Live At Rockpalast 1979

Kevin Coyne on this Rockpalast recording from WDR studio L, Köln from January 4 1979 finds him at the top of his game, performing to a captive audience midway through a sold out German tour and gives a splendid flavour of his idiosyncratic but particularly individual style with eighteen cuts like the venomous Right On Your Side, the acoustic punk-style approach of Amsterdam or the righteous anger of Having A Party.

Only three songs in, Coyne is sweating profusely yet giving it absolutely everything dressed in decidedly untrendy bib and brace combo. Coyne appears fresh, particularly coherent and confident in his ability to deliver his biting sarcasm; his witty self-deprecation is superbly captured as he stares into a hand mirror and declares "Kevin you look beautiful". He dons a grey top hat for the electro and frenetic semi-atheistic Saviour and his open-tuning rhythmic delivery only adds to the compassion of the anti-racist Uggy's Song. Dedicating the acoustic punk blues of "Brothers Of Mine" to Johnny Rotten, 'A great man' he proclaims only adds to his legend as a punk influence and a willing outsider.

Joined by UK musical heavyweight and admirer Zoot Money from Dynamite Daze gives an indication of just how well Coyne, despite his outsider persona, was loved and respected in his native land. His art school past and his German environs perhaps make a song like Are We Dreaming evoke memories of the theatrical approach of Brecht, and he further expands the atmosphere donning a plastic mask for Burning Head while his own artwork in the shape of the beautiful grotesque grinning bizarre backdrop head looks on approvingly.

This recording finds Coyne at his very best and absolutely in his element.