The Quietus writers and staff choose their favourite live albums, from murky punk madness to electrifying free jazz, and from the pure sound of rage to sex, death and romance
As a document of the live sound of a band who predominantly thrived live, Dr Feelgood’s Stupidity was, unsurprisingly, their only number one album. Recorded partly on home soil at Southend-on-Sea’s Kursaal, the album captured their raw R&B energy in a way their studio material had distinctly failed to. Frontman Lee Brilleaux said of Stupidity that it “was the culmination of the revolution against the stack heel and platform shoe brigade… We said bollocks to all that, this is how a live band really goes to work.” Indeed, by 1976 glam was over and the point of decay was tipping over into renewal…
Sophia Deboick 