Aztec Camera - Green Jacket Grey (1981)

Following their appearance of the 'Urban Development' cassette compilation in 1980, playing their Cure/Joy Division-inspired post-punk, Aztec Camera signed to Postcard records and released 'Just Like Gold' in March 1981, followed by 'Mattress Of Wire' a few months later, and the next step for the band was to be their debut album for Postcard, titled 'Green Jacket Grey'. Before that could happen, however, the band left Postcard, signed to Rough Trade and started work on a 'new' debut album that would eventually become 'High Land, Hard Rain'. There were rumours that studio sessions had taken place and demos had been recorded for 'Green Jacket Grey', and eventually a poor quality tape of these sessions surfaced, but as would be expected from a 30-year old bootleg, they were hardly cutting edge quality-wise. However, someone has gone to great lengths to restore them to a position of being probably as good as they will ever sound, and so we can piece together what 'Green Jacket Grey might have sounded like. 'Remember The Docks' and 'Another Room' were briefly part of the band's early live set, but were soon dropped, while 'Orchid Girl' was rumoured to have been written about Una Baines of the Blue Orchids, and was eventually re-recorded and released as the b-side to 'Oblivious' in 1983. The title track of the album was originally intended to be the band's first single back in 1981, backed with one of their Cure/Joy Division rockers 'Real Tears', but in the end they went with 'Just Like Gold' for the debut 7". 'Release' goes back to Roddy Frame's pre Aztec Camera days, featuring in the sets of his first band Neutral Blue, and it was re-recorded for their actual debut album 'High Land, Hard Rain' in 1983. 'Pillar To Post' was the first song that Aztec Camera re-recorded following their move from Postcard to Rough Trade, and I've tried to clean up the first 60 seconds which were a bit muffled before the sound cleared during the first chorus, while 'Nothing In The Sky' had real issues, as the song was split into two parts with a big gap in between, presumably because the original tape ran out and, instead of recording the whole song again when it was flipped over, they decided to just carry on recording! An attempt had been made to repair this by editing in a 1981 performance of the song from Manchester, but I didn't feel it was totally successful, so I've patched in the first verse again and then tagged on the original ending. If you want to hear the original demo then it is up on Soundcloud. The band also recorded a demo of what was then called 'Send Letters', so by adding that and the rejected first single b-side we have what could have been Aztec Camera's debut album had they not left Postcard during the sessions. I've housed it in a cover featuring a painting by David Band, who did a lot of their artwork later in their career, so enjoy these early recordings by a much missed band. 

Track listing

01 Remember The Docks
02 Orchid Girl
03 Another Room
04 Green Jacket Grey
05 Release
06 The Spirit Grows
07 Real Tears
08 Pillar To Post
09 Nothing In The Sky
10 Send Letters