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I’ve known for a long time that Spacemen 3 played a one-off gig at La Locomotive in Paris some time in the second half of 1988, but was never able to work out when it was. There’s a newsletter from May 1988 that says it is planned but not exactly when, and there was no way that it could have happened at the end of May as Pete Bain left after the 20 May 1988 ULU gig and the band were without a bass player for the next few weeks. A piece from a 2022 edition of the French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles confirms that it did take place, with photographic evidence, and Will talks about the return journey in his book.
I’m very happy that a recent acquisition by my friend Mark Lascelles seems to have solved the mystery. The poster above is scant on detail, consisting mostly of a reproduction of the Sounds review of Performance and making no mention of a venue. But it is clearly French and comes from a time where there were no other European shows going on, so 27 September 1988 it is. Mystery solved!