November 26th, 2021 
Stuart H&C Raw Material – The Desk Tapes.
The unthinkable. A full recording from the darkest, most alternative era of Hunters and Collectors.
This week we discover an early gig from Sydney – the first in our series from outside of Melbourne. Tracks from the then forthcoming The Fireman’s Curse mix with songs from the first album and early EP’s: you do need to hear Towtruck in live form. Three tracks that never saw any release also appear – The Walsh Way, the wild track Sex and a cover of Sixteen Tons (!).
Nothing remotely like this recording exists in the officially released Hunters and Collectors repertoire. It is almost the exact opposite of last week’s acoustic set. This is not for everyone: yet we know that for some of you, this may feel like an early present…! Were any of you there!?
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Make it available as a download and be sure to let me know if you do. I love this raw, percussion and bass heavy era of H&C.
How about showing Stuart some respect & appreciation for the effort he’s put into this project instead of just making demands.
It’s all good. If I were there as a fan I would hoping for downloads myself.
I would personally like to put them up for download but it is not the concept this time around. There is – understandably – a bit of hesitancy with desk tapes. They are not of the quality of the released live albums, which are of course all mixed from multi-tracks etc.
Ultimately the importance of the desk tapes as historical records of the live story of the band has thankfully won. However, downloads… not at the moment.
Cheers
Can you turn thus “RAW MATERIALS” into a vinyl. that would be awesome
Thanks as always Stuart! This recording is something else!
I’ve always wondered if it were possible to pinpoint when the brass lines first debuted in “Talking to A Stranger”.
Raw Material #1, ie the first ever gig (1981 05 15), obviously has no brass.
The self-titled album (released 1982 07 26) has the brass. This gig is 2 months after that (1982 09 19).
I got a bit confused, because the old Vault recording, 1982 08 01 Tivoli, Adelaide, has no brass in it. Can I assume an explanation that the Horns of Contempt, not being full band members, may not have made the trip to Adelaide, but did go to Sydney a month later?
G’day… Jack’s book certainly the reference for the debut of the brass… 🙂
That’s incredibly observant. I hadn’t noticed! My best guess for now is that they couldn’t afford to take everyone to Adelaide for the 1982 gig at the time-?
Rob?
Thank you so much, Stuart and H&C!
Thanks so VERY much for putting this up.
I saw the band in August the following year in Sydney, very ably supported by Plays With Marionettes.
The band refused to play Talking to A Stranger any more,much to the sold out crowds disgust.
What we did get was a large dose of the newly released Fireman’s Curse of course.
This however captures a moment which is when (IMHO) when Hunters were at their experimental finest.
Just brilliant.
Thanks again.