PiL - Rock Summer Festival - Tallinn, Lauluväljak, Estonia, USSR, August 26th 1988
Running Order:
1. PUBLIC IMAGE (incomplete)
2. FFF
3. SEATTLE
4. HOME
5. BAGS
6. RISE
7. HARD TIMES
8. RELIGION
9. RULES & REGULATIONS
10. ANGRY
11. OPEN & REVOLVING
12. HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN
13. THE BODY
Running Time:
68 minutes (approx)
Sound Quality:
(8) Radio Edit
Tape Gradings Explained here
review by TIM BUCKNALL
Notes:
FM Radio broadcast. Possibly Estonian or Finnish radio? The version of the broadcast
which appears on the 'Holidays in Estonia' bootleg CD is superior quality.
Radio broadcast includes
DJ comments not included on the CD version.
On both versions the beginning of 'Public Image' is cut off.
Review:
PiL's 1988 trip to Estonia was a historic
event for more than one reason, it was also Lu Edmonds last show, and
luckily we have a soundboard recording of it.
The first song is 'Public Image', too bad it cuts in half-way, as it sounds like
a storming version. The sound mix is not perfect (its a little dry) but
it's quite listenable, and has good stereo separation with the bass in the left
channel and the guitars in the right. It's as good as you could possibly hope
for considering the equipment the Estonians would have had access to at the time.
There's some compression as you'd expect from an FM radio broadcast, and the
recording has likely gone through noise reduction at some point. The crowd can
be clearly heard between songs, and it's likely crowd mikes were used (though
of course, there were 120,000 people there!)
'FFF' is a 1000 times better than the rather bland version played at Brixton
in May 1986. The same goes for all the songs from 'Album'. The band really seem
to have found their style. Too bad Lu had to leave. 'Seattle' is a great
version too.
This version of 'Rise' gives me goosebumps. There's a small problem at around
5 minutes into the song where it sounds like the tape was eaten, but it soon
returns to normal.
The slowed down version of 'Religion' is new to me – presumably this
is the version that appears on the 'The Body' 12" single, and the aborted
'Renovations' album – anyway, it's great to hear it back in the set
list, as it was always a personal favourite. The creepy choir on the chorus works
brilliantly.
There's a cut between 'Religion'
and 'Rules and Regulations' but nothing important seems to have been
lost. A short drop-out occurs at 4:40 into 'Rules and Regulations'.
'Holidays In The Sun' is a very interesting version, PiL haven't just
covered it like with 'Pretty Vacant' in 86, they've reinvented it to
great effect. There's a small sound dip at one point during the song
but thankfully it's very brief. As the sole Pistols song of the night
it receives a predictably rapturous response from the crowd.
There's small cut before
final song 'The Body' which is presumably the encore. Another small
sound dip happens in 'The Body' just before the
sampled female voice comes in. The song gets a bit muddy in places, but
not enough to obscure what a great performance it is.
At the end a radio announcer speaks in what sounds to me like
Estonian (Finnish with a Russian accent).
Regardless of any small technical issues this is a must-have tape
for PiL and Sex Pistols fans…
