The first few months of 2026 have gotten off to start with not one but two books that revisit, to varying degrees, the subject of the Skids and Stuart Adamson. The first of them is this slim but illuminating book from Richard Jobson reflecting ostensibly on the background to the 1980 Skids album ‘The Absolute Game’, but much more beside. The second tome is ‘Stay Alive: The Life and Death of Stuart Adamson’, by Scott Rowley and is an official biography chronicling his career and tragic death. That will have to wait for another time
^ Richard Jobson – The Absolute Game book, front cover design
This 1988 CD EP release is something of a curio as it contains two mixes by Visage that have for whatever reason been rather forgotten about in the digital age. Not that you would know from the sleeve design, as it doesn’t provide any details on the specific mixes included. But these two mixes of interest are the original extended 12” mix of ‘Fade To Grey’ and the ‘Dance Dub’ mix of ‘Beat Boy’.
This original 12” mix of ‘Fade To Grey’ first emerged not on the 1980 UK 12” single but on the West German 12” single release. (The UK 12” single featured the same single edit as the 7” mix). The West German 12” release (Polydor 2141 318) – see discos.com entry – featured an extended mix of ‘Fade To Grey’, though its fair to say that this 12” extended mix has since been eclipsed and replaced as seemingly the ‘definitive’ 12” mix of the song by the later ‘Dance Mix’ version that first appeared on the US ‘Visage’ Mini-Album (Polydor, PX-1-501) released in July 1981, as featured in a previous post. For example, on many various artists compilation CDs in recent decades whenever there is a 12″ or extended mix of ‘Fade To Grey’ it is almost always the ‘Dance Mix’, or, even more confusingly, a slightly shorter edit of this ‘Dance Mix’. (See ‘Postscript’ below for more detail on this.) The most recent example of this is from Rusty Egan’s 4-disc ‘Rusty Egan Presents Blitzed!’ collection (view the discogs.com entry), which features the full-length ‘Dance Mix’ version of ‘Fade To Grey’ in all its glory – it truly is a superb mix.
^ Visage ‘Fade To Grey’ 1988 West German CD single front cover design
Meantime, the ‘original’ 12″ mix as featured on this CD single is quite a different affair. It lacks the downright irresistible straight-ahead funkiness of the Dance Mix and has in the past come in for the occasional comment that its basically just the single mix repeated twice.
This curious 12″ release is notable for featuring an edit that was never commercially released, and that unlike various other edits doing the rounds managed to truncate all of the tracks that make up the full version of the original album version ‘Trans-Europe Express’ / ‘Abzug’ / ‘Metal on Metal’ into one edit of 5’42” duration instead of the full 13’38” run time
^ Kraftwerk ‘Trans-Europe Express’ US Promo-only 12″ single front
1990 had by far been an intense yet successful year for the band – following the release of the ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ album, the final few months of 1990 (October through December) had seen the band tour Europe, North America and Canada, which then continued on into 1991, with the North and South American tour to promote the ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ album that kept the band occupied during March and April of 1991. Along the way, the band also parted ways with 4AD records following some degree of acrimony, a move that would be reflected upon at a later date as not necessarily the best of moves. Simon Raymonde’s ‘In One Ear’ book also provides a bleakly dramatic tale of the human toll of the tour to support promotion of ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ by way of a rather dramatic end to the tour on a personal level. By this point in time the band were now finding that their relationship with their label, 4AD, was being brought to a close. So, its perhaps little surprise to find that 1991 was otherwise a low-activity period other than the intense touring schedule.
^ Cocteau Twins – 1991 – Singles Box Set – front cover
Yet, it was not a quiet year for releases, with a box set of their singles and EPs (in enhanced form with complementary bonus tracks added as appropriate) proving to be a very welcome release on CD format. Continue reading “Year by Year: Cocteau Twins – 1991”
1983/1984/1985 were good years for gig-going for me and alongside enjoying the show, wherever possible and budget allowed I would visit the merch stall and come away with the customary T-shirts, badges and posters.
^ ACME merchandise brochure S84 page 6 – The Cure official merch
