The boxset edition (which like the previous TFF box-sets, is likely to sell-out at some point down the line) includes a Steven Wilson 5.1 surround sound mix on the bluray, whilst the other 4 CDs in the boxset contain a remaster of the album, a CD of b-sides, remixes and edits plus two CD’s of unreleased audio (including alt mixes and demos).
The booklet for the box-set includes interviews and notes by Paul Sinclair who runs the excellent Super Deluxe Edition website.
The Prince Estate is continuing to release his studio albums in expanded form, complete with material from his legendary Vault. Considered by many to be his masterpiece, Sign O’ The Times is being issued on vinyl and CD, remastered and overflowing with extras.
The super deluxe edition (8 CD and 1 DVD) includes all the audio material that Prince officially released in 1987, as well as 45 previously unreleased studio songs recorded between May 1979 and July 1987, and a complete live audio performance from the June 20 1987 show on the Sign O’ The Times Tour at Stadium Galgenwaard in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Also included is a brand-new DVD containing the complete, previously unreleased New Year’s Eve benefit concert at Paisley Park on December 31 1987, which was Prince’s final performance of the Sign O’ The Times Tour stage show and his only on-stage collaboration with jazz legend Miles Davis.
Weighing in at a hefty price, this is a real collectors edition – and includes a 120-page hardcover book with previously unseen images and hand-written lyrics.
The super deluxe edition (like the 1999 super-deluxe) is likely to sell-out, and become a collectors item. If you are fan of Prince, the super deluxe is a treasure trove of unreleased music, plus one of the greatest albums of all time in remastered form. Dig deep, it will be worth it!
Sign O’ The Times Play In The Sunshine Housequake The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker It Starfish And Coffee Slow Love Hot Thing Forever In My Life
Remastered Album (CD 2)
U Got The Look If I Was Your Girlfriend Strange Relationship I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man The Cross It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night Adore
Single Mixes & Edits (CD 3)
Sign O’ The Times (7” single edit) La, La, La, He, He, Hee (7” single edit) La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive) (7” single edit) If I Was Your Girlfriend (7” single edit) Shockadelica (“If I Was Your Girlfriend” B-side) Shockadelica (12” long version) U Got the Look (Long Look) (12” edit) Housequake (7” edit) Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake) I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade 7” edit) Hot Thing (7” single edit) Hot Thing (Extended Remix) Hot Thing (Dub Version)
Vault, Part 1 (CD 4)
All tracks previously unreleased
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1979 version) Teacher, Teacher (1985 version) All My Dreams Can I Play With U? (featuring Miles Davis) Wonderful Day (original version) Strange Relationship (original version) Visions The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (with horns) Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 1) Power Fantastic (live in studio) And That Says What? Love And Sex A Place In Heaven (Prince vocal) Colors Crystal Ball (7” mix) Big Tall Wall (version 1) Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A In A Large Room With No Light
Vault, Part 2 (CD 5)
All tracks previously unreleased
Train It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings Eggplant (Prince vocal) Everybody Want What They Don’t Got Blanche Soul Psychodelicide The Ball Adonis And Bathsheba Forever In My Life (early vocal studio run-through) Crucial (alternate lyrics) The Cocoa Boys When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 2) It Be’s Like That Sometimes
Vault, Part 3 (CD 6)
All tracks previously unreleased
Emotional Pump Rebirth Of The Flesh (with original outro) Cosmic Day Walkin’ In Glory Wally I Need A Man Promise To Be True Jealous Girl (version 2) There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool Big Tall Wall (version 2) A Place In Heaven (Lisa vocal) Wonderful Day (12” mix) Strange Relationship (1987 Shep Pettibone Club Mix)
Live In Utrecht (CD 7 & CD 8)
All tracks previously unreleased
Intro/Sign O’ The Times Play In The Sunshine Little Red Corvette Housequake Girls & Boys Slow Love Take The “A” Train/Pacemaker/I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man Hot Thing Four (With Sheila E. Drum Solo) If I Was Your Girlfriend Let’s Go Crazy When Doves Cry Purple Rain 1999 Forever In My Life Kiss The Cross It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
Live At Paisley Park – December 31, 1987 (DVD)
All tracks previously unreleased
Sign O’ The Times Play In The Sunshine Little Red Corvette Erotic City Housequake Slow Love Do Me, Baby Adore I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man What’s Your Name Jam Let’s Pretend We’re Married Delirious Jack U Off Drum Solo Twelve Hot Thing If I Was Your Girlfriend Let’s Go Crazy When Doves Cry Purple Rain 1999 U Got The Look It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night Medley (featuring Miles Davis)
Please note – video content is exclusive to the physical DVD and will not appear on digital download or streaming versions of the Super Deluxe Edition set.
Deluxe Edition 3 CD Set Remastered Album + Single Mixes & Edits
Remastered Album (Disc 1)
Sign O’ The Times Play In The Sunshine Housequake The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker It Starfish And Coffee Slow Love Hot Thing Forever In My Life
Remastered Album (Disc 2)
U Got The Look If I Was Your Girlfriend Strange Relationship I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man The Cross It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night Adore
Single Mixes & Edits (Disc 3)
Sign O’ The Times (7” single edit) La, La, La, He, He, Hee (7” single edit) La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive) (7” single edit) If I Was Your Girlfriend (7” single edit) Shockadelica (“If I Was Your Girlfriend” B-side) Shockadelica (12” long version) U Got the Look (Long Look) (12” edit) Housequake (7” edit) Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake) I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade 7” edit) Hot Thing (7” single edit) Hot Thing (Extended Remix) Hot Thing (Dub Version)
Musik Music Musiqueis a 3 CD compilation from Cherry Red, chronicling the beginnings of the synth-pop music revolution that was to dominate the charts for years to come. Whilst containing well-known names from the era (Buggles, The Human League, Ultravox and Spandau Ballet) the tracks chosen from these artists are not the obvious big-hits.
The real discoveries and delights in this compendium are the more obscure tracks, from the likes of XYNN, Nick Nicely and other acts who often released just a handful of songs before disappearing forever.
The first of the 3 CDs contains one of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s finest earlier songs, the naggingly addictive Messages. The Human League are represented by their cover of Mick Ronson’s Only After Dark, taken from the final album produced by the line-up that featured Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who left the League to form Heaven 17 with Glenn Gregory later in 1980.
Victims of the Riddle was the debut single from Toyah (it was actually released in 1979, but we will let that slip!). A keyboard driven song, with minimal guitar, it sits well on this compilation. Waiting by Ultravox is a good choice, as is Hazel O’Connor’s Sons And Lovers, with tribal drums offsetting the sax and synth squelches.
My favourite track on Disc One is from one of the most under-rated albums of the 80s, Sympathy from the debut (and only) album from Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls. Pauline was the vocalist in new wave band Penetration, and this Martin Hannett produced album saw Murray move in a more electronic direction. If you haven’t heard this album, its definitely worth investigating.
The compilation’s title track is from Zeus aka producer Zeus B. Held (Fashion’s Fabrique, John Foxx’s The Golden Section, Pete Wylie Sinful) and is a charming vocoder delivered pop song. XYNN (German multimedia artist Michael Winter) delivers the sparse and haunting Computed Man.
Gina X Performance (another Zeus B. Held collaboration) is represented by Vendor’s Box, a fuller arrangement than a lot of the purely electronic tracks on this compilation.
Lawnchairs by US band Our Daughter’s Wedding uses a similar synth sequence to the OMD track that kicks off the first CD, and is a regular on alternative 80s compilations / 80s themed radio.
Two of my favourites (from the songs I was unaware of previously) sit on the first CD. Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne by Suicide was produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars, and DCT Dreams by Nick Nicely is a lo-fi masterpiece, overflowing with more than it’s fair share of pop hooks.
The second disc opens with a key early Spandau Ballet track Glow, and a hidden gem from Robin Scott’s M in Official Secrets (avoiding the obvious Pop Muzik, great song as it is).
Galactica from French space-rock band Rockets is well sequenced next to Kim Wilde’s album track Tuning In Tuning On and Landscape’s European Man, which pre-dated their most well-known song from 1981, Einstein a Go-Go. Admit it,that song is stuck in your head now, isn’t it?
Melbourne band The Metronomes provide a “Ray Bradbury inspired tale of star-crossed love between two computing devices” with their contribution A Circuit Like Me, that cosies up to one of John Foxx’s early, icy slice of the future singles No One Driving.
The most well-known track on this compilation is the Midge Ure assisted Philip Lynott (Thin Lizzy) single Yellow Pearl, a song that was used as the theme for Top Of The Pops during the first half of the decade.
Dalek I Love You (Destiny) by Liverpool’s Dalek I is a premium slice of electronic new wave influenced pop. French band Taxi Girl contribute an early single in Mannequin. Fans of The Stranglers will remember Taxi Girl from the 1981 La Folie tour and the JJ Burnel produced / Jet Black featuring Seppuku album in 1982.
This World Of Water, a no 31 with a bullet UK singles hit by New Musik, a band formed by producer Tony Mansfield, sits in the track list just before one of my favourite Japan songs, the Roxy Music Manifesto influenced Quiet Life.
The third and final disc opens with one of Buggles finest songs, Astroboy (And The Proles On Parade). Last year there were rumours of a new, third Buggles album. Here’s hoping….
The second song titled Mannequin is from Glasgow’s Berlin Blondes, with a great mixture of new wave basslines and electronic synth lead lines. Yello supply a scratchy, discordant Bimbo and the pure-pop quota is increased by The Lonely Spy from David Balfe and Bill Drummond’s Lori And The Chameleons project.
Blood Donor serve up a quirky Doctor Who homage and The Korgis Drawn And Quartered highlights a different side to the band who had a huge hit with the dreamy Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime.
The debut album from Visage was so influential, and single Mind Of A Toy features here. The handclaps and slap-bass mutant funk of Mataya Clifford and the track Living Wild adds a wild sense of fun to the final disc.
Karel Fialka’s The Eyes Have It was a near-hit in 1980, and received lots of radio play at the time. The Russians Are Coming by The Red Squares is a short track driven by cold war paranoia.
The compilation ends with La Düsseldorf and their boozy sounding Dampfriemen, drawing on early Kraftwerk and what sounds like too many visits to Bavarian Bierkeller’s. Dampfriemen is the only song on the album featuring a kazoo solo along side the electronic instruments, so a fitting end to this entertaining glimpse into the birth of 80s synthpop.
Disc one
Messages – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark Musik, Music, Musique – Zeus Coitus Interruptus – Fad Gadget Computed Man – XYNN Metal Love – Rod Vey Vendor’s Box – Gina X Performance Lawnchairs – Our Daughter’s Wedding Tokyo – Science Only After Dark – The Human League Victims Of The Riddle – Toyah DCT Dreams – Nick Nicely Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne – Suicide Waiting – Ultravox Money – Moebius Falling Years – The Fallout Club Da Vorne Steht Ne Ampel – Der Plan No, Nothing, Never – Dark Day Sons And Lovers – Hazel O’Connor Sympathy – Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls
Disc two
Glow – Spandau Ballet Official Secrets – M Chip n Roll – Silicon Teens Galactica – Rockets Tuning In Tuning On – Kim Wilde European Man – Landscape Can’t You Take A Joke? Ha Ha Hi Hi! – Henriette Coulouvrat A Circuit Like Me – The Metronomes No One Driving – John Foxx Kebabträume – D.A.F. Harmonitalk – Gary Sloan And Clone Yellow Pearl – Philip Lynott Dalek I Love You (Destiny) – dalek I Mannequin – Taxi Girl This World Of Water – New Musik Quiet Life – Japan Chase The Dragon – Kevin Harrison Diskomo – The Residents
Disc three
Astroboy (And The Proles On Parade) – Buggles Mannequin – Berlin Blondes A Certain Way To Go – The Passage Between – Sic Bimbo – Yello Images Of Delusion – Genocide The Lonely Spy – Lori And The Chameleons Lucy – Craze I’m A Computer – The Goo-Q Doctor …? – Blood Donor Brushing Your Hair – Alex Fergusson Drawn And Quartered – The Korgis Mind Of A Toy – Visage D’ya Think I’m Sexy – British Standard Unit Living Wild – Mataya Clifford Private Lives – Systems The Eyes Have It – Karel Fialka Suis-je Normale – Nini Raviolette China Blue Vision – Eyeless In Gaza The Russians Are Coming – The Red Squares Dampfriemen – La Dusseldorf
This new Cherry Red 3 CD collection brings together all of Judie Tzuke’s recording output whilst signed to Chrysalis Records, spanning 1982 to 1983. In this period Judie released two studio albums, Shoot The Moon and Ritmo plus a live album Road Noise: The Official Bootleg.
Whilst this is not a collection of new remasters, The Chrysalis Recordings set sounds amazing and it’s a great way to add these albums to your collection at a reasonable price.
Whilst I love the first three albums (1979’s Welcome to the Cruise, Sports Car from 1980 and 1981’s I Am the Phoenix), the first album in this collection, Shoot The Moon from 1982 is my favourite (and most played) Judie Tzuke studio album.
Album opener Heaven Can Wait is driven by a wonderful rhythm section (Charlie Morgan on drums and John “Rhino” Edwards on bass) and the warm guitar and smooth keyboards add a sense of tension to this emotional song.
“I’m the ghost in your headlights”
Single Love On The Border was more in the style of the previous albums, and is a good pop/rock song that should have had more of an impact in the singles charts.
Beacon Hill brings a jazzy vibe, with it’s rhodes piano and fretless bass.
“We get in trouble when we look too far”
The trusty rhodes makes another welcome appearance, accompanied by a Roland CR-78 drum machine for the touching ballad Don’t Let Me Sleep, that highlights the emotional range of Judie’s vocals.
I’m Not A Loser was also a single, and perfectly captures the sound of late 70s, early 80s classic / FM rock.
Liggers At Your Funeral did not really resonate with me on release, but listening to this song in later years, it is one of my favourite tracks on the album. The heavily processed guitar from Mike Paxman along with the twists and turns in the arrangement turn this song into an album highlight that I never tire of hearing.
The originally sequenced album ends with the upbeat carousel of Water In Motion and the short acapella title track.
There are four bonus tracks on this version of Shoot The Moon – the b-sides Sold A Rose and Run On Luck plus demos of I’m Not A Loser and How Do I Feel. Whilst these are interesting, for me the album will always end with the title track.
I saw the band live in May of 1982 at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and bought the vinyl version of Road Noise (The Official Bootleg) on release. Do not be put off by the “official bootleg” in the title, this is a professionally recorded live album, with material taken from Tzuke’s 1982 performances at Hammersmith Odeon and the Glastonbury Festival.
Road Noise contains tracks from Tzuke’s first four albums, and features the same core musicians as on Shoot The Moon, apart from Jeff Rich who replaces Charlie Morgan on drums.
Road Noise open with a stunning version of Heaven Can Wait, which segues (why does no-one do that anymore) into Chinatown from Tzuke’s second album, Sports Car. This is the sound of collection of musicians at the top of their game.
The Shoot The Moon album is well represented on Road Noise, as are tracks from the previous three studio albums. You Are The Phoenix from the previous years I Am the Phoenix features a fabulous Mike Paxman guitar solo.
The title track of Sports Car is one of only two songs from that album on Road Noise, whilst debut album Welcome To The Cruise is represented by 6 tracks. Highlights from this album include the sung to backing track, mostly acapella For You and the big hit, the instantly recognisable Stay With Me Till Dawn, which sounds as good today as it did when first released in 1979.
Come Hell or Waters High is a fine FM ballad, at its most powerful with a simple mix of piano and voice, and a restrained live arrangement as the song progresses. City of Swimming Pools, in hindsight, is a mix of FM rock and prog. The vocal arrangement works well as the song takes us on an increasingly progressive journey.
“City of swimming pools Where you can buy anything”
The album ends with a rare (at the time) Tzuke cover version, of The Hunter which was first recorded in 1967 by Albert King. As well as being a very good live album, Road Noise serves as a fine introduction to the first four albums.
The final album in this collection is Ritmo from 1983. This album is a much more synth-heavy collection of songs, and sadly, that’s the albums downfall.
The China Crisis sounding first single from the album, Jeannie No, opens the album, and is a strong pop song. She Don’t Live Here Anymore, despite the more synthetic than usual sounding drums, has haunting qualities and so has stood the test of time fairly well.
Shoot from the Heart works well with an electronic backing that builds as layers of guitar and synths plus backing vocals are added. Face To Face has more of the feel of earlier Tzuke material, but the drum sounds let it down.
Another Country is a bit of mis-step, and a track I skip pretty quickly. The chorus of Nighthawks lifts the album but the following two tracks, Walk Don’t Walk and Push Push, Pull Pull (with it’s Mick Karn alike basslines) have really not stood the test of time.
The album’s final track, How Do I Feel works a little better. The interesting vocal arrangement on the chorus is a strength, but by the end of the album I am left feeling that I wish the Simmons SDS series of drums had never been invented (even though I once owned one myself).
An extended and a 7″ version of Jeannie No ends this version of the album, which overall is a bit of a mixed bag for me, but the inclusion of Shoot The Moon and Road Noise make this a must-buy collection for anyone interested in the work on one of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters.
35 years after its original release comes this 2 CD digipak edition of the band’s third studio album Perhaps plus related bonus tracks. Released via Cherry Red on 31 January 2020, the first disc features the 10 original album tracks plus four instrumentals that were included on the original cassette release of the album. These bonus tracks are appearing on CD for the first time.
Disc Two features all the related bonus tracks for which master tapes still exist. This includes the extended versions of singles Those First Impressions, Waiting For The Loveboat and Take Me To The Girl, plus single versions of Waiting For The Loveboat, Breakfast and Take Me To The Girl. Other tracks include 7” and 12” b-sides.
This is the best that the album has sounded. Perhaps was a long time in the making and featured four different producers, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware, Martin Rushent (The Stranglers / Human League), Dave Allen and Greg Walsh. This new remaster was carried out by Dave Turner at 360 Mastering.
If you have not heard the original album from early 1985, it is very different from the playful and mischievous Sulk, its mind-blowing predecessor released in 1982. With Alan Rankine no longer a part of the band, this is a shinier, more radio-friendly version of The Associates. The album has mostly aged well and is certainly worthy of investigation if you are new to The Associates, or are a fan of 80s music.
Those First Impressions contains trademark Mackenzie vocals and a Club Country like bassline, but at a slower pace than a lot of the Sulk material. Waiting For The Loveboat feels like the theme to a long-lost saucy 80s sitcom, and contains wry lyrics and some awe-inspiring vocals from the boy Billy.
“Knowing what you want and taking full advantage”
The title track dials up the tempo and feels more like an early Associates track, with some fine guitar lines from Steve Reid. Unusually for the time, a lot of the tracks come in around the 6 minute plus mark.
“Perhaps, she’ll be my truest love. Perhaps, I’m just not good enough.”
Schampout passed me by on initial release, and I feel the same today. Helicopter Helicopter is slightly better, but pales in significance compared to what comes next.
Breakfast is simply one of the best Associates tracks. The range of Mackenzie’s vocals, from the deep vibrato to the soaring, lung-busting high notes that give you goosebumps, still stops me in my tracks when I hear this song. It’s my favourite of all Billy’s vocal performances.
“Talk to me, I’ll stay these vagabond nights Walk with me, someone is waiting in light”
And the end section – just a metronomic drum machine, the addictive piano motif and heart-wrenching strings, serves up one of my favourite endings to a song. So simple, yet so emotional.
Thirteen Feelings, with its fairground waltz keyboards, lifts you after the melodrama of the previous song.
“Deeper days of quintessential innocence I’ve never felt so far away”
The Stranger In Your Voice always felt like something David Bowie would have recorded to me, and is another song that has grown on me over the years since first hearing the album on cassette back in the mid-80s.
The Best Of You is a duet with Eddi Reader (replacing two earlier ‘lost’ versions with Annie Lennox and Gina X). The album proper ends with the uptempo Don’t Give Me That I Told You So Look, and is completed with four instrumental cuts.
Highlights of Disc Two include extended versions of Those First Impressions and Waiting For The Loveboat with its manic end section.
Breakfast (Edit) features a very different mix and vocal to the original, and doesn’t have the same emotional effect as the album version. Though truth be told, there could never be a bad version of this song.
The Breakfast 12″ (and rare Associates cover version) Kites is a welcome addition to this reissue, harking back to the feel of early Associates releases.
Take Me To The Girl is a post Perhaps single release (I think I have a 10″ vinyl version somewhere) and a very commercial song, presented here in all its released versions (Single Version, the 12” Mix, instrumental and the delicious acoustic torch-song version The Girl That Took Me).
“So take me to the girl that I once knew Does she know what I’ve been going through? I’ve been searching for her everywhere I think my darling’s gone; I didn’t care”
This 2020 reissue also includes a 20 page booklet, that includes a UK discography and extensive sleeve-notes written by Andy Davis.
So is it worth investing in this version of Perhaps? I would say yes (not perhaps!) – its a much more rewarding version than the only other CD release, a shared re-issue with The Glamour Chase in 2002, that included none of the associated tracks that appear on this definitive Cherry Red edition.
Those First Impressions Waiting For The Loveboat Perhaps (Dave Allen Remix) Schampout Helicopter Helicopter Breakfast Thirteen Feelings The Stranger In Your Voice The Best Of You (Billy Mackenzie & Dave Allan Remix) Don’t Give Me That I Told You So Look Perhaps (Instrumental) (Bonus Track) * Breakfast Alone (Instrumental) (Bonus Track) * Thirteen Feelings (Instrumental) (Bonus Track) * The Stranger In Your Voice (Instrumental) (Bonus Track) *
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks
Those First Impressions (Extended Version) * Waiting For The Loveboat (Single Version) Waiting For The Loveboat (Extended Version) * Waiting For The Loveboat (Slight Return) Perhaps Perhaps * Schampout (Edit) * Breakfast (Single Version) Breakfast (Edit) Kites Take Me To The Girl (Single Version) Take Me To The Girl (12” Mix) * Take Me To The Girl (Instrumental) * The Girl That Took Me *
Re-mastered from the original master tapes, Ultimate Dollar contains 6 audio discs and a DVD, which contains all their videos and several TV appearances.
The reason for my mentioning the collection on this site is that the box-set will be of particular interest to Trevor Horn fans. Discs three and four cover the Gold certified The Dollar Album era. This Dollar album includes four Trevor Horn productions and co-written songs, and also includes Trevor Horn on bass guitar plus Bruce Woolley and Anne Dudley (keyboards & synthesizers) on the Horn produced singles.
Also included is the Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour) (Demo), with what sounds suspiciously like Trevor Horn on vocals.
This expanded edition includes newly commissioned 12” versions of all five top 40 hits contained on the album, mixed from the original multi track tapes – Hand Held In Black And White (UK #19), Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour) (UK #4), Give Me Back My Heart (UK #4), Videotheque (UK #17) and Give Me Some Kinda Magic (UK #34), as well as backing tracks, B-sides and instrumentals of many songs.
The box-set also includes newly commissioned vintage style 12” mixes of Mirror Mirror, Give Me Back My Heart, Hand Held In Black And White, Videotheque, Give Me Some Kinda Magic and Love’s Gotta Hold On Me from the original multi track tapes.
The box-set also includes a detailed booklet containing track-by-track commentary from Thereza Bazar and many others involved in the releases, as well as photos, detailed liner notes on each disc, and The Dollar Songbook lyrics.
The previous CD release was part of a double-pack featuring The Glamour Chase, from 2002. This new Cherry Red edition is the first CD release featuring an expanded track-listing.
Originally released in February 1985 after exhaustive recording sessions, Billy Mackenzie finally followed up the 1982 Associates album Sulk with this 10 track offering. The album featured four different producers, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware, Martin Rushent, Dave Allen and Greg Walsh.
Disc One features the 10 original album tracks plus four instrumentals that were included on the original cassette release of the album. These bonus tracks are appearing on CD for the first time.
Disc Two features all the related bonus tracks for which master tapes still exist. This includes the extended versions of singles Those First Impressions, Waiting For The Loveboat and the wonderful single Take Me To The Girl, plus single versions of Waiting For The Loveboat, Breakfast and Take Me To The Girl. Other tracks include 7” and 12” b-sides.
Housed in a digipak containing a 20 page page booklet, a UK discography and extensive sleeve-notes written by Andy Davis.
Prince – The Beautiful Ones is a fascinating read – filled with previously unseen photos, handwritten lyric sheets but it could have been so much more (it was planned to be a very different type of book).
It was heart-breaking losing a musician of Prince’s once in a generation talent in April 2016, who had so much more to give, but Prince passing in the early stages of this books conception changed its course dramatically.
For me the most interesting parts of the book are the opening chapters written by Dan Piepenbring – talking of his meetings with Prince and the book project that really excited the musician. It gives a brief window into what could have been – a merging of Prince’s thoughts and memories, with Piepenbring’s well-written critical and fan-based observations.
I really enjoyed reading the all too brief hand-written first drafts from Prince himself. Reading Prince’s own words talking about his very early years is immensely moving but abruptly ends before his professional career really started.
So we sadly miss out on Prince talking about the stories behind his songs and albums, what it was like being an icon from his perspective and his struggles with the industry that tried to slow him down.
We will never get to hear about his relationships with the countless band-members who worked and collaborated with him through the 80s, 90s, and up to the iconic Super Bowl appearance of 2007 (the planned end point of this book). Sadly these memories and many more died with the man.
Dan Piepenbring and the Estate have done a fine job taking the book through to its conclusion, and for any Prince fan, this is still a must read book, so no criticism should be laid at their door. But the opening chapters just drive home how if Prince was still with us, The Beautiful Ones could have been one of the best rock books of all time.
Prince’s 1999, his fifth studio album, is being given the expanded deluxe edition treatment, with a lavish super-deluxe edition.
The remastered album, which was originally released in 1982, also includes single / promo edits, two discs of unreleased material from Prince’s legendary vault, and two live performances (one audio and one on DVD).
Watch 1999 from the DVD below. Bear in mind that this is a recording from late 1982, so will not be up to current visual standards, but the performance is still electrifying.
The Jam are re-issuing their long out-of-print vinyl compilationSnap! in October, for the first time on heavyweight vinyl.
Snap! is my favourite compilation from The Jam, and is made up of a mix of singles, b sides and album tracks. Released by UMC / Polydor on 25 October 2019, the double vinyl also includes a 7″ single containing live tracks.
The 2019 re-issue of Snap! is housed in a gatefold sleeve, with original artwork, printed inner sleeves and the original ‘free’ live 7” EP.
This 2019 version has been remastered at Abbey Road, and for the first time is available on heavyweight vinyl, with a download card (well-done record label – this always helps sway me towards a vinyl release).
7″ – Side A Move On Up (Live) Get Yourself Together (Live)
7″ – Side B The Great Depression (Live) But I’m Different Now (Live)
LP1 – Side A In The City Away From The Numbers All Around The World The Modern World News Of The World Billy Hunt English Rose Mr. Clean
LP1 – Side B David Watts A’ Bomb In Wardour St Down In The Tube Station At Midnight Strange Town The Butterfly Collector When You’re Young Smithers-Jones Thick As Thieves
LP2 – Side A The Eton Rifles Going Underground Dreams Of Children That’s Entertainment Start! Man In The Corner Shop Funeral Pyre
LP2 – Side B Absolute Beginners Tales From The Riverbank Town Called Malice Precious The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) Beat Surrender
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 