IQ - The Christmas Office Party
 
Album info
 
Recording Date  : 13-12-1996
     
Length  : 116:16
Format  : FLAC
Track List
 
The Christmas Office Party (Disc 1) 50:02
01 The Enemy Smacks 14:41
02 Just Changing Hands 06:38
03 The Darkest Hour 11:34
04 Clank Tingy Tingy (The Narrow Margin) 09:09
05 It All Stops Here 08:00
The Christmas Office Party (Disc 2) 66:14
01 Sold On You 04:30
02 Awake and Nervous 08:08
03 Band Intros 01:44
04 Further Away (middle section) 04:52
05 Laid Low - Breathtaker 08:47
06 Leap of Faith 06:49
07 State of Mine (end instrumental section) 01:39
08 Came Down (end section) 07:33
09 Christmas Medley - Out Of Nowhere 07:52
10 Mamma Mia - Sugar Baby Love - Out of Nowhere (end section) 09:23
11 It's Oh So Quiet 04:57

Notes
Recorded at the Astoria, London, UK. Good audience recording.
FLAC files received in trade.


From the info file:

IQ
Christmas Office Party
The Astoria
London
13 December 1996
Audience recording
approx. time: 115 mins.


Setlist:

CD ONE:
The Enemy Smacks
Just Changing Hands
The Darkest Hour
Clank Tingy Tingy (The Narrow Margin)/
It All Stops Here

CD TWO:
Sold On You/
Awake and Nervous
Band Intros
Further Away (middle section)/
Laid Low (beginning keyboard instrumental)/
Breathtaker
Leap of Faith/
State of Mine (end instrumental section)/
Came Down (end section)
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (piano instrumental)/
White Christmas (piano instrumental)/
Count Your Blessings (Bing Crosby)/
Out of Nowhere/
Mamma Mia (Abba)
Sugar Baby Love (Rubettes)/
Out of Nowhere (end section)
It's Oh So Quiet (Bjork)


Notes on the Recording:

Again traded to me by Hans Voss in lovely equatorial Norway - be sure to make a trip there for your next beach holiday (!) - for trading to Collected Underground in January 2005.
Though not again of the best sound, I'd say a B - B+, it's a phenomenally fun, high energy show.
Everyone, band and audience, sound as if they are having a great, raucous time. These Christmas IQ shows are really wickedly fun.

Highlights of this recording include 'Clank Tingy Tingy' the working title for what became 'The Narrow Margin' not to mention 'Laid Low' played by Martin only. The wickely fun 2nd set includes Martin's grandiose Liberacesque redendtions of the Bing Crosby Medley - 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' to 'White Christmas' and finally to 'Count Your Blessings' which is very fun and extra thrashy. Not only Abba but the Rubettes get the IQ treatment with 'Sugar Baby Love' and the final encore is Bjork's 'It's Oh So Quiet'.

You're either comatose or passed out drunk if you are not dancing around the room by the end of this show. Turn the volume up to 11 for this one.

After receiving the show from Hans, I EAC'd the tracks, converted them with FLAC Frontend and burned the discs with NERO 6. This show was then passed, as Hans requested, to Collected Underground.

So enjoy the show and have fun. It sounds like a wild night!

-Alysoun