frozen rivers

In the wake of the collapse of the Summer Hop tour, the planned show at the Rainbow on 11th August was cancelled and two shows were resceduled at the same venue on Tues 10th October, the first show being a matinee for under 16's at 2pm, and a Summer Hop show at 7:30pm. The band also volunteered to play at a Q-Tips gig in Harlow, that had already been scheduled for after the tour.

bono

On 23rd August, ATF recorded their third In Concert for BBC Radio One at the Paris Theatre in London, sharing the show with another band. When they arrived at the theatre, they discovered that the other band was to be U2, an extraordinary combination that had not been pre-planned as Banks explained recently:

"We didn't actually know that U2 were going to be there when we turned up. Because they were known as Christians and we were known as Christians, we'd met up a number of times and said that we shouldn't really appear on the same stage together. We had decided to spread ourselves around a bit and be salt in the world. There was a cancellation of an artist and we were asked to go and fill in."

The combination of the top two Christian bands may have been a coincidence, but it was a significant one. In many ways, the event could be seen as a handing over the baton for the championing of Christian values in the secular music scene. As ATF were to fade away within two years, U2 were to rise to international acclaim. The contrast of styles was very evident at the show. ATF came on first, and played a short half-hour set. Sounds' Lynden Barber was scathing of their performance, describing it as "laughable." He expanded:

"I suspect that the words 'melodic' and 'craftsmanship' turn up frequently in AFT [sic] interviews; they play very carefully, as if not wishing to offend, their brand of 'tunefulness' bereft of any real imagination or invention."

U2's set by contrast was certainly more chaotic, with mistakes in vocals and guitar that only seemed to fuel their energy. During the following week, some phone-calls were made, which lead to U2's last minute legendary appearance on Greenbelt's mainstage on 30th August, playing a short 20 minute set before Cliff, with Steve Fairnie as compere. Also appearing at the festival that year were Nick Battle, with his own band, and also Iva Twydell backed by Skyrider. After making his mainstage appearance on the Saturday evening, he embarked on a tour with them.

ivor at gb81

Twydell had just released a new single on the Banana label - a double A-side featuring Secret Service b/w Resting In Your Love and distributed by Redsky Music The tracks were taken from his forthcoming solo album also called Secret Service, recorded with Nick Brotherwood and Tony Hudson among the credits, and which featured a song, Some People, written as a retort to all the reports of his failing health, and asking the listener not to believe all they read in the papers.

In September, the promised release of the new album failed to happen. But they did release a new single Frozen Rivers as both a 7" and 12" (their first since Life In The City. It was reviewed in Record Mirror unfavourably, with the reviewer regarding the song as actually not worth reviewing. Melody Maker described it as "singularly uneventful."

The BBC broadcast the In Concert with ATF & U2 on 3rd October, and on the 10th, ATF played the Rainbow Theatre shows which were a sell out. Batteries Not Included was now re-scheduled for the new year.

This constant uncertainty with releasing the album must have been unsettling for the band, reminiscent as it was of the uncertainties surrounding 80-f. They had already been shunted off of the Epic label back onto CBS, and now they were being asked to wear ridiculous 'new romantic' gear on stage. Banks hated it, and Piercy was made to look rather like Adam Ant with stubble. Only King seemed to get away with wearing what he wanted.

The Marquee

In November, they played two nights at The Marquee, and it had been intended to record the shows for possible inclusion on future live ep, though this did not happen in the end. Instead recordings of the show at the Rainbow were used, as before, as b-side material for subsequent singles.

Friends magazine gave out another official release date for BNI as 5th March 82, with a single release for Rich Boys on 5th February.

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