1976 801 – 801 Live

801 Live is the first live album by 801. It was originally released by Island Records in the UK in November 1976. It was subsequently released by Polydor Records in North America in March 1978.

In 1976, while guitarist Phil Manzanera’s band Roxy Music was on hiatus, 801 got together as a temporary project and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first concert.

801 performed three concerts: in Norfolk, at the Reading Festival, and on 3 September at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The final concert was recorded and released as the album 801 Live. The music consisted of selections from albums by Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno and Quiet Sun, plus covers of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”. The album was one of the first in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and other instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer. It was successful in many countries, including Australia, where it was heavily promoted by the ABC’s new 24-hour rock station Double Jay (2JJ).

In 2006, the official Phil Manzanera Web site Manzanera.com reported that 801 Live was soon to be reissued as a double CD with “minor tweaks” to the original recordings and restoration of the “proper ending” to the song “Third Uncle”. In April 2011, Burning Shed announced the availability of the double CD under the title 801 Live Collectors Edition. Material for the second CD was taken from a 23 August 1976 studio rehearsal on a sound stage at Shepperton Film Studios.