A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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Dean Wareham live at St Pancras Old Church
In December 2013 Dean Wareham played two shows at the lovely St. Pancras Old Church in London, the show was later released as a live album by the wonderful Sonic Cathedral - first on cassette, and then later as a beautiful 1.5 x LP release. This article starts with the posts I made to AHFoW shortly after each show and will then go on to look at the various releases of the live show.
Dean Wareham in London #1 (5th December 2013)
posted to AHFoW in the early hours of 6th December. I apparently wrote it on my phone, I guess while on the train home.
I was at work yesterday afternoon counting down the seconds to Dean Wareham’s first London show for two and a half years when an email arrived
Might not make it to London today. Our train has been sitting on the tracks for 2 hours and we are just outside Manchester.
Apparently there is a tree on the tracks, but also further problems down the line.
Email from Dean - 5th December 2013 15:03
This was followed by flurries of tweets and email and Facebook posts as good folk tried to work out how to get the band to London, ultimately the best advice was probably sit tight and eventually the train started moving.
The band arrived late, but arrived, Jason Quever of Papercuts rushed though a short and sweet support set, joined for the last couple of songs by Britta and (drummer) Anthony.
Dean arrived onstage with Britta, Anthony and Jason making up the band and opened with Love Is Colder Than Death and followed it with a very wonderful set of new and old, the old including Galaxie 500s Tell Me, When Will You Come Home, and of course Tugboat & Luna’s Moon Palace and Lost in Space.
Encore was a sensational Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste and Ceremony.
A splendid end to a gig that almost didn’t happen.
Nice to meet some friends and fans… Robert, Alex, Richard, Paul and anyone else I said hello to, and thanks to Nat Sonic Cathedral.
This post has been written on my phone I’ll jazz it up at the weekend just wanted to get the thoughts down.
I don’t think I did “jazz up” the post - it could probably have used it!
Dean Wareham in London #2 (6th December 2013)
So on to Friday, managed to not make the mailing list pub meet-up (again) but fairly certain I’d have been on my own if I had! Arrived at the church with my son at 7:30 and took up position behind the seats, same place as last night, so Britta is, once again obscured in any photos I took - mind you I’d forgotten my camera so I only took a few pictures with my phone and they all look a bit rubbish!
Jason Quever of Papercuts opened with a much more relaxed set than the night before, he took longer to tune between songs. The first half of the set was on an acoustic guitar before he was joined (again) by Britta and Anthony and things stepped up a gear.
Dean was again accompanied by Britta, Anthony and Jason and the set was similar to the previous evening, just more relaxed and perhaps a little rockier, the new songs sounded great live, and it’s always a treat to hear the old ones. Encore tonight was Ride Into the Sun followed by a barnstorming Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste. The crowd should have been baying for a second encore but they gave up too soon and left just me clapping alone as they headed into the cold for trains and tubes home.
Nice to meet a mailing list member, just the one tonight, and while we were chatting Britta came over and invited us backstage. Backstage for priests is called the vestry, so we stood amongst bibles and crucifixes and pictures of the pope, with Dean & Britta and Sonic Boom! I had a beer because in such illustrious company I felt the need to do something with my hands. After some chat, getting Dean to sign my Esopus 20 lyric book, and taking a couple of photos for some Spanish fans, the party moved outside for ciggies and Adam and I made our excuses and left.
Highs: The show, the after show
Lows: That I never took some snaps backstage
In March 2014 when Dean released his eponymous LP Sonic Cathedral gave away a six-track CD of performances from the show with initial copies. Sonic Cathedral then released a 12-track album in May 2014 on cassette, with either a red or green shell - I was given a copy of each by Dean after a show at the Prince Albert in Brighton - I believe that’s why you’re not supposed to let the artists near the merch! It was then released on LP for it’s 10th anniversary in December 2023.
I’ve written about most of my copies in the My record collection series of posts:
[011] Dean Wareham Live at St Pancras Old Church (red cassette)
Recorded across two nights as St Pancras Old Church in London and released on two different coloured cassettes by Sonic Cathedral - this is the red one. I might start getting embarrassed about how good the ex-members of Galaxie 500 are to me but this was given to me by Dean after his show at The Prince Albert in Brighton in May 2014.
BTW, I can’t be sure but suspect that the download code in that photo has probably never been redeemed - so… if you’re quick you can get yourself a free download of this fab little release!
There’s a video of the whole of one of those shows on YouTube.
I was, briefly, in possession of a few more copies!
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 16/007
- Artist: Dean Wareham
- Title: Live at St Pancras Old Church London December 2013
- Notes:
- Packaging: Red
- Format: MC
- Given to me by Dean Wareham
- Buy ‘Dean Wareham Live at St Pancras Old Church’ on Bandcamp
[099] Dean Wareham - Live at St Pancras Old Church December 2013
The always fab Sonic Cathedral have just released Dean Wareham’s Live at St Pancras Old Church on vinyl, having previously released it in 2014 on cassette.
This entry will cover three rows in my collection spreadsheet because I’ve already written about one cassette version and have another one at some point in the future. Since I have three copies of the LP recently acquired it would be a bit hard on you (and me) to cover them three times!
“Three copies!?” I hear you say, “is he mad!?”
Well, “yes” is probably the answer, but, I’d better explain - so here are some bullet point facts to try and explain my madness.
- I was at the shows that make up this live album, so you can hear me cheering. Well you would if I ever actually cheered at gigs. You can probably hear me applauding enthusiastically!
- They were a couple of my favourite shows, the venue was great, the circumstances were unique.
- My son Adam also came along. I think this was his first time seeing Dean live (not counting a soundcheck at on over 18s show when he was under 18). He was 16 for this one but … no age restriction to get into a church! He may have been more thrilled at being backstage with Sonic Boom.
- Nat at Sonic Cathedral sent me a test pressing when the album was announced a couple of months back, so … copy #1 - AHFOW 12/095
- There is a limited edition Bandcamp exclusive in gold vinyl so I sort of had to have that. So … copy #2 - AHFOW 12/096
- The record stores have a red/green vinyl version.
- Adam, since he was there, wanted a copy so I have bought him the red/green copy to look after! So … copy #3 - AHFOW 12/097
- OK, I had actually ordered that one before he said he wanted a copy! And it is currently in my possession!
So, I have three copies on vinyl, and two on cassette. So just five copies (so far) - still a way to go to catch up with “On Fire”.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/095-0097
- Artist: Dean Wareham
- Title: Live at St Pancras Old Church December 2013
- Notes: Test pressing, gold vinyl, red/green vinyl
- Format: 2xLP - well, one and a half times vinyl and the unneeded side four has a lovely old map of St Pancras (except on the test pressing).
- Bought
- Test pressing sent to me by Nat
- Gold vinyl from Bandcamp for £35
- Red/green vinyl from Norman Records for £29.99
- Buy ‘Live at St Pancras Old Church December 2013’ on Bandcamp
[233] Dean Wareham - Live at St. Pancras Old Church (CD)
This is a CD containing six tracks recorded at St Pancras Old Church in December 2013 - a fuller version of this recording was released firstly on cassette in 2014 and then on 1.5xLPs on the show’s 10th anniversary in December 2023.
I mentioned in the post on the lovely Sonic Cathedral - Celebrate Yourself! release that when the booklet claimed that the version of “When Will You Come Home” on it was the track’s first appearance on CD it wasn’t entirely true. This promo CD that was given away with early copies of Dean’s eponymous solo album in March 2014, is the reason why.
The CD contains three Galaxie 500 songs, one Luna one, and two from Dean’s most recent solo release (Emancipated Hearts) and comes in a card envelope with the title hand stamped on it.
Read the previous entries in this series for the story of the concerts that made up this release. I thought I’d use a photo that you can see a bit more of the church in this time, although it does mean that Britta is obscured - it seems to be a theme of mine to have an obscured view of Britta.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/089
- Artist: Dean Wareham
- Title: Live at St. Pancras Old Church, December 2013
- Notes: Promo
- Packaging: Hand stampled card envelope
- Format: CD
- Buy ‘Dean Wareham Live at St Pancras Old Church’ on Bandcamp
There is another cassette copy in my collection that hasn’t turned up in the series as yet… I suspect that’ll be a short post since I must have exhausted what I can say about the shows and the releases of them.
I’ve had many great Dean Wareham experiences over the years but this is still one of my fondest memories. I didn’t mention in my post on that first night that while we were killing time before we were allowed into the church I gave an impromptu talk to a few fans about the Hardy Tree that, at the time, stood in the churchyard! Sorry…!
