Joe Strummer - When Pigs Fly (1993)

In 1992 Joe Strummer was asked to provide the soundtrack to Sara Driver's forthcoming film 'When Pigs Fly'. Driver was the long-time partner of film director Jim Jarmusch, who Strummer had previously worked with, acting in his 1989 film 'Mystery Train', and so he accepted the commission and spent the next eight months composing songs and instrumental music for the film. It starred Marianne Faithfull as a ghost and Alfred Molina as a jazzer, but despite this promising cast Driver had trouble gaining a distribution deal, and so although it was shown at a few festivals, nothing really happened off the back of them. Strummer's soundtrack consisted of eight pieces, four songs and four instrumentals, taking in the Pogues-ey Celtic-rock of 'Rose Of Erin', the Bernard Herrmann-meets-Link Wray noir of instrumental 'Storm In A D-Cup', and the breezy pop of the rattling title track. Strummer has said that he seemed to be a jinx around projects like this, and was often involved in things that never saw the light of day, but this collection is a worthy addition to his solo canon, so here it is, together with alternate takes of 'Pouring Rain' and 'Rose Of Erin'.  

Track listing

01 When Pigs Fly (vocal)

02 Ellis Island Line (instrumental)
03 Pouring Rain (vocal)

04 Rose Of Erin (vocal)
05 Storm In A D-Cup (instrumental)
06 Free At Last (vocal)
07 Pouring Rain (alt. version)

08 Phantom County Fair (instrumental)
09 Rose Of Erin (alt. version)
10 When Pigs Fly (instrumental)

Keane - New Golden Age (2019)

Keane's fourth album was recorded and mixed at the beginning of 2012, with a tour commencing in March, and the lead single 'Silenced By the Night', being released in the UK on 15 April 2012, followed by 'Disconnected' six months later. The reception for the new album was not as universally positive as for the first three, with some critics saying that it was a step back to their comfort zone, and that the band lacked 'blood, guts and muscle'. In November 2013 they released a 'best of' compilation, which included two new tracks which were released as singles, with 'Higher Than the Sun' appearing in September 2013 and 'Won't Be Broken' in January 2014. On 20 October 2013 several publications, including The Sun and Digital Spy, claimed that Keane intended to split following the release of 'The Best Of Keane', but this was denied by Chaplin the next day, explaining that the band was not splitting up, but the members would like to "take a bit of time out from being Keane" after being busy for the past few years. This 'time out' lasted for six years, during which time Chaplin recorded a solo album titled 'The Wave' in 2016, and a Christmas-themed second album 'Twelve Tales Of Christmas' the next year, while Rice-Oxley and Quin continued with their side project Mt. Desolation, releasing 'When The Night Calls' in 2018. Toward the end of 2018, Keane posted a series of cryptic images onto their various social media accounts, hinting that the quartet were in the studio working on material, while on 6 February 2019 they posted several announcements on their Instagram and Facebook sites of various festivals in which the band would perform in the summer. In June 2019 the band released a new single from the forthcoming 'Cause And Effect' album, titled 'The Way I Feel', with the album finally appearing in September, including two bonus studio tracks on the European edition. The final post of this short series collects singles and b-sides from their last two albums, alongside some previously unreleased and bonus tracks, and their contribution to the soundtrack of 'A Monster Calls'. It nicely rounds off this four-volume collection of rarities from a band who dared to be different, and managed to make a 25 year career out of it, releasing almost as much music hidden away on singles and charity albums as they did on their five official records.   

Track listing 

01 Dinner At 8 (Rufus Wainwright cover from 'Connect Sets' EP 2010)
02 The Happy Soldier (previously unreleased 2010)
03 Myth (b-side of 'Silenced By The Night' 2012)
04 Difficult Child (b-side of 'Sovereign Light Cafe' digital download 2012)
05 Russian Farmer's Song (previously unreleased 2013)
06 Higher Than The Sun (single 2013)
07 Won't Be Broken (single 2014)
08 Tear Up This Town (single, from the soundtrack of the film 'A Monster Calls'  2016)
09 Glass Bottles (demo 2019)
10 New Golden Age (bonus track 2019)
11 Difficult Year (bonus track 2019)

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982)

Over the course of a few weeks in early 1982 Bruce Springsteen recorded demos for his new album at his home with a 4-track cassette recorder, using only acoustic guitar, electric guitar (on 'Open All Night'), harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel, tambourine, organ, synthesizer (on 'My Father's House') and voice. Once the demos were complete, he brought the songs to sessions at the Power Station studios in late April 1982, and he attempted to record full-band arrangements of the songs with the E Street Band. However, it soon became apparent to him that a majority of these songs did not lend themselves well to these full-band arrangements, and he later said "I went into the studio, brought in the band, rerecorded, remixed, and succeeded in making the whole thing worse". Only Springsteen and Jon Landau had any decision-making power in this process, and they both felt that certain songs were too personal, and the raw, haunting folk essence present on the home tapes could not be duplicated or equaled in the band treatments. Once this decision had been made, Springsteen asked Toby Scott if it was possible to make the sound quality good enough to release some of the songs as a solo album. It took Scott a few weeks to get back to him with a definitive answer, and if that answer had been "no" then there is unlikely to have ever been a 'Nebraska' album. Eventually, Scott confirmed that he would be able to use the recordings, and so by late May it had been decided to issue the album in its acoustic form. Despite Scott's confirmation that the tape was usable, the task to produce the album was not an easy one, as some of the equipment needed was somewhat the worse for wear, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Springsteen had carried the only tape copy around in his jacket pocket for three months. Springsteen fans have long speculated whether the full-band recordings of the Nebraska session tracks that took place in the last week of April 1982 will ever surface, but bearing in mind that Springsteen didn't think they brought anything new to the songs, and in his opinion 'the right version of 'Nebraska' came out', then it's unlikely that they will ever now see the light of day. However, an enterprising fan has put together the next best thing, and has taken band recordings of all the songs from 'Nebraska' and sequencing them into the same order as the record, in effect making an electric version of the album. Considering that the recordings come from a number of different sources, they run together very well, although I felt that the take of 'My Father's Place' was a bit tinny, so I've replaced that with an alternate recording, and 'Reason To Believe' ended rather suddenly so I've grafted on some applause to fade it out. That just left a bit of trimming and cross-fading so that it sounds like one complete concert, and as this is probably the nearest that we'll ever get to hearing an electric 'Nebraska', enjoy an alternate version of one of Springsteen's most highly-regarded albums.   

Track listing

01 Nebraska (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

02 Atlantic City (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

03 Mansion On The Hill (2000-07-01 Madison Square Garden,NY)

04 Johnny 99 (2009-05-04 Uniondale,NY)

05 Highway Patrolman (1984-08-20 East Rutherford, NJ)

06 State Trooper (1984-10-21 Coliseum, Oakland, CA)

07 Used Cars (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

08 Open All Night (1992-07-25 East Rutherford, NJ)

09 My Father's House (1984-10-31 Sport Arena, Los Angeles, CA)

10 Reason To Believe (2007-11-19 Boston, MA) 

Phil Manzanera - ...and on guitar (1992)

IT'S BACK!

Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, a.k.a. Phil Manzanera, was born on 31 January 1951 in London to a Colombian mother (nee Manzanera) and an English father, who worked for BOAC. He spent most of his childhood in different parts of the Americas, including Hawaii, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba, and it was in Havana that the six-year old Manzanera encountered his first guitar, a Spanish guitar owned by his mother. His earliest musical accomplishments were Cuban folk songs inspired by the Cuban Revolution, but by the age of eight he started experimenting with the sounds of the electric guitar, and during his teenage years he was absorbing the twin influences of 1960's rock and roll and Latin American rhythms. In his late teens he formed a series of school bands with his friends Bill MacCormick, later a member of Matching Mole and Random Hold, MacCormick's brother Ian (better known as music writer Ian MacDonald) and drummer Charles Hayward, later of This Heat and Camberwell Now. The final incarnation of one of Manzanera's College bands was a psychedelic outfit dubbed Pooh & The Ostrich Feathers, who later evolved into the progressive rock quartet Quiet Sun, with the addition of keyboard player Dave Jarrett. They wrote a number of original songs and instrumental pieces, none of which were recorded until years later, and the band broke up when McCormick joined Matching Mole. 

During the making of his first solo album 'Diamond Head' in 1975, Manzanera briefly revived the group in order to record a full album of their original music, with 'Mainstream' being released later that year. Manzanera was determined to join a professional band, and in October 1971 he was one of about twenty players who auditioned as lead guitarist for the recently formed art rock band Roxy Music. He displayed a wide-ranging interest in music, influenced by his childhood sojourns in Latin America, and in 1972 he was invited to join Roxy Music, alongside Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Paul Thompson, Andy Mackay, and Graham Simpson. Roxy Music's rise was meteoric, with the band being hailed as a major stylistic influence of the early 1970's, and during the next 12 years they released a series of internationally best-selling albums. In parallel with Roxy Music, Manzanera has always pursued solo projects, both recording his own albums and producing for others, with his first major credit as producer being for the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1976, with their second LP 'Second Thoughts'. He also played guitar on three tracks on the first Brian Eno album 'Here Come the Warm Jets', as well as working with many of the luminaries of modern music, such as Steve Winwood, David Gilmour, John Cale, Godley & Creme, Nico and John Wetton, and he co-wrote songs with some of them, including Pink Floyd's single 'One Slip' from their 1987 'A Momentary Lapse Of Reason' album. 

In 1976 he assembled a band christened 801, and their 1976 London show was recorded for a live album, featuring contributions from Manzanera on guitar, Eno on vocals, synth and treatments, Quiet Sun bassist Bill MacCormick, Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman, 19-year-old drumming prodigy Simon Phillips, and slide guitarist Lloyd Watson, who had previously performed as a solo support act for Roxy Music. The success of the live album led to the creation of a more permanent incarnation of 801, without Lloyd Watson, while Manzanera's old schoolmate Simon Ainley took over from Eno as lead vocalist, but after recording the follow-up album 'Listen Now' and a short UK tour, they disbanded. In 1982 Ian Little, better known for his production of Duran Duran's third album '7 & The Ragged Tiger', started putting together his own album, and co-opted his old gaffer at Manzanera's Gallery Studio so contribute guitar to the tracks. From the mid-80's Manzanera added his guitar expertise to a number of albums by French artists, including Alain Bashung, Éric Charden and Carla Bissi, recording as Alice, and was also asked to gift a solo piece to the 'Guitar Speak' series of compilation albums, so enjoy this collection of some of his best collaborations with some well-known and some not so well-known artists from the first 20 years of his career. 

Track listing

01 You Won't See Me (from 'These Foolish Things' by Bryan Ferry 1973)
02 Cindy Tells Me (from 'Here Come The Warm Jets' by Eno 1974)
03 Momamma Scuba (from 'Fear' by John Cale 1974)
04 The End (from 'The End...' by Nico 1974)
05 The Inexorable Sequence (from 'Resolving Contradictions' by Andy Mackay 1978)
06 Clues (from 'Freeze Frame' by Godley & Creme 1979)
07 Caught In The Crossfire (from 'Caught In The Crossfire' by John Wetton 1980)
08 Extra-Ordinary (from 'Neuromantic' by Yukihiro Takahashi 1981)
09 Balance (from 'Gates' by New Asia 1982)
10 Breath Of Life (from 'Explorers' by The Explorers 1985)
11 Citta Chiusa (from 'Park Hotel' by Alice 1986)
12 Sphinx (from 'Guitar Speak' by Various Artists 1988)
13 Legere Eclaircie (from 'Novice' by Alain Bashung 1989)
14 Spellbound (from 'Abracadabra' by ABC 1991)
15 L'Amour Sourdine (from 'Je rocke ma vie' by Éric Charden 1992)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

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

Frank Zappa - Crush All Boxes (1980)

In 1980 Frank Zappa started recording songs for a new album, which was to be titled 'Fred Zeplinnn', but shortly after it was completed Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham suddenly passed away, so the pun didn't seem that funny anymore, and at the last minute Zappa decided to change the title of the record to 'Crush All Boxes'. This refers to a long-time feud between him and his former record company Warner Bros., who were still trying to cash in on their long-terminated contract by releasing a couple of box sets of compilations of older material, which Zappa totally disagreed with. On 11 October 1980, Zappa rather naively took the completed album with him to KUNM Radio in Albuquerque and played the whole thing on air while being interviewed by the resident DJ. Not surprisingly, enterprising fans taped the radio shows and almost immediately bootleg copies of the album stated to appear, leading to Zappa cancelling its official release. The songs later appeared on 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' and 'You Are What You Is', but in different mixes, with the original versions having a noticeable clarity of the voices and instruments, while 'Easy Meat' has a completely different guitar solo, and you can actually hear the trumpet overdubs that Bob Harris played during the solo and at the end of the song. The artwork had already been commissioned from Cal Schenkel, so when 'Crush All Boxes ' was cancelled, he just used the original artwork for 'Tinseltown Rebellion' and over-painted the title, but you can actually still see some of the original writing underneath. There are currently two different bootlegs of this album doing the rounds, one which was taped from the radio broadcast and one taken from the original acetate, which runs noticeably slower on some of the songs. The albumsforgottenreconstructed site posted this album a few months ago, and by comparing the lengths of the songs I'd say that that version was taken from the radio broadcast, so I don't feel too bad about posting this version taken directly from the test pressing acetate, and you can pick which one you prefer. 

Track listing

01 Doreen
02 Fine Girl
03 Easy Meat
04 Goblin Girl
05 Society Pages
06 I'm A Beautiful Guy
07 Beauty Knows No Pain
08 Charlie's Enormous Mouth
09 Any Downers
10 Conehead

Keane - Tyderian (2008)

'Under The Iron Sea' had a worldwide release in June 2006 and was at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart for the first two weeks of its release. Before the album appeared, Keane had started their second world tour, but as a result of the extensive touring, Chaplin announced he had admitted himself to a clinic for drinking and drug problems, resulting in the cancellation of three gigs, and postponement of their September leg of the tour. Chaplin left the Priory Clinic on 6 October, but continued to receive treatment, and the tour was restarted, for the first time travelling to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. A couple of years after it was released, 'Under The Iron Sea' was voted the 8th best British album of all time by a poll conducted by Q Magazine and HMV, and because Keane had become such a massive band in a relatively short time, and also because of their penchant for adding rare songs to their singles, bootlegs started to appear online, one of the very best of which was 'The Theft Of Octo', which not only gathered up some rare songs, but also managed to find two that had not previously appeared anywhere else, and housed it all in a sleeve which complemented some of their early singles. The title track was actually just a backwards version of 'Iron Sea' from the album, but 'Maps' really was an unheard rarity. In 2007 the band released another stand-alone single 'The Night Sky' in aid of the War Child charity, with this song not appearing on any of their albums. The band's third album 'Perfect Symmetry' was released in 2008, and with Jesse Quin now a  permanent studio and live member, playing bass, percussion, guitar, synths and backing vocals, the more 'organic' approach that Chaplin and Hughes had spoken about could be heard in their music, with guitars more prominent that on any of their previous records. Once again it was voted Best Album Of The Year by the readers of Q Magazine, and they commenced a world tour to promote it in November 2008. On 10 May 2010, they released the 'Night Train' EP, which became their fourth number 1 in the UK, made up of songs recorded during the 'Perfect Symmetry' world tour, and at first it was called it a mini-album, then it changed to an EP, but in an interview, Tim Rice-Oxley said that 'Night Train' is "pretty much an album". Because of this I haven't included anything from 'Night Train' itself, but we do have those two exclusive tracks from 'The Theft Of Octo', both sides of 'The Night Sky' charity record, and some b-sides of singles from 'Under The Iron Sea' and 'Perfect Symmetry'. 

Track listing

01 He Used To Be A Lovely Boy (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

02 Let It Slide (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

03 Maybe I Can Change (b-side of 'Crystal Ball' 2006)

04 Thin Air (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

05 The Theft Of Octo (backwards version of 'Iron Sea' 2006) 

06 Tyderian (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

07 She Sells Sanctaury (b-side of 'A Bad Dream' 2007)

08 The Night Sky (single 2007)

09 Under Pressure (b-side of 'The Night Sky')

10 Time To Go (b-side of 'The Lovers Are Losing' 2008)

11 Staring At The Ceiling (b-side of 'Perfect Symmetry' 2008)

12 Maps (hidden track from 'The Theft Of Octo' compilation 2007)

Various Artists - Beck's Song Reader (2013)

In 2012 Beck Hansen released one of the most unusual modern albums - an illustrated collection of sheet music entitled 'Song Reader'. He'd been working on the idea since 2004, and when the artifact was released none of the twenty songs could be heard by anyone unless they could read music and play an instrument. Complete with full-colour art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case, 'Song Reader' was an experiment in what an album could be at the end of 2012. The idea behind the release was that Beck hoped that enterprising musicians would record their own versions, and scores of them have done just that, uploading them to Youtube and Soundcloud, as well as to Beck's Song Reader website. In July 2014 the 'Warby Parker Presents Beck Song Reader' album was released, which featured studio recordings of the twenty tunes as interpreted by Jack White, Jack Black, Jeff Tweedy, Fun., Norah Jones, David Johansen and many more, as well as one song being performed by Beck himself. This followed a live concert the previous year at the Barbican Centre in London, which involved a huge cast of more than forty players, including Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Beth Orton, and the handsomely realised performances were regarded as a great success. Beck has performed a few of the songs himself over the years, and these have been collected together, alongside a few other live performances, by Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist in an attempt to construct a 'Song Reader' album by Beck that you could actually listen to, although he could only locate ten of the songs for his project. I've gone down a different route for this post, which is in line with Beck's original vision for the release, and I've trawled Youtube and Soundcloud to find what I think are the best rock versions of the songs. There are a few bands who have taken the project very seriously, with The Song Preservation Society, Jason Crosby and The Jehnny Dopps covering at least five or six of the songs, and The Portland Cello Project have recorded a whole album, while other Youtubers have picked just one song and made an outstanding job of it. I've tried to pick bands and artists that have performed the songs in a similar style, so that the album flows as if it's done by one band, and I'm sure that fans of Beck will appreciate the loving care that these artists have taken with his songs. I've also included a folder of the full-colour art which accompanied each piece of sheet music.  

Track listing

01 Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard (Song Preservation Society) 
02 I'm Down (Jerry Borge)
03 Saint Dude (Kurt Anderson & Studio 360)    
04 Do We? We Do (Benedikt Band) 
05 Eyes That Say I Love You (Milktooth)       
06 Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings (Bigmedicinefilms) 
07 Please Leave A Light On When You Go (Song Preservation Society)
08 Sorry (Song Preservation Society)
09 Old Shanghai (Zoo Pilot)   
10 Rough On Rats (Jason Crosby And Friends)
11 Just Noise (Song Preservation Society)
12 We All Wear Cloaks (The Jehnny Dopps)   
13 Mutilation Rag (Jason Crosby)
14 Heaven's Ladder (Jason Crosby And Friends)  
15 Why Did You Make Me Care? (Jason Crosby And Friends)   
16 America, Here's My Boy (Paul Lambeek)
17 The Wolf Is On The Hill (Song Preservation Society) 
18 Title Of This Song (The Jehnny Dopps)  
19 The Last Polka (Discombobulator)
20 Last Night You Were A Dream (The School Of Rock)  

Bryan Ferry - Alphaville (1995)

 In 1995 Bryan Ferry went into the studio with Eurythmics Dave Stewart to record some songs for his next album. The sessions went well enough to tape twelve songs, but for whatever reason Ferry didn't feel happy enough with them to release them, and so the album was shelved. Instead, like the last time that sessions were abandoned, Ferry released his covers album 'As Time Goes By', although that didn't actually come out until 1999. It wasn't until 2002 that his next record of original material emerged, with 'Frantic' including re-arranged and re-recorded versions of 'Cruel', 'Nobody Loves Me', 'San Simeon' and 'Fool For Love'. Another long gap followed before 'Olympia' appeared in 2010, and once again the 'Alphaville' sessions were raided to provide alternate versions of 'You Can Dance' and the title track, and so as about half the songs have now appeared on his records it's unlikely that this album will ever see the light of day. As Ferry employed the services of Kate Moss for the covers of the 'Olympia' album and singles, I've kept that theme for the sleeve of this one. 

Track listing

01 Love War
02 Cruel
03 Alphaville
04 Nobody Loves Me
05 I Don't Want To
06 Sonnet #18
07 You Can Dance
08 One Way Love
09 Hiroshima
10 This Love
11 San Simeon
12 Fool For Love 

Aztec Camera - Aztec Gold (1990)

Aztec Camera was formed in 1980 by Roddy Frame, then just 16 years old and living in East Kilbride in Scotland, and the initial lineup of the band consisted of Frame on guitar and vocals, Campbell Owens on bass, and Dave Mulholland on drums. They made their recorded debut on 1980's 'Urban Development', a compilation cassette of local unsigned bands released by Pungent Records in association with Glasgow-based Fumes Magazine. In March 1981 the group released a single through the respected Scottish indie label Postcard Records, and 'Just Like Gold'/'We Could Send Letters' rose to number ten on the U.K. Independent charts, leading to British music journal New Musical Express giving Aztec Camera their seal of approval by licensing an alternate acoustic version of 'We Could Send Letters' for their 'C81' cassette compilation curated and released by the magazine. After releasing 'Mattress Of Wire'/'Lost Outside The Tunnel' on Postcard, they signed with Rough Trade Records in 1982, and released the single 'Pillar To Post'/'Queen's Tattoos', following which Dave Mulholland left the band, with John Hendry taking over as drummer. In 1983 the band released their debut album 'High Land, Hard Rain', which earned rave reviews (with many citing the fact Frame was just 18 when he wrote most of the songs) and respectable sales, especially in England. The band expanded their lineup by adding guitarist Craig Gannon and keyboardist Bernie Clark to the fold, and riding high on the success of their first long-player, they enlisted the services of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits to produce their second. 

1984's 'Knife' was slicker and more ambitious, and I felt that it didn't have the rugged charm of their debut, and Frame was also becoming disenchanted with his band-mates, so by the time he went on tour in support of the 'Knife' album, Campbell Owens was the only other original member of the group, although it would in fact prove to be his last tour with Aztec Camera. After a stopgap EP of live tracks and B-sides was issued in the United States in 1985, their third album, the R&B-influenced 'Love', appeared in 1987. Though it was issued under the group's name, Frame recorded the material with a handful of session musicians, and from that point on, Aztec Camera would not have a consistent lineup on-stage or in the studio, with Frame assembling a different set of players for each project. 'Love' proved to be a commercial success in the U.K., rising to number 10 on the album charts, but it barely made the Top 200 in the United States, and the next two Aztec Camera albums, 1990's eclectic 'Stray', which included a collaboration with the Clash's Mick Jones on the song 'Good Morning Britain', and 1993's electronic experiment 'Dreamland', didn't even chart in America. After 1995's 'Frestonia', a low-key and primarily acoustic effort, failed to excite fans or critics, Frame retired the name Aztec Camera, and for his next project he released 'North Star' in 1998 under the name Roddy Frame. In their early days Frame was quite prolific, and so b-sides were often non-album, and the best are collected here, along with original versions of their singles where they differed from the album version, and their contribution to a 1990 split single with Kirsty McColl & The Pogues, taken from a Cole Porter tribute album. 

Track listing

01 Abbatoir (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

02 Stand Still (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

03 Real Tears (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

04 Token Friend (demo 1980)
05 Mattress Of Wire (single 1981)
06 Just Like Gold (single 1981)

07 We Could Send Letters ('C81' version 1981)
08 Pillar To Post (original single 1982)
09 Queen's Tattoos (b-side of 'Pillar To Post' 1982)
10 Walk Out To Winter (original single version 1983)
11 Set The Killing Free (b-side of 'Walk Out To Winter' 1983)
12 Orchid Girl (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
13 Haywire (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
14 Jump (b-side of 'All I Need Is Everything' 1984)
15 Bad Education (b-side of 'Deep & Wide & Tall' 1987)
16 The Red Flag (b-side of 'How Men Are' 1988)
17 Do I Love You? (split single 1990) 
18 Consolation Prize (b-side of 'Good Morning Britain' 1990)
19 True Colours (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)
20 Salvation (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)

The Pooh Sticks - Think Bubble (2014)

The Pooh Sticks were rock's most inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop music itself. Cloaked behind ridiculously overblown marketing schemes, made-up histories, and cartoon-character images, the Welsh group punctured the industry's myriad excesses, freely pilfering from the entirety of pop's past by shoplifting titles, lyrics, and melodies at will. The Pooh Sticks were ostensibly led by frontman Hue Pooh (born Hue Williams), who in October 1987 teamed with Swansea-area schoolmates Paul, (guitar), Alison (bass), Trudi Tangerine (keyboards), and Stephanie (drums), but in fact these last three members didn't actually exist. Their 1988 debut single 'On Tape' was a witty jab at indie rock fan boy mentality released on manager/svengali Steve Gregory's Fierce label, and of course I bought it straight away, and it's still a prized possession. The real mastermind behind the Pooh Sticks was Gregory, writing, arranging, and producing their records, designing their cover artwork, and even choreographing their live performances.Their next release was an ironically lavish box set comprised entirely of one-sided singles. including the infamous 'I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well', a nod to the Creation Records chief. Their first album was a live recording called 'Orgasm', and was "recorded live...in Trudi Tangerine's basement". The 1989 mock-bootleg 'Trademark Of Quality' was next, compiling live material from a pair of recent club dates, including a cover of the Vaselines' 'Dying for It', as well as an early rendition of the group's semi-original 'Young People'. In 1990 they finally recorded a proper studio album, 'Formula One Generation', and the following year the band added Talulah Gosh and Heavenly vocalist Amelia Fletcher to their ranks, and recorded their second studio album 'The Great White Wonder'. For this release they changed direction, eschewing their 'twee' British indie pop for a more American-styled power pop sound, akin to bands like Jellyfish and Redd Kross. The next record 'Million Seller', released on 11 January 1993, is considered by some power pop fans to be the band's best work, and 1995's 'Optimistic Fool', followed the same path, but was to be their final release for some time. In 1995 they claimed to have cut no less than 30 demos for a follow up to 'Optimistic Fool', but this never happened, and so in 2014 they hosted a website where they gave out free downloads of 10 of those demos under the follow up album's working title 'Think Bubble'. Despite being demos, they are all great indie-pop songs, and an album of polished versions of these tracks would have been most welcome. 

Track listing

01 Stereo Love
02 My Amp
03 You Said A Bad Word
04 Jimmy Webb's Horse
05 The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz
06 Call Me Carnival
07 International Language
08 Five O'Clock Shadow
09 Stars Fall Like Dominoes
10 Out Here In The Night

Keane - Let It Slide (2005)

In 2005 Keane were nominated in a number of categories at the BRIT Awards, taking away Best British album and the British breakthrough act award as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. The band are also patrons of the charity War Child, and in 2005 they recorded a cover of the Walker Brothers' 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and gave it to the War Child foundation website for download, as well as pressing up one thousand vinyl copies and giving them as a gift to some of their fans. Later that year they recorded a cover version of Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' for the charity album 'Help: A Day In The Life', and they also gave a cover of 'What A Wonderful World' to Comic Relief. In April 2005, in the middle of the 'Hopes And Fears' tour, the band began recording their next record, titled 'Under The Iron Sea', at Helioscentric Studios, with some additional recording done at The Magic Shop Studios in New York. They were also regulars on British radio, recording a session for Jo Whiley, and playing 'White Christmas' on the Steve Lamacq show. With their second album on the horizon, we gather up the b-sides from the last couple of singles from 'Hopes And Fears', alongside all their charity recordings and radio sessions from 2004 and 2005. 

Track listing

01 She Opens Her Eyes (b-side of 'This Is The Last Time' 2004)

02 A Heart To Hold You (Jo Whiley session 2004

03 To The End Of The Earth (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

04 White Christmas (Steve Lamacq show 2004)

05 Fly To Me (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

06 With Or Without You (Jo Whiley session 2004)

07 Something In Me Was Dying (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

08 Untitled 2 (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

09 The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore (recorded for War Child 2005)

10 What A Wonderful World (recorded for Comic Relief 2005)

11 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (from the 'Help! A Day In The Life' charity album 2005)

Jackson Browne - The Birds Of St. Marks (1970)

In late 1969 Jackson Browne signed a contact with Hollywood music pubishers Criteriom Music, and was employed to write songs to be hawked around the circuit in the hope of being picked up by record companies for their artists. On 6th April 1970 he recorded nearly two dozen solo demos of songs that he'd written, some of which were later reworked for his first album on Asylum Records. It was in fact the demo of 'Jamaica Say You Will' which secured his record deal after he sent a copy of it to label owner David Geffen, who was so taken with the song that he signed Browne to his label in late 1970, and his debut album was released in 1971. The original bootleg of this album included demo versions of many songs that would later appear on the 1971 record, but to make it a more manageable 40-minute album I've just picked the songs which didn't make it, with the addition of demos of just a couple of his most famous songs from the album, with 'Jamaica Say You Will' as it was the track that first attracted Geffen, and 'Doctor My Eyes', because The Jackson Five did pick up on it and had a UK top 10 hit with it, but as that was in 1972 it's more likely that they heard the song from Browne's album rather than the demo. These recordings are superb quality for their age, and Browne sounds relaxed and confident in his delivery, making this is a real treat for all his fans.

     

Track listing

01 Last Time I Was Home
02 Low Road
03 Door Into The Morning
04 Another Place
05 Doctor My Eyes
06 The Birds Of St. Marks
07 Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood
08 Gone To Sorrow
09 Hot Like Today
10 Jamaica Say You Will
11 The Top
12 The Times You've Come
13 There Came A Question