Audio recording (with photo op montage) made on an Aiwa stereo cassette recording walkman, using a tie pin stereo mic. Positioned in the centre, and back a little from the front of the sound system. I cleaned up and performed some audio restoration but the sound is more or less faithful to how the band sounded on the night. I would give it a 7/10 for quality. Stating the obvious here but, the use of ear phones will greatly enhance the listening pleasure. The images I used for the slide show are not of the actual gig in London, they are a great collection of the best images of JFE I could find here and there on the internet. There seems to be very little live recordings of JFE on Youtube so it’s about time I loaded this, enjoy.

Curtain Call @ 00.00
The Search for cherry red @ 4.00
When i’m 24 @ 9.00
These little monkeys @ 13.00
This is my room @ 16.45
I've changed hotels @21.25
Give me daughters @ 24.30
Make it precious @ 29.00
Everybody plays the mime sometime @ 34.00
When prince was a kid @ 38.30
Bipolar summer @ 43.15

I had a strong feeling that this gig might be very interesting and decided to take along my recorder so as to record it. Jonathan Fire Eater came on to the stage and took up their instruments and started to play, no introductions or anything like that. Immediately the sound was like some very weird dark carnival music reverberating from a stone cold basement. JFE sounded very different in many ways, firstly the sound coming through the PA sound system was very treble heavy soaked in reverb especially the vocals and the keyboards, which sounded like it was plugged into a broken speaker. The band looked very cool for such young guys and their sound was like all the best elements of The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Garage punk and all the best that those bands influenced. One thing that I noticed about the band members was that they were all extremely focused on what they were doing. As for the singer he was mesmeric, it’s hard to believe he was only 22 years of age and giving such a seasoned confident performance. The overall effect was spellbinding.
I would also like to say at this point that the gig was a mid week one and had it been a week end gig then that would’ve found people more up for letting themselves go wild, having said that, London audiences do have a tendency to stand and stare at bands, especially if the band are blowing the audience away, which is what happened on that particular night. The audience were gobsmacked with the sound and performance but remained about 5-6 feet in distance away from the front of the stage. A couple of times during the gig singer Stewart Lupton seemed a little perturbed with the audiences reaction towards JFE, he had no idea that JFE were simply blowing them away.
After the gig finished I was still hanging around and Stewart was standing nearby talking to someone, during this time we caught eye contact a couple of times, and the same eye contact was exchanged from the stage during his performance. I really wanted to have a chat and explain to him that the audience weren’t unimpressed with JFE. Most of the audience were made up of musicians who were in or connected to bands and they had never witnessed such an incredible gig. They were simply gobsmacked and stunned. I didn’t intrude on Stewarts conversation and never got to tell him that JFE revved up all the engines in the Garage that night. I was a regular at the Garage every week end for a few years checking out all the bands which were mostly bands on tour from the USA. By far one of the best and most memorable nights I’ve ever had was that JFE night. Thanks JSE for one of the best rock n roll memories ever.
On 27th May 2018 JFE singer Stuart Lupton passed away at the all too young age of 43. Stewart was a true original, with ultra stage presence, a gifted talented poet/wordsmith who, when performing live, was soooooo passionately absorbed in the music and his words, delivering it all with bundles of charm. May he rest in the gentle night.