Paradise Lost - Live at Liverpool Polytechnic 18/03/89 (sb)

After the reaction they got in my hometown Liverpool, Paradise Lost would be back - they knew it and we knew it too. Soon after, they attracted the interest of many a record label, were talked about near and far and paved the way to creating a new style/genre. Many bands like local lads ANATHEMA, for example, threw down their thrash metal material and exchanged it for a heavier, more doom and grind orientated style. Over in America, AUTOPSY - the premier and now (sadly) defunct Death Metal band, were the only ones able to keep up with the stuff Paradise Lost were doing, and this they did very well. No surprise, then, that Hammy of Peaceville Records signed both bands to his label. Smart move, that man!

At about this time, Paradise Lost got the chance to tour together with NAPALM DEATH and so they came back to Liverpool, where they played a great gig with a quite decent sound (as you will find out when listening to the songs above). Nick's gruff voice in between the songs did much to loosen up the atmosphere, making it clear that the band wasn't taking all the "morbid" stuff too seriously, quite contrary to other bands around at that point (MORBID ANGEL and DEICIDE amongst others). I met the guys for the first time after this gig (listen out for Nick namedropping me on Track 4, hehe) and I believe, I even got in for free - a great night in all.

There is no copyright on any of the songs. Mr Holmes gave me the tape personally a week after the gig and thus, in theory, I am the only one who could copyright them. I happen to think copyrighting music is a ridiculous idea in music.. I mastered all the songs from tape to PC with .mp3 compression. I was forced to delete the last song (due to webspace) which was an 'unofficial' encore (meaning: the guys finished their set earlier, allowing them time to do another song)… at that time, these were the only songs they had (they had just dropped their earlier material) so they played their newest song ("Our Saviour") again. The song was a carbon copy of the first performance anyway, plus, the songs you see above are how the original setlist was intended. Ya see? Clever eh? Damn, I'm good! Besides, encores are for rockstars and suck major ass...

I had meant to take the above songs off and replace them with a different show from January 1989 but the sound quality wasn't the best and there is only so much you can do soundwise with a sound file that was bad to begin with. However, instead I have opted to just include this one song which was dropped just before they played the Liverpool gig 2 months later. This is an absolute must for all collectors and dedicated Paradise Lost fans!! This song is impossible to get anywhere else, so count yourself a lucky bunny indeed with this one.