Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians

Tramps, New York, NY

This was a showcase for Hitchcock's new album, Perspex Island. Most of the audience was radio people, journalists, A&M Records staff, various music industry types, and 25 members of Hitchcock's fan club. As a radio DJ, a former A&M employee (mail room), an a bona fide Robyn Hitchcock fan, I was in my element.

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Prior to the show, A&M's promotions staff had a dinner for radio guests at a restaurant up the street from Tramps. It was the first time I was able to see some of my former A&M co-workers. I saw Wayne Isaak there, who ran the New York A&M office (then located in the Fuller Building, at 57th Street and Madison Avenue) and who reluctantly had to fire me when they had budget cuts. I was able to tell him with absolutely no rancor, "Remember when you let me go, you said 'This might be the best thing that ever happened to you'? Well, it was! So thanks!" And it was true, since my firing at A&M indirectly led to my hiring at WHTG.

I and my FM 106.3 colleague Matt Pinfield both attended this dinner had a quite enjoyable time. Matt had a quite an enjoyable time, with a rather heroic consumption of cocktails. When the time came for the stroll over to the venue for Hitchcock's performance, we encountered Dave Kendall of MTV's 120 Minutes with a camera crew in front of the club attempting to tape a piece for the show.

Matt decided it would be amusing to heckle Kendall, which he proceeded to do, loudly and repeatedly. Kendall finally placated Matt by interviewing him, man-on-the-street style, about Hitchcock. This wound up being Matt's first appearance on MTV, long before he would eventually take over hosting 120 Minutes himself (this incident is referred to here).

David Fricke described Hitchcock's show in Rolling Stone:

"We'll start with the first song and then continue with the rest of the set," Hitchcock announced dryly as he and his Egyptians -- bassist Andy Metcalfe and drummer Morris Windsor -- took the stage, "and then we'll finish at the end with the last song." He introduced one number as "an old song written by my mother, Ruth." It was, in fact, a Robyn original, "Acid Bird," from his classic 1981 solo album Black Snake Diamond Role. And after the exquisite, Beatlesque "Lysander," he sailed over everybody's head: "That last song was about a reconnaissance aircraft in World War II that drops people in occupied France. This song is about the same thing. It's called 'When You Hold Me Like Toothpaste, There's No Comparison.' "

It was called no such thing. The song was "Balloon Man."

Songs also performed include "Oceanside" and "Freeze."

Also catching the show was King Missile frontman John S. Hall. We chatted in between songs, having met a couple of months earlier when Hall and his bandmate Chris Xefos came by WHTG for an interview with Matt before a woefully underattended show at the Fastlane.