I blame the proliferation of releases tumbling out of the era in question, still I’m furiously scratching my head wondering how the hell I missed this, it’s not like I might have had a brief passing acquaintance with it which has somehow momentarily escaped the recall, I haven’t. Recorded one evening at the Rainbow Theatre, the date the title of the album ‘June 1, 1974’ – or ACNE as it was more familiarly referred in later years – it featured an all-star gathering of talent credited largely to Ayers, Cale, Nico and Eno yet featuring Oldfield and Wyatt. Amid its grooves some tasty turns, a killer version of Eno’s ‘baby’s on fire’ and Ayers’ ‘may I’ – however it’s the wasted and howling down at the heel grind of Cale’s cover of ‘heartbreak hotel’ that steals the show, a brutal forefather of the Bad Seeds to come whose agitated edginess was no doubt borne of the fact that Cale had discovered his band mate Ayers with his wife the night before.
