As Elephant was being released the White Stripes launched a preemptive tour strike of the UK, playing a handful of gigs that all sold out immediately (the London show, documented here, was such a quick sellout that a second one was added for the following night). Both shows were broadcast, the London show recorded for rebroadcast via BBC Radio One and the Manchester gig aired live. Note that the London portion of this disc has outstanding sound quality but the Manchester segment (partial show, adding a few exclusive tracks rather than duplicate the London section) takes a very slight nosedive. But overall, a solid sound rating of “9” ain’t that bad.
It’s possible that part of the London show is missing at the end, most likely due to not having been broadcast; a Stripes setlist site lists “Offend in Every Way / Wasting My Time / Cannon / Screwdriver” as also being performed at the end.
The performances are both quite solid – “St. James” in particularly is brilliant, starting with an electric piano/drums portion and then giving way to a white-noise guitar finale. One interesting thing here is how at the end of the London section the BBC deejay starts doing a talkover, reading emails from people who attended the show and talking about random trivia such as why didn’t the band perform “Fell In Love With A Girl.” The beginning of the Manchester show also has a somewhat annoying smarmy female deejay introing the band, but hey, that’s rock ‘n’ roll. The FM satin jacketed brigade is never far behind the bands.
