Another compilation that sifts through the Tones On Tail back catalogue panning for gold… this time out it was on CD and cassette formats only – and the cassette version included three extra tracks. This was issued in 1990 in the United States – and was the third compilation released in the US by this point (preceded by ‘The Album Pop’ in 1984 and ‘Night Music’ in 1987).
The fourth example in a series of exclusive 7″ Kraftwerk singles made available from the German ‘MusikExpress’ magazine has just been released for the August 2023 issue. Celebrating 20 years since the release of Kraftwerk’s most recent album, ‘Tour de France Soundtracks’, the 7″ is a one-sided single with an exclusive edit of the album’s closing track, ‘Tour de France’.
Of course, the detail there is that the closing track to the album was a 2003 re-recording of the version of ‘Tour de France’ first issued back in 1983, not the new 2003 album track Etape 1 / 2 /3 versions. UPDATE: And, thanks to a comment courtesy of Staggboy, to be more precise, the edit is derived from the 2017 3-D The Catalogue/Der Katalog version, rather than the 2003 ‘Tour de France Soundtracks’ album version. Continue reading “Kraftwerk – ‘Tour de France’ MusikExpress magazine German 7″ single (Kling Klang/Parlophone, 2023)”
‘The “Sweetest Girl”’ never provided Scritti Politti with the full-on pop chart hit that might have ambitiously been hoped for, but the impact it made with its sea-change in style ensured its high profile all the same. What I had not quite appreciated until more recent years was just how many versions of the song there are and it’s curiously stop/start release history.
Continue reading “Scritti Politti – ‘The “Sweetest Girl”’ version craziness”
Time for the third and final part of this short series focussing on my badge collection for The Cure got back in the day… this time almost all from the 1985 UK tour (which I didn’t actually see and have my good friend Lieutenant 030 and frequent contributor to thank for buying them for me. The final one is the official ‘Cure Club’ badge from 1984 when I joined – it was a relatively short lived Cure official fan club of the time.
Of note, the 1985 badge set pack only contains the three button badges, it does NOT include the metal enamel badge – that was available separately, I just slotted it into the pack to keep them all together nicely.
1988 saw the band return from what, to the outside world, probably looked like some kind of extended break, but had witnessed the band finesse their studio in Acton and record the album ‘Blue Bell Knoll’. Along the way, it also saw the band make changes in their relationship with 4AD records, including signing a new deal for five further albums for the label and their American releases made via Capitol records, as well as further worldwide territories.
The original release of the vinyl album came packaged in a tri-fold sleeve and, unlike previous releases, it was not the work of 4AD’s in-house designers 23 Envelope, but by designer Paul West and Jeremy Tilston, with photography by Juergen Teller.
