John Foxx compilations across the years Part 7

2014 saw the release of the ‘Virgin Years 1980-1985’ CD boxed set which gathered up most of John Foxx’s work recorded for Virgin Records. As well as individual discs for the four principal albums recorded during the period it contained a fifth disc that compiled a selection of waifs and strays of B-sides and outtake. This compilation was titled ‘Fusion/Fission’ (which had originally been the tithe intended for 1980’s ’Metamatic’, as it happens). This compilation has never been issued separately and is only obtainable as part of the box set, which originally had a release date of 21st July 2014 to be precise, but was actually available from Monday 23rd June 2014 due to earlier than anticipated manufacturing and delivery.

A recap on the CD re-issues prior to this box set…

The re-release of John Foxx’s Virgin era back catalogue on CD has been a mildly frustrating affair for long-term fans. The first CD re-issues in 1993 (for ‘Metamatic’ and ‘The Garden’)  contained bonus tracks that in some cases were new, exclusive and welcome, such as ‘Young Love’, which back in 1979 was originally scheduled to be John’s debut solo single (and even advertised in mail order record store listings briefly) but never even made the cut for ‘Metamatic’ or its B-sides in the end. But in some cases the bonus tracks were out of sync with the albums. e.g. ‘The Garden’ contained bonus tracks of ‘The Golden Section’ b-sides. All in all, something of a muddle. ‘The Golden Section’ only got a CD re-release in Japan in 1993 and contained no bonus tracks. Meanwhile, ‘In Mysterious Ways’ had been issued on CD from the get go in 1985 and it too only saw late ‘80s and ‘90s re-issues in Japan only. 2001 was the year when the next major work on John’s back catalogue took place, with the single disc Edsel label CD re-issues of the four Virgin era albums. This time round there were more bonus tracks on each disc and they somewhat faithfully stuck to the same album era for each disc instead of mixing them up like the 1993 issues. It’s worth noting that while the main album tracks for each remained the same as the original releases, the 2001 release of ‘In Mysterious Ways’ radically changed the the main running order and introduced a new track, ‘Spin Away’ – and this 2014 box set plays around with the running order once again. Still, there remained some omissions from the 2001 re-issues and it would not be until 2007/2008 and the two disc Edsel label CD sets of the four Virgin era albums that extremely comprehensive sets could finally be enjoyed. And along the way of course there have been the various compilation CDs that is the main subject of this series of posts – these have included new and exclusive versions too as they came to light.

‘The Virgin Years 1980-1985’ UK 5 x CD box set (Metamatic Records, META52BX, 2014)

Packaged in a sturdy clamshell box, each of the CDs comes in an individual card wallet. For the four principal album releases, the sleeve designs are altered so as to retain the original album image on the front of the sleeve but devoid of any text at all. Meanwhile, the reverse sides follow a similar layout that lists the track titles only. And since the box does not come with any kind of accompanying booklet, that does mean that there are a lack of credits and lyrics, which is something of a shortcoming if you were hoping for this to be a definitive set to replace your existing collection with. Still, priced at £14.99, you can not argue with the value for money the set provided and it does also contain five single sleeve replica cards – a seemingly random selection, featuring the front cover designs for ‘Underpass’, ‘No-One Driving’, ‘Europe, After The Rain’, ‘Endlessly’ (1983) and ‘Stars On Fire’.

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Tracklist:

Disc One: ‘Metamatic’

1. Plaza (3’55”)
2. He’s A Liquid (3’01”)
3. Underpass (3’56”)
4. Metal Beat (3’01”)
5. No-One Driving (3’49”)
6. A New Kind Of Man (3’41”)
7. Blurred Girl (4’19”)
8. 030 (3’17”)
9. Tidal Wave (4’16”)
10. Touch And Go (5’42”)

Extra Tracks:

11. Film One (4’02”)
12. This City (3’11”)
13. Burning Car (3’15”)
14. Glimmer (3’38”)
15. Mr No (3’18”)
16. Young Love (3’10”)
17. 20th Century (3’07”)
18. My Face (3’21”)
19. A New Kind Of Man (Alternative Version) (4’31”)
20. He’s A Liquid (Alternative Version) (3’00”)

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Disc Two: ‘The Garden’

1. Europe After The Rain (4’02”)
2. Systems Of Romance (4’04”)
3. When I Was A Man And You Were A Woman (3’39”)
4. Dancing Like A Gun (4’12”)
5. Pater Noster (2’35”)
6. Night Suit (4’26”)
7. You Were There (3’53”)
8. Fusion/Fission (3’51”)
9. Walk Away (3’55”)
10. The Garden (7’18”)

Extra Tracks:

11. Swimmer II (5’16”)
12. This Jungle (4’44”)
13. Miles Away (3’20”)
14. A Long Time (3’51”)
15. Swimmer I (3’35”)
16. Swimmer III (5’26”)
17. Swimmer IV (3’59”)

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Disc Three: ‘The Golden Section’

1. My Wild Love (3’45”)
2. Someone (3’31”)
3. Your Dress (4’26”)
4. Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers (5’37”)
5. Sitting At The Edge Of The World (4’23”)
6. Endlessly (4’18”)
7. Ghosts On Water (3’12”)
8. Like A Miracle (5’10”)
9. The Hidden Man (5’44”)
10. Twilight’s Last Gleaming (4’31”)

Extra Tracks:

11. Annexe (3’11”)
12. A Kind Of Wave (3’39”)
13. A Woman On A Stairway (4’26”)
14. The Lifting Sky (4’50”)
15. Shine On Me (3’46”)
16. Wings And A Wind (5’17”)
17. Dance With Me (3’30”)

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Disc Four: ‘In Mysterious Ways’

1. Stars On Fire (5’38”)
2. Lose All Sense Of Time (4’21”)
3. Spin Away (6’45”)
4. Enter The Angel II (2’14”)
5. Enter The Angel (3’58”)
6. In Mysterious Ways (3’06”)
7. What Kind Of A Girl (5’04”)
8. Shine On (4’47”)
9. Stepping Softly (3’58”)
10. Morning Glory (6’01”)

Extra Tracks

11. Lumen De Lumine (3’32”)
12. To Be With You (Alternative Version) (4’41”)
13. And The Sky (4’34”)
14. This Side Of Paradise (4’40”)
15. Hiding In Plain Sight (5’55”) (aka ‘Stairway’ as it was originally released as)
16. City Of Light (3’39”)

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Disc Five: ‘Fusion/Fission’

1. Cinemascope (3’28”)
2. To Be With You (4’23”)
3. Like A Miracle (Alternative Version) (3’56”)
4. Fog (5’54”)
5. Fusion/Fission (Early Version) (3’53”)
6. Dance With Me (Early Version) (3’50”)
7. A Woman On A Stairway (Early Version) (5’01”)
8. Endlessly (1982 Single Version) (3’51”)
9. My Wild Love (Early Version) (2’48”)
10. A Long Time (Alternative Version) (5’07”)
11. Sitting At The Edge Of The World (Alternative Version) (3’58”)
12. Twilight’s Last Gleaming (Early Version) (3’50”)
13. Young Man (2’57”)
14. The Hidden Man (Alternative Version) (4’41”)
15. Enter The Angel (Alternative Version) (3’40”)
16. Magic (3’36”)
17. Shine On (Alternative Version) (5’03”)

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What is / was unique to this compilation?

• There was nothing new to be found, all tracks/versions had previously been released – however, it is worth noting that ‘Metamatic’ had been mastered from the newly discovered original 1979 source tapes as used earlier in 2014 on the white vinyl Record Store Day re-issue.

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‘Additionally of interest…’

I mentioned at the outset that the box gathered up ‘most of’ the Virgin Records era material. It is not a definitive be all and end all by any means – though we are into hair-splitting ‘versions’ territory (and, hey, isn’t that what this blog is all about after all?), so… if we take the 2014 release date of this box and not focus on additional tracks released since (e.g. on the 2018 3 CD ‘Metamatic’ CD box set), then referring back to the previous CD re-issues contents, in particular the greatly expanded 2 x CD issues of the four Virgin era albums as released in 2007/2008, and the various compilation CDs, then the tracks from those releases that are missing from this box set are;

• ‘Plaza’ (Extended Version) 4’54” (which had been first released on the ‘Glimmer’ compilation CD)
• ‘Underpass’ (Extended Version) 4’25” (which had been first released on the 2010 ‘Metatronic’ compilation CD)
• ‘No-One Driving’ (Single Version) 3’42” (which had been included on the 2001 ‘Modern Art’ and 2008 ‘Glimmer’ compilation CDs)
• ‘No-One Driving’ (Early Version) 3’57” (which had been first released on the ‘Glimmer’ compilation CD)
• ‘Burning Car’ (Early Version) 2’44” (which had been first released on the 2010 ‘Metatronic’ compilation CD)
• ‘Miles Away’ (Alternative Version) 3’23” (which had been included on the 2008 ‘The Garden’).
• ‘Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers’ (Extended Mix) 5’50” (as included on the 2008 ‘The Golden Section’).
• ‘Endlessly’ (Extended Mix) 6’03” (as included on the 2008 ‘The Golden Section’).

The following 12” Extended mixes which, handily, were all gathered up in 2013’s ‘Metadelic’ compilation, are also missing;

• Endlessly (7’44”)
• Like A Miracle (8’12”)
• A Kind Of Wave (5’02”)
• Stars On Fire (7’10”)
• Enter The Angel (5’55”)
• What Kind Of Girl (4’58”)
• Endlessly (Sparkle Mix) (6’29”)

If you widen the criteria to single edits too (as opposed to single re-recordings/remixes) – which I know many might find irrelevant – then the following are also missing – though all can be found on 2001’s ‘Modern Art’ compilation CD.:

• ‘Underpass’ (Single Edit) 3’18”
• ‘Europe, After The Rain’ (Single Edit) 3’35”
• ‘Dancing Like A Gun’ (Single Edit) 3’43”
• ‘Like A Miracle’ (Promo DJ Edit) 4’50”
• ‘Stars On Fire’ (Single Edit) 4’52”

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Where can the exclusives be sourced now?

• Not applicable on this occasion.

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Summary

If you are not fussed about the packaging, credits and lyrics and just want as much of the music on physical format as you can get for a small sum, this boxed set was incredible value at £14.99 when first released. Of course, it’s not selling for that now, with prices on the secondhand market having risen to the £50 mark at time of writing.