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The Mole Show, Hannover, May 23rd 1983

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On May 23rd 1983, The Residents opened the European leg of their first tour, The Mole Show, with a performance at Rotation, a nightclub in Hannover, Germany.[1]

As it was the group's first ever live performance outside America, the show was subject to some teething issues, with the intended stage set-up proving too large for the nightclub's stage.[2] Despite this, one member of The Residents described the show as a "good... edgy opener".[3]

A stereo tape recording of this show was made by an audience member, and was released by "Gulph Tapes" as a bootleg cassette titled Mole Show - Hannover/Rotation 23.5.1983,[4] and later, as a CD-R. A "remastered" FLAC rip of the CD-R, posted to the private BitTorrent tracker Dimeadozen in 2011, has circulated over the internet in recent years.

History

The Residents performing The Mole Show at Rotation in Hannover, Germany, May 23rd 1983

The Hannover performance of The Mole Show was the first stop on The Residents' first tour of Europe, and thus, was the group's first performance outside America, having previously taken the show across California in 1982 on the first leg of the tour. As a result, the Hannover performance was later described by one member of the road crew as "the most confused show we did".[2]

Upon arriving in Hannover, The Residents realized that their promoter had booked them into "a lot of smallish clubs", despite the show's set having been designed to play in a larger setting, such as an opera house (ie. the Kabuki in San Francisco). This resulted in The Residents having to reconfigure the set "on the fly" for the Hannover show, thus developing a set-up that became known as "Code H", which the group would implement after walking into a venue to find that the intended set-up would not fit onto the stage.[2]

According to one attendee, as the personnel onstage waved international flags during the closing number "Happy Home", the show's emcee Penn Jillette mistakenly waved the Belgian flag (which is visually similar to the German flag), causing laughter in the audience.[4] This was the first of many instances of the road crew making incorrect choices of flags for Jillette to carry during the closing number, "partly out of regular American ignorance and partly because we crossed borders so often on that tour we'd get confused about where we were".[5]

Despite these issues, at least one member of The Residents felt positively about the Hannover performance, describing it as a "good... edgy opener" in his tour diary.[6]

Set list

Bootleg recording

The Hannover performance of The Mole Show was recorded to cassette by an unidentified audience member on a Sony Walkman.[7] The recording was subsequently issued as a bootleg cassette by "Gulph Tapes" (with a logo parodying that of Ralph Records) titled Mole Show - Hannover/Rotation 23.5.1983,[4] subsequently receiving limited circulation among fans for a number of years as a trade item.

The original cassette version of the bootleg opened with a clip of the introduction to the group's 1977 "radio special" (a creative flourish added by some early Residents bootleggers), and the recording appears to have been edited to fit a C-60 cassette, with numerous tracks cut short (including "The Ultimate Disaster", "Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth)", "The New Machine", "Song of the Wild" and "Happy Home"). Original copies of the Gulph bootleg cassette also included a Xeroxed insert with lyrics from Mark of the Mole.[4] In later years, a CD-R copy of the recording (consisting of the full show in a single, lengthy track) was traded among fans.

In 2011, a CD-R copy was ripped and "mastered" by a user of the private BitTorrent tracker Dimeadozen (aka DIME), and posted there under the title 1983-05-23 Rotation, Hannover, Germany. This version of the recording splits the show's songs into separate tracks and removes the introductory excerpt from the 1977 radio special; the poster also applied volume balancing to the two halves of the show, fixed issues with clipping and removed over one hundred clicks and digital artifacts from the CD-R.

Track listing

Lyrics insert included with the Mole Show - Hannover/Rotation 23/5/1983 bootleg cassette

2011 "mastered" version

  1. Voices of the Air (4:30)
  2. The Secret Seed (2:51)
  3. Narration 1 (1:03)
  4. The Ultimate Disaster (Cut) (5:42)
    1. Won't You Keep Us Working?
    2. First Warning
    3. Back To Normality?
    4. The Sky Falls! (Cut)
  5. Narration 2 (0:41)
  6. God of Darkness (3:11)
  7. Narration 3 (0:31)
  8. Migration (9:18)
    1. March To The Sea
    2. The Observer
    3. Hole-Workers' New Hymn
  9. Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth) (Cut) (2:14)
  10. Narration 4 (Cut) (0:29)
  11. Another Land (4:22)
    1. Rumors
    2. Arrival
    3. Deployment/Saturation
  12. Narration 5 (0:33)
  13. The New Machine (Cut) (7:14)
    1. Idea
    2. Construction
    3. Ugly Rumors
    4. Failure/Reconstruction
    5. Success (Cut)
  14. Narration 6 (Cut) (0:16)
  15. Song of the Wild (Cut) (3:16)
  16. Final Confrontation (8:11)
    1. Driving The Moles Away
    2. Don't Tread On Me
    3. The Short War
  17. Satisfaction (2:26)
  18. Happy Home (Cut) (2:47)

See also

  1. ↑ "I was there too, it was a strange venue, more like a disco club." Frank Herrebout, comment posted in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, June 7th 2021
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Hannover show was the first date on that tour, and thus the most confused show we did. It was there that we realized that the promoter had booked us into a lot of smallish clubs, and the original Mole Show set was designed to play in an opera house (the Kabuki, in SF). In Hannover we had to remake the set on the fly, resulting in a setup type that became known as "Code H", what we'd do when we walked into a venue and saw that our original design was not going to fit. Yes, the whole tour was very poorly advanced, mostly since we didn't know shit then." Philip Perkins, comment in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, March 11th 2026
  3. ↑ Uncle Willie, Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, 1993
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Post by Torsten Wascher, The Residents unofficial Facebook group, March 11th 2026
  5. ↑ "We often got confused about what was the right flag for Penn to carry, partly out of regular American ignorance and partly because we crossed borders so often on that tour we'd get confused about where we were." Philip Perkins, comment in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, March 11th 2026
  6. ↑ Uncle Willie, Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, 1993
  7. ↑ "Whow, this was my First time I saw them. Great Show ! I have got the Tape since then. The Guy with his Walkmen was Standing Close to me, so I can name the people who were cross talking- including myself" Torsten Wascher, comment posted in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, June 7th 2021
The Mole Show
(1982-1983)

Set list
"Voices of the Air" · "The Secret Seed" · "The Ultimate Disaster" · "God of Darkness" · "Migration"
"Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth)" · "Another Land" · "The New Machine" · "Song of the Wild" · "Final Confrontation" · "Satisfaction" · "Happy Home"

Dates
Preview performance
Santa Monica, April 10th 1982
America (October - April 1982)
San Francisco, October 26th 1982 · San Francisco, October 27th 1982 · Los Angeles, October 29th 1982 · Los Angeles, October 30th 1982 · Pasadena, October 31st 1982
Europe (May - July 1983)
Hannover, May 23rd 1983 · Vienna, May 25th 1983 · Vienna, May 26th 1983 · Munich, May 27th 1983 · Frankfurt, May 28th 1983 · Dusseldorf, May 29th 1983 · Berlin, May 30th 1983 · Copenhagen, June 1st 1983 · Hamburg, June 2nd 1983 · Bochum, June 3rd 1983 · Utrecht, June 4th 1983 · Brussels, June 5th 1983 · Paris, June 7th 1983 · Lyon, June 8th 1983 · Bologna, June 12th 1983 · Milan, June 13th 1983 · Firenze, June 14th 1983 · Barcelona, June 17th 1983 · Valencia, June 18th 1983 · Madrid, June 19th 1983 · Madrid, June 20th 1983 · Madrid, June 21st 1983 · Bordeaux, June 23rd 1983 · Poitiers, June 24th 1983 · Birmingham, June 27th 1983 · London, June 28th 1983 · Liverpool, June 29th 1983 · Edinburgh, June 30th 1983 · Leicester, May 28th 1983
The Uncle Sam Mole Show
Washington, D.C., October 7th 1983 (press conference)

Personnel
The Residents · Penn Jillette · Kathleen French · Carol LeMaitre · Sarah McLennan · Chris Van Ralte · Nessie Lessons · Scott Fraser · Philip Perkins · Dan Gillham · Laurence Campling · Raoul N.D Seimbote · Eric Knorr · Leigh Barbier · Sheenah Spece · Paul Young · Mara Mikialian · Bill Gerber · Evan Medow · Tom Timony · Diane Flynn · Sally Lewis

Related releases
Mark of the Mole · The Tunes of Two Cities · Intermission EP · Mole Show (Live at the Roxy) · Mole Show VHS · Assorted Secrets · PAL TV LP · Set Designs from The Mole Show portfolio · Mole Show: Live In Holland · Mole Show DVD bag set · Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed · Mole Dance 82

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