This 5CD collection gathers together the complete recordings from 7 quite different concerts performed by RMI between 1994-97, excerpts of which could be found on the contemporaneous compilation Been There, Done That. Two major concerts from within this timeline (Jodrell Bank 1996, October Gallery 1997) are issued in their entirety elsewhere, but here is the other side of the RMI concert history.

Duncan and Steve lived a mere few miles up the road from each other in London at this time, and through connections in their working and musical environments, would sometimes get asked to perform sets for social events or share a bill with one or two of their friends bands on the thriving indie scene, and sometimes Gary could be persuaded to come down from Manchester to take part as well.

The October Gallery in Holborn was the venue for two fondly remembered RMI concerts in 1997 and 1998, but in fact they had made their debut there on a much less formal basis in 1994 after being invited to take part in a social gathering at the famous space. Duncan and Steve had only days earlier recorded the epic Frozen North Part IV, and took the tape for playback along with a couple of simple keyboards to make additions in live performance. After their 40 minutes was up, there was some socialising before they were asked to carry on playing more music and basically for as long as they liked. This hadn't been anticipated, and with only a keyboard each at their disposal, a fair bit of invention was required, but they soon settled into a slowly shifting soundscape which enabled the music to function as a background for what was a lively and successful party. Unheard here on the tape is Jim from Star Sounds Orchestra who jammed along on sax for much of the second set.

The odd one out here is the Sheffield performance, both geographically (all of the others were in London) and contextually (it was an Electronic festival with a sit down audience), but it fits with the timeline and marked a very important starting point for the band's live performing career, as well as providing a couple of lessons to take forward into future festival situations.

Camden's Monarch pub was an indie music mainstay from the 90's onwards, and RMI opened for Adrenal and Livingstone here in March 1995 before a possibly bemused audience, a feat they would repeat a couple of times over the next year at The Garage in Highbury with the addition of Tiger (a Christmas party no less !), and the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town. It was a lively scene, people gathered in a pre-mobile phone/internet era, and socialised, with bands as a focal point. We didn't really mind that our sets being instrumental and elongated, provided a backdrop for a buzz of conversation and general racket. All of the recordings here are line mixes, so they are strangely divorced from their noisy surroundings...but somehow they have a quality about them which differs from studio recorded material...hard to define, but you can tell it's a gig.

The last two shows featured here originally went under the title 'Never Again'. Madame Gigi's was a bar in Willesden populated by a clientele who could not have cared less about the two electronic musicians unwittingly beamed into their midst...this time it was difficult for us to even hear the music above the Friday night racket, yet the recording belies a laidback, measured and at times quite beautiful set, even if we were playing it blindfold !

The clincher for us was the famous Rheingold show which has gone down in band history as the moment we realised that we were never playing in such circumstances again. A truly horrible, endless night of hassles with some of the worst vibes in living memory. The music was decent enough, the mood was lightened by our chum Paul Kaye then riding high as Dennis Pennis, who always insisted on calling us MFI... but generally the audience were awful, the venue completely unsuitable and the encounter with the rozzers at three o'clock in the morning was pretty much the last straw. Never again !!