These recordings are copyright © The Defendants. All rights are reserved. All songs are published by Meals Music™.
If you simply click the MP3 links on this page your web browser will probably play the track for you. A better approach is to right click the link and save the file future enjoyment.
The Defendants' one and only vinyl release. Recording and production on 4 track by John Rivers at his original Woodbine Studios in Woodbine Street, Leamington Spa.
Available here as mp3 downloads, or you may be able to pick up a copy on 7 inch vinyl. I do have a few copies if you are interested. Or you can buy the Messthetics #103 CD.
The following tracks are digitally recovered from dust encrusted cassette tapes by my good self. They leave much to be desired and at some point I may re-process them using 24bit sampling. I also have some old Ampex 2 inch studio masters but they may well crumble to dust if they are ever spooled.
Back when he was still in Woodbine Street
Probably John Rivers, probably circa summer '80 as Something's Burning is about the St Paul's riots which were April 1980
The following was recovered from a Dindy C90 which has stood the test of time remarkably well. What a pity more of the Peel show wasn't recorded. While Peel was a living legend we clearly took him for granted. I suppose we thought he would always be there for us.
Strictly speaking I do not have permission to make the rest of the tracks from the show available to you. I just hope that if I don't list who is on the recording then the copyright owners will be none the wiser. If they do rumble me then I keep my fingers crossed that they realise that this recording is released in the interest of popular music history.
What a remarkable discovery!! A TDK AD-C90 recording of The Defendants third gig at the Boogie House. An intimate little club with an small disco bar and a stage one size up from the pocket handkerchief stage at The Hope and Anchor, Islington. This recording documents The Defendants playing an away game without the benefit of any rent-a-crowd fans (it's a long way from Leamington to Norwich) in an almost empty little dive and by the end of the 40 minute set the crowd, all 30 or so of them, were shouting for more. Pity I don't have a recording of the encore.
This lo fidelity 42 minute recording is encoded at 192kbps so about 60M. That said, it seems to stream OK in the UK. If you struggle to stream, just download it.
All prepared and ready for you to copy onto a C60 for your listening pleasure.