The legendary X (not to be confused with the US band of the same name) formed in Sydney, Australia in 1977. They recorded their seminal 1980 debut X-Aspirations in one 5 hour session with Lobby Loyde producing. People called X a punk band – and they certainly acted like one – but they were a great meld of Ian Rilen’s gut busting bass and pioneering Oz rock stance (as you would expect from a veteran of both Band Of Light and Rose Tattoo) and newcomer Steve Lucas’ incredible sandpaper scream.

5 years later Rilen and Lucas recruited drummer Cathy Green (from experimental Canberra band **** **** cough cough) and recorded their classic 2nd. album At Home With You (also produced by Loyde). Green’s style fitted X like a glove and helped transform the band into an awesome live act. The songs and production had more depth too – the Hunter’s & Collectors’ horn section: The Horns Of Contempt contributing to 3 tracks.

A limited edition version of the LP was also released in 1985 (A TV Dinner At Home With X) which contained a T-Shirt and a flexi-disc of the song ‘El Salvador’ recorded live at The Prince Of Wales in Melbourne on March 13th. 1985 for a live 3PBS radio broadcast. Searching for this track, we happened upon the master tapes for the entire show and quickly decided to expand the release to a double disc! The live tracks are from the desk feed for the radio broadcast and are sufficiently raw and unadorned and are a terrific indicator of the awesome live power of X – and a reminder of the great loss that Australian music suffered with the tragic death of Ian Rilen in 2006.

UPDATE - 2009 On the 14th. of January 2009, X (with Kim Volkman deputising for Ian Rilen) performed the whole of At Home With You at Melbourne's Forum. The gang from Asylum TV were there to document the whole show - now available on DVD. The 12 track album is performed in its entirety plus 'El Salvador' (which was originally included on a flexi-disc with a limited version of the album) and the previously unreleased 'Going Down'. For the many who missed out...here's a chance to find out what the fuss was all about!

 

T.V. Glue