Image Publique S.A.* – Paris Au Printemps = Paris In The Spring

I have a UK first pressing of this with a Paris in the Spring poster included.
Anyone else got one?

Awful mixing, completely off axis. All music is toward right side, there's a huge problem of stereo balance.

Very nice post punk record by PIL and sounds very well.

I love the sound of this record. I also have Live in Tokyo, this is its ugly sister. Yes, it's a bit rough 'n' ready, it's claustrophobic, it's menacing, it's sinister, but that's one of the things I like about music, the ability to create an atmosphere, to paint a picture with sound, a totally different beast to Tokyo. Others have commented on lack of bass for this record, can't agree with that, clear and fat to my ears. A great pressing of a great record in a great cover.

so did the 2012 remaster ever happen?
what did it sound like?

I have an unlisted variant
OVED50 A-2U-1-4-TOWNHOUSE [V-2183-A2]
OVED50 B-2U-1-2 TOWNHOUSE [V-2183-B2]
inner sleeve dated 5/89

i am not a p.i.l. fan in general, honestly i did not hear a lot of their music...but i love this rough live album.
i bought the vinyl at the early 80s in my youth, it came to my mind in the last time and when i wanted to hear it again i could not find it. i lost some records in my wild youth, some i gave away as a gift, thinking, that i will never hear it again, but in some cases that was a fault.
so i ordered the 2012 cd version, which sounds ok for my ears.
this is not the kind of music you have to hear on a highend system, it is more important to hear it loud!

what i remembered mostly of this album was the bass...i can not say, which pressing i had, probably a german/european one ( i bought it in germany), and in my memory the bass was huge...just found out, that it is played by jah wobble, and also i did not know, that the great martin atkins was the drummer...kind of "supergroup'.

i think that the main reason for recording this was to make money, which is ok for me, they were not rich people back then, in the 70s most contracts in the music industry were not in favour of the musicians, even many superstars got not paid like many thought.

yes, this album is rough, but this is one of the reasons that i like it.
i can enjoy perfectly produced music like (dave) tipper, tippermusic, but i have also a favour for lofi music.

i now compared these live versions with the studio ones and must say, that i prefer the concert, but that could be for sentimental reasons, because i heard it in my early youth...
it fits with this kind of music, which is pure and stripped down.

it has "something", that the studio recordings don't have, which is hard to define.

not a happy album.

i would describe it as post punk, with some dub infusions by wobble. it reminds me of some early the fall and joy divison recordings from around the time.

the 2012 cd versions sounds ok for me, the music was recorded in a simple and cheap way, i think they made the best of it.

Perhaps a bit light on bass compared to my preferred European Pressing but a lovely quiet pressing nonetheless and one with lots of dynamic range.
my first impression is that it seems more complete between tracks than the UK/European Versions but i haven't confirmed this yet.
beautiful and durable sleeve made of strong cardboard vs the flimsy sleeve of the European issues
like almost all pressings of this album i've heard the music really leaps out of the speakers- too bad that Quad was out of fashion by 1981!
if you have a favourite album you're really mad about then its usually worth seeking out the Japanese pressing if you want to treat yourself.

What's astonishing is how PiL could slip into these songs and moods, despite the chaos around them. I bought this when it came out in 1980 and now have a SHMCD i bought in Japan. The sound is faithful! There is a weird dropout where Lydon starts singing on Careering. It's always been there. Theme here is extraordinary, especially from Levene. No wonder he was pissed off when someone (below) slagged off his tone!!

John Lydon has described this 1980 live disc as "not very good", and he's right: no one went to any trouble to conceal the fact that "Paris au Printemps" was a hasty, slapdash affair. Cheaply recorded on a reel-to-reel machine, it was intended to counter bootleg sales and to cover the costs of PiL's second studio album "Metal Box" (1979). The most flagrantly infuriating thing here, from the paying customer's perspective, is that the first three songs aren't even complete; the recording punches in at some random point after the actual performance has begun. (This is most obvious on 'Theme', which lacks the ominous bass guitar intro of the studio version.) Yet this album *does* have a certain something. I wouldn't call it inspiration, exactly--the band sounds less than entirely devoted to what it's doing--but there's a compelling edge to 'Bad Baby' and 'Poptones' which transcends even Jah Wobble's annoyingly out-of-tune bass. Two and a half stars.