Shindig! Issue #158 – The Fleshtones

A live album seemed an obvious move. Building on their popularity in France, The Fleshtones were booked in 1985 for a run of dates over a two-week period at the Club Gibus, in Paris. The plan was to swiftly record the first live show, tape and mix it at a local studio the next day, press it in Amsterdam the next, and have it printed and ready to sell in the club before their residence finished. This was an ambitious plan in the pre-digital age. Despite the best efforts of engineer Jim Ball and producer Richard Gottehrer, the project was beset with problems. The gig was below par, as the band hadn’t shaken off jetlag and Peter’s voice was shot. The Paris studio available was small and poorly equipped, and there was only a four-hour window to mix and overdub. The result was disappointing for all concerned. Ball regretfully summed up the project. “Speed Connection is what it is: a testament to how to do a record in a week.” The set, mixing popular cuts from the early albums, was far better on subsequent nights, but a great opportunity to capture the live magic had been missed.

“Our live shows and records are two different animals,” says Peter. “There are a few reasons for this, the most obvious being that a record does not miraculously transport the actual band into your living room. There’s a lot you don’t see, and a lot that happens by chance and chaos that just won’t happen once the music is fixed on a recording. Also, we came to doing all this by way of being big fans of records. We tend to envision our songs as completed records way before we get anywhere near a recording studio. This kinda cuts producers out of the loop. Ultimately, we want our records to sound like records we love. Someday maybe we’ll make a really ‘live’ sounding record, but of course that will be fake.”

The set always includes some impressive cover versions, drawn from over 250 they have played over the years, almost every song that made you shake your hips. “A favourite that is guaranteed to get a crowd going is ‘Alright’ by The Coastliners, which is still included in all out live shows. An interesting note is that however successful the cover, we tend to drop it as soon we find out another band is covering it as well, so don’t tell us about some band covering ‘Alright’.”

The Fleshtones can also draw on a hefty back catalogue of self-penned songs. “We’ll toss off one of our very first songs (it’s on our first aborted LP Blast Off) ‘How I Feel’ when we all get really worked up,” says Pete. “We also do old songs like ‘Shadowline’ and ‘Hexbreaker’ if people request them.”

To read the full article order Shindig! issue #158 here