An odd little curio, two tracks apiece from the bands first two Peel sessions jumbled up on this 7″ EP that sells itself on the packaging to the max, with a mish-mash of Banshees eras; early, pre-Polydor recordings with a Kaleidoscope/JuJu era? Siouxsie pic and typeface logo from the ‘Kiss In The Dreamhouse’ era – topped off with light blue marbled vinyl for the disc itself. Both sessions from which the tracks were culled had already been out before on 12″, cassette and CD some years earlier, with the plainer, more interchangeable, generic style sleeve designs and subsequently various outings for Banshees BBC material. A rougher and rawer Banshees sound before Steve Lillywhite’s production touch and ‘space’…
There was also a 12″ edition that used a different cover image (more ‘Kiss In The Dreamhouse’ era, I think?) and vinyl colour (white) and even a truly hideous shaped picture disc edition!
Tracklist:
Side One:
- Hong Kong Garden (2:40)
- Mirage (2:38)
Side Two:
- Carcass (3:40)
- Love In A Void ( 2:37)
There were numerous other repackagings of the first two sessions, spread across CD, vinyl picture discs and so on. Much later on there are the more comprehensive ‘Voices On The Air’ CD and ‘At The BBC’ box set.
I’ve got the 8 track Peel sessions 77-78 pic cd @ 3500 copies from 1991. SImilar in style. I should sell it off and get the full BBC sessions at some point. Still, Strange Fruit could have done worse. Those generic BBC covers spring to mind…
You’re not wrong there – the initial generic sleeve styles used across the range were dull, dull, dull and some of the typeface choices were seriously rotten – like someone had gone on random grab through a Letraset catalogue. Can’t recommend the At The BBC box set highly enough if you can come by a reasonably priced copy – well, the packaging leaves a lot to be desired, I’d concede – but the contents, just wonderful – the 1986 Peel session of ‘Tinderbox’ era tracks are just great and for me they are as strong as the LP takes. Anyway, not to detract from what was a fine initiative to release the various BBC session – there is soooooo much more that could come out though that the BBC have.
We are all waiting for the Roxy Music sessions with bated breath! The bootlegs I have are spellbinding. Particularly from the pre-“Roxy Music” sessions with Davy O’List, but I would prefer better quality goods, naturally.