Box Elder

taped off the radio over the top of the charts. July 1996
In July 1996 we went to Manchester to play live during Mark Radcliffe's show, and this is one of the tunes we did. One of the early tunes i'm most proud of, this is probably the best version. I think the lyrics are nice GK

Kernel BBC Radio 1 (Mark & Lard) July 1996

playing live in the studio, taped off the radio.
In 1995 John Cavanagh was in charge of the Rock Show, and in an effort to get fired*, he invited us into the BBC studios on Queen Margaret Drive to play a few songs live on the air to his audience of AC/DC and Slayer fans. We set up around a couple of mics behind his chair in the control room and played Kewpies Like Watermelon, Road Song, Plastic Ashtray and this one. All the songs were pretty new at that point, recently completed in the case of Kewpies, and we were all pretty excited to be playing them.. God knows what the metal heads made of it, but John is now the voice of STV, and we salute him for his top class trolling. I think this tune should have been a single. GK

Pachinko (Live Session BBC Radio 1 Scotland , Circa Dec 95)

Recorded at King Tuts in 1995 for the John Peel show, i think this sounds pretty great despite the radio static. As ever, it was recorded on cassette over the top of last weeks' charts. GK

Lo Fi (King Tuts, Glasgow - Peel Live 95)

Rare performance of track from "We Are" for John Peel

Velvey Bood - (John Peel Session) April 1996

First Peel Session. Recorded in Glasgow by Stewart Cruikshank
I was saddened today to hear about the death of Stewart Cruikshank, a lovely guy who was always excited about sharing the music he loved with the people of Scotland on the radio, or indeed on a train, or in the street, or wherever you happened to bump into him. When John Peel asked us to do our first session, we had no amps. drums or money, so he asked Stewart to record us in Glasgow. I'll always be grateful for his friendliness and patience. He was a talented producer and a nice man. GK

It Is (John Peel Session) November 1994

recorded live to air at the BBC Studios in Manchester for the Mark n' Lard Show, July 1996
We played this live to air for the Mark n Lard show in the BBC Studios in Manchester shortly after a massive IRA bombing of the city centre that we were only vaguely aware of, shut off from reality as we were within the rattling confines of the back of a transit van. I had evolved a way to cope with such journeys that involved a sleeping bag, a 4 x 12 speaker cabinet, dramamine and whisky miniatures. Knowing that may go some way toward explaining this recording. Enjoy. GK

Phasers On Stun (Mark Radcliffe Live Session July 1996)

Recorded live to air for Radio Scotland 1995
Another tune from the Radio Scotland Rock Show live session we did in 1995. I can't be 100% sure that "Talking Tina", the cheap Barbie doll rip-off that we used to "sample" (by holding her up to our guitar pick-ups), didn't just say "Get Fucked" to everyone listening to the BBC. Particularly surprising as she only ever said "I love it" and "this is fun" before. It's right at the end, and it's really clear. Bad Tina. GK

Plastic Ashtray (Live Session BBC Radio 1 Scotland , Circa Dec 95)

In 1998 we climbed into a tour bus and dragged our sorry arses all over Europe in an attempt to find out which local region of the Warners empire cared least about our continuing sorrowful existence. On this particular night we were recorded by our sound elf, John Delf, and had the pleasure to support that band from the Sopranos, Alabama 3, who are actually not from Alabama. Or they supported us, I forget. Anyway the point is, we learned lots of interesting things, like the sleeping cubicles on tour buses are a lot like coffins,that there are no solids in the chemikal toilet, and in France French Onion Soup is called "onion soup". And the answer was Germany. Always Germany. GK

Strategic Hamlets (live in Amsterdam 1998)

Solo acoustic version performed live for XFM
I wish I had found this CDR of a live solo acoustic session that Fergus and Ian did for XFM back in September 2000 soon enough to include this version of Burriko Girl on the LP. This is just Fergus and his guitar and it is perfect for Sunday.I wish we had done more of this sort of stuff. GK

Burriko Girl (XFM Session)15/09/2000

Glo Starz (Evening Session January 1998)

Live Session Recorded for Mark & Lard in Manchester, July 1996
Continuing our effort to provide you good people with an alternative BBC Sessions album to accompany the one we have just released, here now is a version of Powerball from the Mark n Lard show recorded in summer 1996. As you will know, this tune is a Kemp/Yatsura original that offers tribute to Calvin Johnson's K records while hilariously confusing the man with the protagonist of the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon because I find it impossible to just say anything straight ffs. It probably should have been called Calvinball, but again, see above. Johnson's reaction to this goofballery is not recorded, but the man is the greatest dancer in the USA. Please YouTube Beat Happening if you are in any doubt over this. A lesser known fact is an instrumental version of this song got us 2nd place in the only Battle Of The Bands we ever entered.

BBC Sessions (cd 2)

Pow. R Ball BBC Radio 1 (Mark Radcliffe Live Session July 1996))

nofi version recorded on a boombox at home in 1992, second version from live cassette recorded 1993 in the Kazoo Club. Mix ripped to digital live from a mic and a 1973 portable cassette recorder 2016

providence and club cassette supermix

"sucker" Providence and Club cassette supermix

Evening Session Version January 1998
Here's another tune from our January 1998 session for Steve Lamacq's Evening Session. This is an upbeat messed up geek rocker from Fergus, who I remember lifted the phrase "covered, smothered, chunked, scattered.." from a donut menu we perused on our 1997 scrawl across the USA. He may be singing a lot of this menu, to be honest. I can also testify that he was almost obsessed with Sunset Beach, a daytime soap that becomes absolutely mesmerising if watched under the influence of mind altering drugs. Great pop chorus on this..GK

No 1 Cheesecake (Evening Session)January 1998

John Peel Session April 1996.
We finished this tune shortly after coming back from John River's studio in Leamington Spa in January 1996, where we were putting the last bum notes and angry screaming on our debut album "We Are Urusei Yatsura". We were really keen to get it on the album, but it was just not quite ready. Instead we included a snatch of the quiet closing section which we had recorded in the rehearsal studio on a dictaphone, and debuted the finished song on an April John Peel session. We titled the excerpt "Negative", using the minus sign "-" thusly, but the full name is "The Power Of Negative Thinking". It shows my obsession with Swirlies, MBV and singing through a megaphone AT ALL TIMES, which I only reluctantly abandoned due to lacking extra arms with which to punch my guitar.Listening back, it seems I also stole the lyric "flaming skull" off myself for a later song. And why not. GK

The Power Of Negative Thinking (John Peel Session April 1996)

A collection of all the times John Peel says Urusei Yatsura i have on tape off the radio

John Peel says Urusei Yatsura

August 1996 version of this tune from a session for Steve Lamacq's show

First Day On A New Planet

First Day On A New Planet - (Evening Session)August 1996

Live to air for Steve Lamacq in January 1998. "Assholes for peace"

Exidor (live - Evening Session January 1998)

We had this tune from before we recorded "We Are". We called it "A Song" and played it without much of a structure and improvised lyrics in the Glassford St 13th Note a few times before letting it drop. It's really just Elaine's bass riff, which sounds pretty cool so long as the singer doesn't start playing "E" despite the clue in the name. After the scout hut party debacle it took a few months before i pulled together a proper structure for this and recorded it for John Peel in early 1996. The studio version  was used on the NME "C96" cassette, although now that i think of it, maybe its the studio demo version we gave them. The version we used on "Slain" got recorded the next year at KONK with the guitar I bought for £25 in a junk shop.  The na-na's are ultra bratty and the words are mostly stupid. The bass part still sounds pretty cool though. (GK)

Urusei Yatsura band

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