PIXIES - LIVE AT THE BBC

Released: 08/03/24

Regardless of how one feels about Pixies’ output since Kim Deal’s departure, there is no contesting the fact that the four albums released between 1988 and 1991 – Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, and Trompe le Monde – are some of the greatest alt-rock albums of all time. So obsessed with the band was I that when they reformed in 2003 I spent a lot of money to go see them headline Coachella (I was too young to have seen them live the first time around). And so this reissue, and first ever vinyl release, of the brilliant Pixies at the BBC, which features six sessions for the BBC – five for John Peel and one for Mark Goodier – recorded between 1988 and 1991 is a timely reminder of the band’s indie-rock pre-eminence at their height.

A mighty triple-vinyl album of 24 tracks – and featuring a design by Chris Bigg that pays loving tribute to the band’s late-visual director Vaughan Oliver, using unseen archival Pixies imagery by long-time collaborator Simon Larbalestier – all of the sessions on Pixies at the BBC capture perfectly the raw energy of the band’s live performances, to the point that I would actually choose many of these takes over the sometimes-too-pristine studio versions. And there are very few live-session records I could say that about. Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, you are still near and dear to my heart.