Recorded as part of the set at The Garage, London, in May 2004 - a DIY attempt at a proper "Top of the Pops" type presentation, with video edited from various handheld cameras in the audience, and audio re-mixed from the sound desk. On this outing, the Citizens were Marty Grant (guitar and vocals), Ben Herbert (guitar and backing vocals), Ian Chisnall (bass), and Jan Enkelmann (drums).
Quick on the heels of the first salvaged track – here’s another from the same Garage support set, from 2004. Here – the majority of the useable video came from just two of the audience cameras. One front and centre-ish, with the other, (by Ruta(?)), appearing to have been shot with some kind of shutter delay effect. The audio is mostly from the original soundboard recording, but since that was quite “dry” and lacking any “live” ambience – I experimented here by splitting the audio into different instrument stems, and then re-mixed from there using BandLab. Video edits were done with Adobe Premiere, audio stem splitting and re-mixing with BandLab Studio (online), and digital output for 2023 YouTube using Shotcut. (All PC/Windows). The output file preserves the original 4:3 aspect ratio, although the YouTube file is the “modern” 16:9, letterbox format.
Ben and Marty were always a bit cagey about including “Collide” in any of the gigs around this time, (which I always thought was a bit of a shame. I think it might have originally come from a precursor, or previous incarnation of the group – and from before my time). However – I remember it appearing at a rehearsal one day – and I really didn’t have to think about what the bass was going to do. The suggested riff was so strong – it was obvious. Some tracks took ages to craft – while this one seemed to be up and running straight away. For ages – I was convinced it must’ve been a cover I didn’t know about, or that I must’ve heard it somewhere before – (but in all my time in the Citizens – I think we probably only ever played about half a dozen covers). One of my favourite Citizens tracks, and Ben gets to dig out his E-Bow one more time, for the contrasting middle section…
Garageland 