PJ Music Factory

Three Names for an Opening

· Borderline · London

Three documents make three claims about which night opened the tour, and they are three different claims: the first European show, an "Official" opening in one document's own quotation marks, and a London debut on the venue's own schedule. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology makes none of them.

On Tuesday, February 4, 1992, Pearl Jam played one song on a BBC television programme and a full concert at a club called the Borderline. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology places the television performance at BBC Television Centre in London; Five Horizons gives it as The Late Show, BBC2 TV, United Kingdom, with a running time of five minutes. The chronology heads the concert The Borderline and Five Horizons heads it Borderline; both put 300 in the room, the chronology adding that it was sold out. Five Horizons calls this the "Official" opening date of the tour, its own quotation marks. The chronology calls neither night an opening.

The show

Which Night Opened the Tour

Five Horizons says the first European show, at Southend the day before, was unannounced and unadvertised, and calls this one the "Official" opening date of the tour, the quotation marks its own. The Borderline's own February schedule calls this night the DEBUT LONDON CONCERT, and prints BORDERLINE SHOWCASE against Monday 3rd February, the night before, and against no other night. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology says none of it: it prints a tour heading above the Southend entry and no opening claim under this one. First European show, official opening, London debut are three different scopes on three documents, and none of the three subsumes another.

The Performance

The television performance was one song, "Alive," and both documents call it the band's first: the chronology "Pearl Jam's first TV performance," Five Horizons "PJ's first television appearance." The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology adds that the band played a ferocious version; Five Horizons adds the five-minute running time and a link to its own video guide. Five Horizons also carries an entry the chronology has not got at all: a five-minute interview on UK Newsbeat FM Radio with two of the band, in which "Deep" is played. It is an interview, not a show, and has no page.

The concert sold out within twenty-four hours, the chronology says, and both documents describe an industry showcase in a tiny venue in the basement of a Mexican restaurant in almost the same words. The chronology alone carries what happened outside: the expected roomful of journalists and record company people was swollen by an enormous crowd of fans who had picked the band up from their American exposure, and they were not permitted entry. The singer and the drummer spent most of the evening outside the club handing out free discs and autographs. The following week, the chronology says, the British music press, which got in free, savaged the band's "attitude toward their fans."

The Next Step

The night before, at Southend, is told in Unannounced and Unadvertised. Both documents put the next concert three nights later in Stockholm, where the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology and Five Horizons spell the club differently and differ about how many were in it; it is told in Galaxy on Fridays.

Recording & sound

What the Record Preserves

Five Horizons says in terms that its own set list for this night is incomplete. It prints seven songs where the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology prints ten and an encore of two. Its seven are seven of the chronology's ten, in the chronology's order, with "State Of Love And Trust," "Deep" and "Jeremy" absent, and it gives no encore. The chronology marks no incompleteness anywhere in either entry for this day.

The chronology hangs ten links beneath the concert - a schedule, a set list, two reviews as PDFs, a ticket and five photographs - and beneath the television entry one embedded video and nothing else. None of the eleven has been opened here; the schedule's content above is Main's reading, nothing else is described, and unopened is not absent. The photographs' markup titles name people and photographers, and this book takes no name from an attribute. Five Horizons hangs one thing across the whole day, a link from the television entry to its own video guide. This house holds no recording of the concert and, of the television performance, one track and an information file.

The Borderline comes down to a room too small for the people who wanted it, a set list one document calls incomplete, and an opening date the other document does not claim at all.

Other Media (0)

Other accounts

No further accounts of this show have been added.

Sources & thanks (5)
  1. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1992 page
  2. Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1992, entries for 02/03/92, 02/04/92 (television), 02/04/92 (radio) and 02/04/92 (Borderline)
  3. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1992 page
  4. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — The Borderline's own February 1992 schedule (image linked from the February 4, 1992 entry)
  5. The house archive — Folder contents