ICA home tApIng bootleg - sneAker pImps electronIC Cover set All instruments entirely live - Recording as was from start to finish Chris Corner - Vocals / Korg MS10 Liam Howe - Oberheim OBXA Joe Wilson - OSCar / Vocals David Westlake - Drum Kat stAge lAy out All stAndIng As would krAftwerk Left stage - DAVE - JOE - CHRIS - LIAM - Right stage Cover set 001/. The Chauffeur - Duran Duran 002/. Golden Brown - The Stranglers 003/. Venus as a Boy - Bjork 004/. Reward - Teardrop Explodes 005/. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie 006/. Superstition - Stevie Wonder note to downloAder's the lost reCordings of the splInter erA Some time ago, whilst rummaging around the Sneaker Pimps storage cage, I came across a box of old DAT tapes and tape reels. Not a band heavy on nostalgia, my first response was to discard them (if they hadn't seen the light of day by now they shouldn't). But the archivist in me put the lid back on the bin and I took them home where they have sat in a cupboard until now. It dawned on me that, although uninteresting to the band (as they are essentially outtakes, forgotten remixes and bootleg recordings of live shows) they offer a certain insight to the sneaker fan, and help to describe the wider picture of that period, as complement to the official releases. The first tape is the bootleg recording of the 'electronic covers set at Home taping at the ICA. This is the first time I have listened to this since we performed it back in 2000. I am, in general against live recordings and I have agreed to release this, slightly against my better judgement. For me, live music should stay live; the memory of the event is often more precious than its reality. This is no exception on a musical or technical level. My memory of the night is much rosier (I couldn't remember playing duff notes or the pops and crackles). Nevertheless I do believe it was an important moment and I am willing to overlook its infirmities, as it gives a rare insight into another side of sneaker pimps. Home taping was a club night that we organised around the release of splinter in 1999. It was held monthly at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the Mall in London (next to the queens house). As we all grew up in the 80's we were very aware of the term 'Home taping' (the practice of taping records or radio onto a compact cassette at home). The music industry, which before the advent of the cassette recorder hadn't suffered any significant piracy, suddenly panicked and thought record sales would plummet due to the popularity of the humble cassette. They began a campaign to dissuade kids from copying music, its slogan: "Home taping is killing music", its logo: a cassette perched on a pair of crossed bones (as in skull and cross bones). Their worries were differed by the compact disc, as everyone ditched their cassettes and cd's were, at least for 14 years, not domestically recordable. Of course the crises is on a grander scale with the MP3, but little did we know this at the time as file sharing was a fraction of what it has become and the ipod was merely a glint in apples eye. The reason why we loved home taping as a pass time was because it was the way that we used to learn about music. Amongst friends we would regularly traffic home mix tapes, sometimes attempting to out do the other, sometimes just wanting to cheer someone up, other times to remind friends about who we are and where we've been; a kind of musical conversation. Not surprisingly this practice was not exclusive to us and it seemed that everyone who loved music had tapes that they had made or had been given to them which were totally formative in their musical and cultural development. Joe and I still send tapes to each other now and again. The concept of the night was to invite people (famous and not famous) to send in their tapes and we would simply play them back-to-back on a single cassette deck (absolutely no mixing whatsoever). Along side the music we would show the images that they sent in (sometimes just a mug shot, other times specific artwork). As we never edited the tapes we would often get quite horrific results, Gary Barlow's tape blasting out 'Mike and the Mechanics' must have freaked out the Japanese fashion students that always mob the ICA. Moreover we often played, say a dance tape from a DJ followed by a compilation tape from an aging politician. We had tapes from the likes of Madonna and Jennifer Anniston, to popular morning TV presenters, Fern Britten, to footballers, chefs, homeless, anyone we could think of. The club was a great success in the media, and we were probably more exposed by home taping than we were by Splinter itself, which was the LP that we were trying to promote. I can't remember why we stopped doing it, probably because it was hard work and, as always, we needed to change the formula. We always vowed to do another club but couldn't find a rival concept. Maybe we still might. The bootleg recording of the covers set was taped without us knowing… on a cassette. I haven't edited it, eq'ed it, mastered it, not touched one bit, as you will witness. This is in keeping with the concept of the club night. The idea was to cover 6 songs that were important to us. And in true home taping style they varied quite stupidly from one to the other. We decided to perform them totally live, almost 'jammed', on 3 keyboards and an electronic drum pad. We stood 4 across the stage like kraftwerk. The thing I find most interesting is that this recording hints at the humorous part of the sneaker pimps, a part mainly kept under lock and key. Certainly I felt that playing Stevie Wonders 'Superstition' in a po-faced kraut rock style was testimony to our comic intentions. Please download it and stick it on an old cassette tape for the best enjoyment. ::: [release on the 25th of December] ::: Liam (Sneaker Pimps)