The Japanese record industry, much to the delights of collectors such as I, always seems to have acted with impunity when it comes to its releases, never shying away from taking a grab-bag approach to compile releases which probably have the artists themselves holding their faces in horror. Yes, we are talking about these albums and mini-albums that have no equivalent releases elsewhere and the early ’80s in particular was a great period for this.
A companion release from the same series as the Flying Lizards ‘Move On ‘Up’ 12″ documented in a previous post. Taking the usual cavalier attitude to track selection and sleeve design that many Japanese releases of this period had, this little beauty gathers together a selection of tracks from three of John Foxx’s 1980 singles (‘Miles Away’, ‘Burning Car’ and the extra single from the ‘No-One’s Driving’ double-pack 7 inch) in a sleeve/label design unlike any other Foxx release.
Along the way, it has also managed to include a different mix of ‘Miles Away’, the same one as used in the promo video for the single, I believe. (This mix finally made it on to CD with the late-2008 2-disc re-issue of ‘The Garden’.) Continue reading “John Foxx ‘Burning Car’ Japanese ‘Pic Label’ series 12″ single (Virgin, VIP-5903, 1981))”
Japanese releases have always been fabulously exotic and collectable to me, with their disregard for replicating the exact same releases elsewhere and willingness to mix and match tracks into new combinations, such as 12″ mini-albums and so on. Plus of course the extra attention to detail with the quality of sleeve designs, inserts and packaging in general. Virgin released a series of ‘pic label’ releases by a few of my favourites such as John Foxx, The Human League, Japan, and, in the subject of this post, The Flying Lizards.
Hailing from late 1980, this 12″ compiles various tracks from all of the Flying Lizards singles up to that point and comes in a die-cut sleeve with an over-sized 6″ picture label on show (front only) – ‘Move On Up’ (Single edit) and Portugal from the A and B side respectively of the ‘Move On Up’ 7″ single, ‘All Guitars’ from the B side of the ‘Summertime Blues’ single, ‘Money’ (the longer, album version though) from the ‘Money’ single (which was available on 12″ in some territories) and ‘Tube’ from the B side of the ‘TV’ single. Continue reading “Flying Lizards ‘Move On Up’ Japanese ‘Pic Label’ series 12″ single (Virgin, VIP-5902)”
To this day I still don’t know what the story is behind this single and why it was never properly released, seemingly withdrawn at the last minute back in late 1985 – no doubt why it is extremely difficult to come by.
This particular copy is the West German 12″ edition. The tracks on this 12″ are;
To Breathe (Extended Version) (5.46)
Metal And Flesh (5.30)
To Breathe (Instrumental) (3.50) Continue reading “Hard Corps ‘To Breathe’ West German 12″ (Polydor/Metronome, 883-413-1), 1985”
