May 1980

Look, I know I've been through all this a thousand times before, but about this time of year in 1980 was when music started to get interesting for me. There were new records out by Gary Numan, The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, among others. Here's the evidence from Smash Hits (two editions in May 1980):

It's also the the time that Ian Curtis of Joy Division killed himself, which is a pity as I'm sure he would have appreciated some of this new music.

Bottoms on Sleeves - No. 3

Bumper bottoms this week as we look at the sleeve for...

Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus (single, 1989)

- here's how a model's bum was featured on the, er, rear side of the 7" & 12" sleeves respectively:

the gatefold 7" featured all four band members and the same bum

The hanging gardens of Shoreditch

John Foxx has another new album out at the end of this month. London Overgrown is a collection of instrumental tracks under the general theme of the UK's capital city being overrun by trees and bushes and so on.

Foxx had this to say:

Let's practice vertical gardening over buildings everywhere. Create the Hanging Gardens of Shoreditch, The Glades of Soho. Let's have floating overgrown islands moored on the Thames - they can make bridges and movable, modular, floating landscapes. Let's open up the pavements and glass them over so we can see all Londons hundred rivers flowing under our feet. These can be planted with fern mosses and lichen and illuminated at night to make spectacular walkways.

The album is out on March 30th, available from all good music outlets and garden centres. Details here.

A song for Europe

Depeche Moder Martin L. Gore has posted a new solo instrumental track on Soundcloud. It's called Europa Hymn and it's the taster for a new solo album MG coming out at the end of April 2015*.

Full details, pre-order, tracklisting etc. over on the Mute page.

You can listen to Europa Hymn here if you like:





*We just hope it's better than VCMG.

Bottoms on sleeves - No. 2

The Smiths - Hand in Glove (single, 1983)

Photograph by Jim French who did a lot of that sort of photo. Original here.

Literature in Music - 1

..another ocasional series...

The Echo & the Bunnymen track My White Devil, included on their album Porcupine (1983), references playwright John Webster (1580 - 1634) and two of his major works The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.

"John Webster was

One of the best there was

He was the author of

Two famous tragedies

The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi

The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.."

Bottoms on sleeves - No. 1

..an occasional series..

Ultravox - All Stood Still (single, 1981).

pic: discogs.com

Sleeve credits state "Three Graces, Museum of Side. Turkey", so possibly based on this.

Rubbish Culture

And if you thought a simple typo on the front cover during the pre-sales period was bad enough (see pic left), it sounds as if whoever is responibile for these things made a right c*ck-up of the 'deluxe' re-issue of OMD's seminal 1984 album 'Junk Culture'. 

After several complaints about incorrect tracks/mixes/running times etc., Universal are set to re-press the bonus disc (and the bonus disc only9 of the 2 CD set (source: Superdeluxeedition.com). Band member Andy McCluskey personally apologised and partially 'justified' some of the mistakes on the official forum.

Despite mistakes also made on CD1, it does not seem that this disc will be re-printed. This is all a great shame of course in a day and age when CD sales are plummeting and fans are exploited with these 'deluxe' editions which are usually hoped to bring vast sound improvements to much-loved albums, B-sides etc. usually only available in vinyl or inferior CD formats. 

One of the unique features of this issue was the inclusion of B side WrappUp, available on CD for the first time. They even got that wrong and inserted All Wrapped Up from the main album in its place. 

Space balls

I'm a bit concerned about the, er, masculine dancing on this one but the soundtrack is ace!

Thanks to the ever resourceful Arefriendelectrick for the upload. More Space Pilots / Space Music here.

Of Ants and Turtles and Electric Video Dreams

Steve Barron: the Ninja Turtle years.

I was interested to read this interview with video and film director Steve Barron this morning. I didn't know very much about him although of course was well acquainted with his work on seminal pop promotional videos starting in 1979 with The Jam and Secret Affair, moving onto pop pioneers Adam & the Ants, The Human League, Tears for Fears, OMD, Simple Minds et al, and then winding up with the big boys like  Madonna, Bowie, Bryan Adams and Michael Jackson (Billie Jean), while still remaining faithful to A-ha throughout.
He also directed a couple of films including the 80's-pop fuelled comedy sci-fi Electric Dreams and some other things which were, and remain, off my radar.
The abovementioned article was there to plug his new autobiography "Egg n Chips & Billie Jean: A Trip Through the Eighties", which from the Kindle preview actually looks quite entertaining.

His videos seem to always have that grainy, slightly old-fashioned feel to them which I quite like. Here's one of those early, seminal videos from 1980 (featuring the legendary GIANT PLUG!).

The Next Compilation

Well, David Bowie's latest compilation Nothing Has Changed is finally now after being announced a few weeks back. Available in three different versions (double CD, triple CD - with their relative digital download equivalents - and double vinyl) each with its own different artwork, depicting Bowie looking into a mirror at various stages of his career (my favourite one here on the left). Although they all stick to basically the same songs each has its own individual tracklisting.

The triple CD version is possibly the most interesting, and the most complete to date. This version features the tracks Your Turn to Drive, previously an internet-only single, and Let Me Sleep Beside You, which is previously commercially unreleased, both being from Bowie's nigh-legendary unreleased 2001 album Toy. The jumbo version also follows the original idea of presenting tracks in reverse chronological order starting with new single Sue and winding up with Liza Jane, a track released by Davie Jones and the King Bees, apparently the first single ever to be released by the boy Bowie back in June 1964...and quite a corker it is too! Nothing has changed? Well, we wouldn't say that...

New Zoo

The remastered 30th anniversary edition of Zoolook by Jean Michel Jarre has unexpectedly turned up as a download only on amazon.co.uk and other download sites (available from 18th November on some in Europe). Although its part of the Sony JMJ re-issues which started earlier this year with Oxygène, Equinoxe, Les Chants Magnètiques and three live albums, this is the first to appear billed as an actual remaster.

The digital download release does in fact coincide with the original album release of November 1984. As usual I'm in two minds as to whether I should download the mp3 files straight away or wait for the actual hard copy to come through my letterbox. My original vinyl copy never did get all the play the earlier albums did although perhaps things will change this time around with the new issue which by all accounts has vastly improved sound with regard to the original or even successive digital editions. 

Having said that I have always found the (over) use of the new fangled sampling technology rather tiresome, and despite all his efforts to always come up with something original, Jarre's electronic doodlings were beginning to tire a little. A more recent reworking of Zoolookologie however shows that its a work that stands up to the test of time surprisingly well, nothwithstanding this cringey video - a colourful slice of mid-80s euro-kitsch:

Official news on the further new releases is scarce - at least on the interweb - and this Spanish-language site is the only one I could find which confirms the re-issue of the next five albums in CD format as of 2nd January 2015. Olé!