DESCRIPTION:
Here are two live Private Numbers songs in one clip; "Shy Girls" and "It's Not Like Mine". Both songs were videotaped on February 16, 1986 at a club called "Numbers" (no kidding!) in Houston, Texas. I think the gig was one of those "Battle of the Bands" things where the winner is supposed to get a free music video produced. Well, at the end of the night, the promoters walked up to us and said "Here's your free video!" and handed us this VHS tape. "Uh, but we were thinking palm trees and girls in bikinis ...oh, never mind!" Isn't the music business great?

Now, most bands cringe somewhat when they watch performances with the audio track taken directly from the mixing board, better known as a "direct mix". Part of the anxiety with direct mixes is that, without all the live ambience of the entire venue, what you usually get is what some musicians describe as a "nails on the chalkboard" sound, which basically means a very dry and in-your-face type of sound.

So, when I found this lonely VHS tape with "Direct Audio Mix" on the label in an old box in my closet, I braced myself for the inevitable chalkboard experience. After taking a few deep breaths, I popped the videotape into a now hard-to-find VHS video deck, sat back ... and really enjoyed the performance!

This is the only videotaped performance of us playing these two songs (that I'm aware of), so I guess they'll have to stand on their own as a part of the growing Private Numbers video anthology.

I hope you enjoy these songs now as much as we did then!