Celebrating vinyl / CD / cassette / memorabilia releases of musical gems and curiosities from the punk era onwards
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
The ‘Beat’ album by King Crimson was my entry point to the band in 1982 – somewhat taken by the fusing of art rock and the Talking Heads connections, buying that album was something of an educated guess but one that paid off. ‘Beat’ was the middle album of a trio from the early 1980s and this ‘Sleepless’ single featured here was the lead-off single from the third part of that trio, 1984’s ‘Three of a Perfect Pair’. By this stage of the game, the band clearly had some ambitions to have something of a go at single chart success and ‘Sleepless’ took aim with a smoothed-out, funked up, sleek-lined rhythmic juggernaut of a sound that was fashioned into different mixes across the parent album as well as 7″ and 12″ releases, aided and abetted by celebrity mixers of the day, Bob Clearmountain and the more dance-groove focussed François Kevorkian – and in so doing, leaving us with some vinyl-only version craziness some 41 years on from its original release.
2025 has been a good year for remembering the wonderful Pete Shelley, by way of various re-releases, firstly, the Record Store Day exclusive of the ‘Yesterday Is Not Here (Radio Sessions 1979 – 1983)’ album (which includes the first, acoustic guitar and vocal rendition of the song that is the subject of this post, in the form of ‘Homosapiens’), then new re-releases of Pete’s ‘Homosapien’ and ‘XL-1’ albums. But, what do we have here? Not one of these new releases, no – quite a curio in fact and one that passed me by back in the day.
Magazine are a long-standing favourite of mine and it’s been welcome to have seen them been back in the public eye once again over the past year with the re-releases of their studio back catalogue. A nicely curated re-issue series, refreshed and re-visited, notably absent however are any of the live albums. The subject of today’s post is something of a curio. While 1980’s ‘Play’ (and its later, expanded 2009 re-visit as ‘Play+’) live album has tended to be the go-to de facto live document, this release is worth seeking out as a short but interesting example of a slightly earlier vintage.
The UK BBC Radio 1 music station’s ‘In Concert’ series was a simple yet valuable format, one matched around the world in many differing names – ultimately, a chance to hear a well recorded excerpt of a live show, broadcast a week or two after the recording date. Established or new and upcoming bands, they were of equal interest and importance to the producers. This show was recorded on 22nd November 1978 at the BBC’s then ‘Paris Theatre’ venue, on Lower Regent Street, London, which has long since closed its doors as a venue for such live recordings. This is a short release, clocking in at the 37 minute mark, so, far from a full live show. This is partly because the broadcast was shared with another act, the short-lived Snips.
‘Cut-Throat – How to get started in the music business – and survive!’ is a newly published book drawn from the archives of the sadly now departed Nash The Slash (the late Jeff Plewman) that I received recently in its limited edition form. Published by Skill, which bills itself as an ‘outsider micro-label and press offering discerning multi-genre releases in beautifully rendered limited editions’ the wonderfully packaged limited version is now sold out, but the regular edition is available – view the Skill Bandcamp. Along with the ‘Nash The Slash Rises, Again!’ [Facebook link] documentary, this will surely help keep the interest alive.
