In 1996 the Boo Radleys released their fifth album 'C'mon Kids', and while the group themselves have said that their aim was to try something new in order to keep themselves fresh and interested, critics accused them of deliberately attempting to scare away the fans they'd picked up with 'Wake Up!'. Early in 1997, the band finalized an American contract with Mercury, and 'C'mon Kids' was released in March, a half a year after its initial British release. Their final album 'Kingsize' came out in 1998, with 'Free Huey!' being released as the first single. Plans were under way to issue the title track as the next single, but while these were being finalised the band decided to call it a day, and broke up in 1999, resulting in the release of 'Kingsize' being cancelled. As we've already seen from posts from Elbow, Wah!, Dodgy and (spoiler alert) The Bluetones, indie bands of the 90's treated their fans really well, with exclusive songs on the flips of nearly all of their singles, although the Boos did reign this in a bit during their later years, and the songs on their EPs seldom found their way onto their albums either. They may have only been around for eight years, but they recorded so much music that it was relatively easy to find three dozen songs that never appeared on their albums to make up this trilogy of posts from a much-missed indie band.
Track listing
01 Friendship Song (b-side of 'Wake Up Boo!' 1995)
02 ...And Tomorrow The World (b-side of 'Wake Up Boo!' 1995)
03 Janus (b-side of 'Wake Up Boo!' 1995)
04 Blues For George Michael (b-side of 'Wake Up Boo!' 1995)
05 This Is Not About Me (b-side of 'It's Lulu' 1995)
06 Tambo (b-side of 'It's Lulu' 1995)
07 Donkey (b-side of 'It's Lulu' 1995)
08 From The Bench At Belvidere (single 1995)
09 Hi Falutin' (b-side of 'From The Bench At Belvidere' 1995)
10 Crushed (b-side of 'From The Bench At Belvidere')
11 Almost Nearly There (b-side of 'From The Bench At Belvidere')
12 The History Of Creation Parts 17 And 36 (b-side of 'Wake Up Boo!' 1995)
I've put 'The History Of Creation Parts 17 And 36' at the end as you'll probably only want to listen to it once.
The cover uses a photo by Elena Jo Melanson
Only to say that the “Kingsize” single never happened. I have a promo with the tracks that would have been on it (one, “Superintendent”, remains unissued.
ReplyDeleteThe band split soon after the album came out, and Alan McGee cancelled the single.
I saw that 'Kingsize' is listed on discogs. but on checking more closely I see that it was only as a promo CD and 12" single.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but this Soulseek Thing doesn't work for me at all. I entered "boo radleys aiwe" as well as boo radleys in the search field, but NOTHING turned up.
ReplyDeleteLeave your email address here and I'll send a direct link and then delete the comment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your assistance, but for some strange reason it worked fine for me this afternoon. :-)
ReplyDeleteI found in my few months of using it that it can be very temperamental.
ReplyDeletePJ here's a small but irritating thing. The tagging of this album has =Very Together and that albums has the converse tagging. Sorry to be picky.
ReplyDelete