Theatre of Hate | Do You Believe in the Westworld? | 1982

New restoration and edit of Theatre of Hate performing Do You Believe in the Westworld? on Dutch TV in early 1982. • Forty years ago, when I was a kid, Theatre of Hate’s Do You Believe in the Westworld? was a massive tune for my friends and I. I think it was my mate Pete that introduced me to the music of Theatre of Hate. In heavy rotation among us alternative music fans at school, was a tape of the August 1981 John Peel Session, that included Do You Believe in the Westworld? I loved the cowboy movie iconography of the music - galloping drum beats, country and western twang guitar - and lyrics, “From the south on a wind, in walked a cowboy...”, delivered in magnificent accusatory fury by singer Kirk Brandon. Then I remember in early ‘82, hearing the Clash’s Mick Jones produced Do You Believe in the Westworld? blasting out of the Purley United Reform Church Youth Club stereo. Jones’ gargantuan production had taken the song up several notches, further enhancing it with the addition of backwards musical elements and sampled voices. The sleeve of the record featured Soviet-esque artwork. So what was the question being posed with the furious demand, Do You Believe in the Westworld? What was the message here? I asked my mate Pete, who answered, “It’s political”. A commentary on the Cold War? Or an anti-American Imperialism sentiment? Or...? But back then neither of us knew anything about politics, so as far as I remember, we left it at that. Theatre of Hate were a very happening band at that point, and Do You Believe in the Westworld? was a hip and catchy song. So it’s not that surprising that it made it into the U.K. pop charts, tho’ only peaking at a modest number 40. A one-off appearance on Top of the Pops on the 4th of February, was TV gold for me. The Top of the Pops appearance was very spirited, but it was only a sub-3 minute truncated demo-sounding version of Do You Believe in the Westworld? For close to forty years I didn’t know of any other decent footage of the song from the era, until I was sent the Götterdämmerung 2000 TV broadcast that we have here. The footage contains a lip sync performance of an almost complete album version of Do You Believe in the Westworld? The Götterdämmerung 2000 performance is well shot, but it has flaws. It’s missing the beginning and end of the song, and has some pretty bad miming gaffs. Also the broadcast recording has some spoiled sections due to rolling frames. I managed to rectify most of those issues, and in addition I re-edited some sections, swapping scenes around and using long dissolves and superimposing. Finally, I applied upscaling and all the usual restoration processes. Thanks for watching, hope you dig it! • Credits Video Source: Theatre of Hate | Do You Believe in the Westworld? | Götterdämmerung 2000 | Dutch TV | 1982 | Broadcast recording courtesy of the very fine YouTube channel TravisBickle1963 Audio Source: Theatre of Hate | Do You Believe in the Westworld? [Full length version] | From the 1982 album Westworld | Produced by Mick Jones Musicians: Theatre of Hate Kirk Brandon | vocals, guitar Stan Stammers | bass guitar John “Boy“ Lennard | saxophone Luke Rendall | drums • Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe! I don’t own the rights, and I’m not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans. Please Share, Like, Comment, Subscribe TheNachoVideos@ I edit, therefore I am #TheatreofHate #DoYouBelieveintheWestworld? #KirkBrandon
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