The Clean - Mashed

Rating:

* * * *

It's 30 years since the Clean became that oddest of Kiwi rock institutions - the band that flared brightly then snuffed themselves out in the early 80s, but who then returned in the 90s for occasional bouts of recording and touring.

The 2007 national jaunt by the old firm of Kilgour, Kilgour and Scott has delivered this 12-track gem of a live collection taken from shows in the four main centres - fittingly they played "The Studio" in Auckland. The results are likely to gladden the heart of any fortysomething Flying Nunophile.

That's especially because  many of the old songs -

Anything Could Happen

,

Point That Thing Somewhere Else

and the relatively youthful

Too Much Violence

-  sound brighter and beefier in these live versions than the lo-fi studio recordings from the good old days.

The results rise way above just being a you-had-to-be-there souvenir of a good night out. Though the sound of those beer bottles being binned between every second number add a little something to the ambience.

Russell Baillie