one of their final live performances (the final UK show, before the recent reunion, was Vereening, Nijimegen, The Netherlands, on December 17th). The song was only played on a few dates on this tour and is a true rarity. The entire Hamburg show was released on Waiting For You (Complex Dreams UK-3002).
Paris Incident is a very good release. The Paris tape is a definite upgrade and remains an authentic record of UK’s live prowess. The bonus tracks are a good addition, even though they’ve all been released before.
