Some of the Interesting Things You'll See on a Long-Distance Flight

While the most important relatively underground compilations of the 1980s have either gone lost or have been chopped up and divided on anthologies, LTM has actually taken a bold step in preservation, nearly restoring the complete original release and including material recorded at the same time but previously unreleased.

 

LTM

Some of the Interesting Things,... is first and foremost a souvenir of the multi-artist 1982 tour arranged by Les Disques du Crepescule. It consists of live songs by The Durutti Column, Paul Haig, Antena, and The Names recorded live in Belgium, home of Crepuscule aka Factory Benelux.

There's a lot to learn by studying a release like this and the concept of the package tours. Nearly a quarter century later, the music business is shifting. Less music is being sold by retailers, however, concert attendance has doubled, according to some studies. Crepescule and Factory weren't the only labels who made packaged tours of their artists in the 1980s, but labels are rarely doing it any more. The labels knew a little something more about what entertainment and performance was all about, and occasionally sent along an emcee to provide some sort of space between sets. It's notable for a collection like this because rarely are these people archived along with the main performers. Wally van Middendorp is the emcee represented here between band sets in his snarky "Raving Lunatic" interludes.

The recordings have been remastered and restored from original sound board tapes, which is often a bit of controversy between music fans. While I can understand the desire to hear a crisp and clean sound without chatty concert attendees,  a professional live sound crew mixes for the room taking into consideration the dynamics and audience noise. These dynamics of the mix are gone on this CD; even between songs, there's next to zero audience noise on the disc.

For collectors, this is undoubtedly a collection to seek out for the stunning quality and exclusive versions, but the collection also is something to pay close attention to for independent label owners who are finding the 1990s way of doing things simply not working any more.