Blue Aeroplanes - Staring At The Future (2024)

For anyone who enjoyed the recent post from The Blue Aeroplanes, here is a treat for you. In 2023 the band released the follow-up to 2017's 'Welcome Stranger!', with 'Culture Gun' making a belated appearance. It was written, and in part recorded, over three years, and was much delayed, mainly due to vocalist Gerard Langley being hospitalized with cancer. It was finally released on 28 April 2023 on the Art Star label, to almost universally positive reviews, and the following year the band surprised fans at a gig at Lafayette, London on 27th July 2024, by selling a specially pressed CDr of unreleased tracks from the 'Culture Gun' sessions. It included the track 'Tyger! Tyger!', which is poetry by William Blake and William Butler Yeats set to an arrangement of Mud's 'Tiger Feet', and was limited to just 100 copies. It came housed in a gatefold sleeve and a plain, white paper inner, with a resealable, clear, outer protective cover, and obviously has since become one of the band's most collectible items. In case you didn't manage to get your hands on a copy, here it is for your enjoyment.  

Track listing

01 Tyger! Tyger!
02 Inherit
03 Bad Angel
04 Loyalty Cards / Unreliable Narrator
05 Cops
06 Album Of The Year
07 Underground Rocketship
08 Better

The Blue Aeroplanes - Kings Of The Soap Box (2010)

The genesis of The Blue Aeroplanes started with the band The Art Objects, who consisted of Gerard Langley, his brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski, and who were active from 1978 to 1981. The Blue Aeroplanes first performed under that name at the King Street Art Gallery in Bristol in 1981, with the trio augmented by Nick Jacobs, former guitarist and vocalist of Southampton band the Exploding Seagulls. The same line-up played three or four concerts over the next couple of years, either at the gallery or for benefits, including a Karl Marx centenary performance at the Victoria Rooms, with the addition of trumpet and didgeridoo. The band released their first album 'Bop Art' on their own Party Records in 1984, and it was rapidly picked up by Abstract Records in the US and Fire Records in the UK. It contained material that had been considered as a follow-up to Art Objects' only album, 'Bagpipe Music', but which was abandoned when that group split up. Gerard Langley's largely spoken poetic lyrics were combined with a heavily guitar-centric sound, and the band went on to release 'Tolerance' in 1985 and 'Spitting Out Miracles' in 1987, alongside several singles and EPs. In 1990 they released their most critically acclaimed album, 'Swagger', this time on a major label Chrysalis/Ensign, and this was followed by 'Beatsongs' in 1991, which was recorded in the United States and produced by Larry Hirsch. 

This second album on the major label was their highest charting, reaching no. 33 in the UK Albums Chart. The follow-up to 'Beatsongs' was delayed until 1994 after a change of label, and 'Life Model' was eventually released on the Beggars Banquet label, followed the next year by 'Rough Music'. A long break and another label change to Art Star preceded the release of 'Cavaliers' in 2000, and following negotiations with EMI, who now owned the rights to 'Swagger' and 'Beatsongs', The Blue Aeroplanes then made a surprise return to the major label, with EMI re-releasing 'Swagger Deluxe' as a 2-CD version in January 2006. This was followed by an album of new material called 'Altitude' later that year, released on EMI's Harvest imprint, and this prompted the band to record the 'Harvester' album, which consisted of covers of classic tracks that were originally recorded by artists on the Harvest label. The Blue Aeroplanes are still active, releasing their 'Culture Gun' album in 2022, and in their long career they released numerous non-album tracks as b-sides to their singles and on their EPs. Despite releasing two collections of these tracks, titled 'FriendLoverPlane' and FriendLoverPlane2', there are still recordings that remain uncompiled, and so this post aims to correct that by including every non-album track that the band have released between 1985 and 2010.    

Track listing

 
Disc I - 1985-1987
01 Action Painting (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
02 Le Petit Cadeau De Don Juan (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
03 Ashtrays From Mt. Etna (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
04 Police (38 Divinity) (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
05 I Wanna Be Your Lover (from the 'C85' compilation album 2022, recorded 1985)
06 Who Built This Situation In The Midwest (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
07 Weird Heart (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
08 Breaking In My Heart (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
09 The Couple In The Next Room (from the 'Tolerance' EP 1986)
10 Complete Blessing (from the 'Tolerance' EP 1986)
11 King Of The Soapbox (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
12 Vice King's Son (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
13 Continually Torn Apart (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
14 Days Of 49 (free flexi-disc with 'Spitting Out Miracles' 1987, sung by Rodney Allen)

Disc II - 1988-1991
01 Veils Of Colour (single 1988)
02 Shame (from the 'Janice Long Sessions' EP 1988)
03 You (Are Loved) (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
04 You're Going To Need Somebody (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
05 Sweet Jane (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
06 ...And Stones (The Gangley Bootleg Mix - Part I) (12" single only 1990)
07 Razor Walk (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
08 Different Now (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
09 Big Sky (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
10 Pony Boy (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)
11 Mis-Firing (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)
12 Autumn Journal XXIV (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)

Disc III - 1991-2010
01 Talkin' On The Otherphone (b-side of 'Boy In The Bubble' 1991)
02 Disney Head (b-side of 'Boy In The Bubble' 1991)
03 Stranger (from a flexi-disc given away at a Bristol gig 1992)
04 Trouble, Tell Me I'm Alive (from a flexi-disc given away at a Bristol gig 1992)
05 Bad Moon Rising (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation album 1992) 
06 Love Is (b-side of 'Broken & Mended' 1993)
07 Jack Of All Hearts (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
08 Jealous Town (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
09 It's Alright (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
10 Stars In Your Crown (from the 'Beautiful Is' EP 2007)
11 China Brilliance Automotive (single 2010)
12 My Good Self (b-side of 'China Brilliance Automotive')