The definitive history of Passion Spent – by Patrick (the parrot)
PART 10: ‘This is the sound of my soul‘
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Over the lifetime of RIO/Passion Spent, no matter the line-up at any particular time, the general consensus was that new and recently-released material by the currently most popular bands should, on a regular basis, be considered for inclusion in the band’s live sets.
Even in the early days with the original line-up, before the name-change from RIO to Passion Spent, the members of the band were keen to learn newly-released songs and add them to the band setlists. A perfect example of this was the band’s cover of The Police song, ‘Every Breath You Take’.
The song was the first single to be released from the Synchronisity album; and while this wasn’t released until 17 June 1983, that particular track was issued as a single on 20 May. Of course—as the record-buying public had become accustomed to over many years—the track was heavily promoted in the media during the week or two before its release.
Even so, Mick, Brian, Ian, Dave, and Jim had spotted the potential of the song, and agreed that ‘Every Breath You Take’ should be added to the band’s repertoire. So they learnt, rehearsed, and mastered the song to a level they felt was good enough for inclusion at their gig at the Dixons Arms on 28 May, just eight days after it was released.
The band members were so pleased with the reaction to their rendition of the song at Dixons, that it remained in the set for the 1 June gig at the Barham, four days later, where the venue’s regulars gave it an especially rapturous response, as it had just become the new UK No. 1 single.
This period of the band’s development was a joy to witness and be involved with: some of the best 1980s classics were being added to the their repertoire, including: KC and the Sunshine Band’s ‘Give it Up’, Duran Duran’s ‘Is There Something I Should Know’, David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’, Big Country’s ‘Chance’, and Spandau Ballet’s ‘True’. For some reason, this last mentioned song caused the band far more difficulty than the others.
On rare occasions, the decision about whether or not to include a newly-learned song in the live sets was not unanimous, and ‘True’ was a case in point. While each member of the band had learnt and fastidiously practised their individual parts, when they played the song together, in a band-rehearsal situation, something often went wrong. So the band knew it was a risky move to include it in a live show.
When the band attempted to played it live for the first time, at Dixons (I’m not 100% certain, but it may well have been the same gig the band played ‘Every Breath You Take’ for the first time), at some point during the song’s saxophone solo, which was being played on keyboard by Ian, the whole thing fell apart. For the first and only time, the complete band faltered and crashed to a stuttering stop, with the song crumbling to a very undignified close.
I have to stress that it wasn’t any particular musician that screwed up (it’s only fair that we all subscribe to the concept of ‘collective responsibility’ here!); it was a total and complete band failure. This was the single most embarrassing moment ever to befall the band (at least, on stage); but the situation was made doubly embarrassing by the reaction of bass player, Brian—who was well within the range of Dave’s backing-vocals microphone—calling out, “What the fuck was that!” (None of the others knew what the fuck it was!)
There were a few other times when things hung by the proverbial thread; for example, the gig at the Barham when Jim (a long-time David Bowie fan) forgot the words to the first verse of ‘Let’s Dance’, and just kept repeating the opening chant, “Let’s Dance”, over and over. When he looked round to Ian, for help (through the mist enveloping the stage from the smoke-machine), Ian laughed and simply shouted: “12 inch version?”. But I’ll say no more about that here, except to say that the moment wasn’t captured on video!
When the band reformed to play a number of charity gigs in 1996, a particular Passion Spent archivist was able to secure, from various sources, live video footage of the shows; though it wasn’t as abundant and as easily produced as it is now, since the advent of smartphones.
The charity gigs will be addressed in a later chapter of this history; but next, I’ll try to remember some of the details leading up to and surrounding the (perhaps, perhaps not) mysterious departure of the coolest young bass player on the Hull music scene, Ben Lourie Esq.
…there will be more in Part 11
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