The Iveys were officially signed by Apple Records on 23 July 1968 and immediately started recording sessions at Trident Studios in London. Up until the end of October, The Iveys continued sessions on & off between gigging dates with producers Denny Cordell and Tony Visconti, working on several different tracks of their own compositions to come up with both sides of their debut single release (which didn't come out until 15 November). It was during this period that this live club gig was recorded, this time with Liverpool singer/guitarist Tommy Evans in the group replacing David Jenkins. By this time, Tommy had been gigging with The Iveys for slightly more than a year, and the group had now become a very tight four-piece unit who sang in beautiful three-part harmonies when the song being performed required it.

This Iveys live performance was recorded on a Revox reel to reel tape machine at Thingamajig Club in Reading on 06 September 1968, and thankfully has a decent sound balance, although some of the performances were not captured in their entirety. Starting off this collection is one of those fragments, Walk Away Renée, the hit song by The Left Banke, and is included here to demonstrate the three-part harmonies that Tom, Pete and Ron were capable of. This leads straight into Tommy Evans singing a cover of the Byrds' 1967 hit, So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star. With the addition now of Tommy's incredible vocal range, The Iveys are now able to cover songs sung by female singers, two Soul songs that The Iveys would later perform for BBC's Radio One in 1969, Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep-Mountain High and Aretha Frankin's hit Respect, written by Otis Redding. More Iveys Soul influences include Wilson Pickett's 634-5789 (Soulsville, USA) from 1966 and Sam & Dave's I Thank You from 1968. Another song performed in 1969 for radio broadcast was Needle In A Haystack by the girl group, The Velvelettes. As on Volume 1 taped in 1966, The Iveys still retain in their 1968 set list, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers', Crawling Up A Hill, sung by Ron. Mike Gibbins has been quoted as saying that Pete Ham was the closest guitarist that he ever heard that could play like Eric Clapton, and in this collection, we have The Iveys performing the lead-off track called N.S.U. from the first Cream LP from 1967, Fresh Cream (acknowledging the announcement of their upcoming breakup in November at the conclusion) and covering John Mayall's version of Freddie King's Hide Away that featured Clapton. Further proof of Ham's underrated abilities are demonstrated in two Jimi Hendrix Experience songs, the hit Purple Haze, and the B-side, Stone Free. Although not a song they liked very much, The Iveys performed their own unique arrangement of the 1967 hit Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck to satisfy numerous audience requests. Tommy Evans was a huge fan of The Everly Brothers, so it's no surprise that one of their songs was covered. This time it was When Will I Be Loved, which is also yet another song they would perform in 1969 for radio broadcast. Being on the new record label of The Beatles, it's also no surprise that one of their songs would be covered. In this collection, it's their latest single to date, Lady Madonna, sung by Pete Ham. One of the few slow songs in the set list was a medley of songs from the George Gershwin opera: It Ain't Necessarily So sung by Ron and Summertime sung by Tommy. Since they had been recording original compositions recently, The Iveys performed two songs from their very first session date: And Her Daddy's A Millionaire and No Escaping Your Love, both of which would ultimately end up on B-sides of singles. They also previewed a song that wouldn't be taped until months later, called Storm In A Teacup, of which this is the only surviving live recording of the track, and unfortunately is missing the first verse of the performance.

Essay by Tom Brennan

Some background information is from Dan Matovina's Badfinger biography, "Without You - The Tragic Story of Badfinger."

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