801 – 801 Live VG+/P

801 Live is the first live album by 801. It was originally released by Island Records in the UK (cat. no. ILPS 9444) in November 1976. It was subsequently released by Polydor Records in North America (cat. no PD-1-6148) in March 1978.

In 1976, while guitarist Phil Manzanera’s band Roxy Music was on hiatus, 801 got together as a temporary project and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first concert.

801 performed three concerts: in Norfolk, at the Reading Festival, and on 3 September at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The final concert was recorded and released as the album 801 Live. The music consisted of selections from albums by Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno and Quiet Sun, plus covers of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”. The album was one of the first in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and other instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer.[citation needed] It was successful in many countries, including Australia, where it was heavily promoted by the ABC’s new 24-hour rock station Double Jay (2JJ).