Recorded over four nights in Germany during what turned out to be Spacemen 3's final tour, 'Live in Europe 1989' is far better than the
more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's 'Performance'. The album's also notable for documenting the group's short-lived
quartet line-up, with bassist Willie Carruthers and drummer Jon Mattock. Despite the change in rhythm sections, the focus is, as
always, on guitarists Pete Kember and Jason Pierce, who by this point in the group's career aren't even pretending to be interested in
standard verse-chorus-verse structure. Rather surprisingly, only one of the 13 tracks; a 16-minute take on Playing With Fire's centre-
piece track 'Suicide' breaks the ten-minute barrier that was so often smashed through on the group's studio recordings, but there's still
an epic, expansive feel to these loose, perfectly ragged performances. Although newcomers are advised to start with Playing with Fire
or Recurring, Live in Europe 1989 is essential for fans.
1. Rollercoaster (5:45) "Rollercoaster" was the opening song for most of 1989 after coming on stage to the sounds of "Ecstasy
Symphony" (or on one occasion, "Mr. Spaceman" by The Byrds). 2. Mary Anne (4:05) 3. Bo Diddley Jam (2:37) An instrumental jam
occasionally included as part of the regular set. 4. 2:35 (3:33) A regular part of the Spacemen set since the band's first recordings in
1984. 5. Walkin' With Jesus (4:33) The original lyrics for "Walkin' With Jesus" included the line "Listen Sweet Lord, forgive me my sins.
Cause I can't stand this life without sweet heroin". Deleted for the studio recordings, Jason would occasionally sing them live as
recorded here in 1989.6. I Believe It (4:09) Even with a whole album of new material on Playing With Fire, Spacemen 3 only regularly
performed "Suicide", "Revolution" and "How Does It Feel?" from that album, while ignoring the other tracks. Every so often one of them
would turn up like this song and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" 7. Lord Can You Hear Me? (3:22) Another Playing With Fire song which
was performed live only occasionally. 8. Things'll Never Be The Same (5:35) A part of the Spacemen 3 live set since 1984, this song
would go through a number of changes over the years. Sometimes it would be start-stop bluesy shuffle, other times Sonic would play
an electric saz-a Turkish drone instrument. 9. Starship (3:50) 10. Revolution (6:36) Both "Revolution" and "Suicide" had been part of
the band's live set for almost a year before the studio versions were officially released. This incendiary version comes from a 1989
show in which "Revolution" was often played twice - once as part of the regular set and again as part of the encore. 11. Suicide (15:52)
"Suicide" was typically the last song of the set and could last anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 depending upon the stamina of the band
and the audience. 12. Take Me To The Other Side (4:38) One of the band's most intense workouts, always a strong crowd pleaser,
and rarely out of the set. 13. Suicide (Version 2 edit) (7:30) This alternate take of "Suicide", included purely as a bonus, of one of the
Spacemen's more improvised noise assaults.
