Huddersfield Polytechnic 01/03/1989

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Set List

Notes

Featuring early live versions of Se Dest, (a slow) Shake And Crawl and In A Room, an audience recording of the entire gig is available to listen to on YouTube.

Quotes

“This was my first House Of Love concert. I was a recent convert due to Destroy The Heart blowing my mind when I first heard it in John Peel’s Festive 50 of 1988. As was my habit in those days (and more recent days), I positioned myself immediately in front of Terry so I could observe a master guitar hero at work, but the sight of Guy in his white shirt and his slight (I did say slight) mullet really struck me. I had never seen such a skinny dude before. Se Dest started the show and I recall thinking Steve Lamacq was talking out of his arse – he had said it was ‘crap’ in that day’s NME. I was just mesmerised by Terry, who never smiled once. His short black hair and his red polka dot shirt became more sweat-sodden as the gig progressed. He was a showman, but his moves seemed to be a natural extension of the sounds he was wrenching rather than some exaggerated posing. It was mostly new material that night, and it was Shake And Crawl that grabbed me the most with its Roxy Music-esque embellishments. Guy said very little, except ‘thanks’ after each song. However, during the guitar breakdown just before the climax of Love In A Car he said ‘Are you okay?’ to the audience. That was cool! At the end of the gig Guy stayed behind on the stage wagging thumb-aloft hands. I reached for Terry’s setlist but some bloke beat me to it! In retrospect, this was the moment when all seemed possible for the band… but then the rest of the year unfolded! But that night was the best HOL gig I ever saw!” Mark Nicholson

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