The Definitive Del Amitri Rarities Series, Vol. 7: The Twisted Live Bonus Disc

Yes sir, the next train from Delsville's pulling into the station. This disc was part of a limited edition release -- actually, "Strictly Limited Edition", to quote the cover sticker! -- of the Twisted album. When I first saw it in the Import section of the old Tower Records in Washington, D.C., I instantly knew I HAD to have it, right then and there, despite the $30-something price tag. Why, you ask? Besides the fact that I'm obviously a hopeless Dels completist collector geekhead?  Because from the background photo on that cover sticker, I immediately had a suspicion that I knew just where and when it had been snapped... and when I got the thing open to reveal the u-card behind the swinging CD tray (reproduced above), that hunch was delightfully confirmed: those pics were taken in the grungy basement dressing room of the old 9:30 Nightclub in D.C. in August of 1995 -- and I was there the night they were taken!  No, not just at the show, but actually down in that dressing room after it!  I had a beer (or two) out of that plastic tub on the cover sticker (see below)!  I sat on that bench that Justin and Ian are sitting on -- maybe that's my butt out of frame on the right?  (OK, probably not. I remember being frightened of Ian.) It was only the second time I'd had the opportunity to see Del Amitri, since their first American concert back in the summer of 1986 as I mentioned earlier, and I'm happy to say that Justin at least vaguely recognized me when I went in and greeted him (or maybe it was just the way I greeted him, "Justin, Justin, Justin...", that caused him to ask, "Do I know you?").  

That dressing room -- in the OLD 9:30, mind you, not the beautiful rock palace that bears its name today -- had to be among the coolest, skankiest, rock'n'rollingest ones in history. You can see that graffiti-laden wall behind Justin and Ian. It sometimes functioned like a bulletin board on which touring bands would scrawl teasing messages for other bands they knew were a day or a few behind them on the same route. But the room's most defining feature was a pipe overhead (visible on the upper left corner of the sticker), which huge rats would actually, brazenly crawl right across from a hole in the wall that led to the alley outside, in full view of anyone in the room, with absolutely no hesitation. Another memorable time I was down there, before a show on Sheryl Crow's first tour just as "All I Wanna Do" was starting to break, I watched her band lure a rat along the pipe by putting a slice of pizza up there, followed by Sheryl serenading the rodent with a few lines from her former boss Michael Jackson's "Ben"!  (That's a love song to a pet rat, for those who don't know; Sheryl was Michael's backup singer early in her career.) But I digress. Props to the photographer, Mario Sorrenti, whom I met that night, and who took those pics as well as all the photos for the Twisted album and accompanying singles, including those great hanging-out-the-window candids as seen on the "Roll to Me" sleeve in the Twisted B-Sides post.  A gentleman and bon vivant.  

OK, now that we've clearly established how incredibly cool I am ;^) here are the tracks. The disc says "Mixed live for radio broadcast" but has no other info about date or location. But I believe this "Strictly Limited Edition" is among the Rarest Stuff in the Del catalog -- so enjoy!

Oh yeah -- and how do you like the new blog redesign?  I did it because I wanted a wider space for the posts so they'd be easier to read and didn't go so far down the page, but I think I ended up with a much more attractive and fun-to-read site into the bargain!

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