the Jesus Lizard 1991/1992 Peel Sessions BBC master!

This is why I love the internets.

Some years back the slow, steady BBC Peel Session catalog release schedule came to an end. I don't know why; while most obvious sessions have been released either via the band themselves or via Strange Fruit, the ultimate roundup leaves a huge chunk of the BBC archives untouched.

The Jesus Lizard - a band very close to your humble blogger indeed - recorded two sessions for the late John Peel, in 1991 and 1992. Neither of these saw official release anywhere, not even as bonus tracks on the recent deluxe remasters on Touch and Go. Copies taped from the broadcast(s) did circulate among fans, but until today (err, last night) I'd never heard anything better than N-th generation cassette dubs with all the muffledness and noise that entails.

So imagine my curiosity when I came across what was purported to be a pre-FM set of tJL Peel Sessions. The few times I've heard non-official pre-FM Peel Session tracks - by any band - are because the band themselves had a copy. So I obtained the fileset, got even more intrigued when reading the info file that came with it, and, well, listened. And I was blown away.

This material is exactly as purported, and in fact the original description was too modest: not only are these pre-FM, they are pre-ANYTHING. What I mean by this is that this can only have come from BBC masters, via someone high-up with the Beeb or tJL themselves (or Touch and Go). This fully appears, audibly and visibly (in Audition) to be an actual copy of the masters.

Was this in line for release at one point? Did pre-production copies get generated? Is this a mastering candidate for release? Until the party responsible comes out and clarifies, we will never know. But barring no other information available, I will just guess that at some point this was in line for release and what we have here is a digital dub of the master. Further clarification from the source indicates these did indeed originate from someone with high-level access to the raw BBC masters, at the BBC itself, so there you go.

Thanks to i86time and the original uploader via dimeadozen for this!

Needless to say, all technobabble aside, the material is blisteringly good, brilliant even. It's the Jesus Lizard goddamnit!

Our version is slightly modified from the Dime seed: levels were adjusted, tops/tails done, and better track splits made. Not a huge improvement over the Dime seed, but 1) you don't have to register to download from here, and 2) I like mine better ;)

enjoy!

the JESUS LIZARD
Peel Sessions 1991-1992
BBC master source

original notes below:

Jesus Lizard Peel Sessions
Lineage: Pre-FM source > gold cd-r > wav > cd-r (my copy) > wav > flac

01 Wheelchair Epidemic
02 Bloody Mary
03 Seasick
04 Monkey Trick

Recorded: 24-02-91
Broadcast: 17-03-91
Producer: Dale Griffin
Engineers: Julia Carney & Mike Robinson
Studio - Maida Vale 3

05 Gladiator
06 Whirl
07 Puss
08 Boilermaker

Recorded: 27-09-92
Broadcast: 29-10-92
Producer: Nick Gomm
Engineers: R. Jordan & N. Gomm
Studio - Maida Vale 3

Mac McNeilly (Drums)
David Wm. Sims (Bass)
Duane Denison (Guitar)
David Yow (Vocals)

You'll run the risk of conceiving a bastard (lossless FLAC)