Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (2023) **UPDATE**

Since discovering this epic track on Youtube, I've probably played it about once a week, and while I'm in awe at the seamless edits, one little thing that niggled was the slight change in the fullness of the sound on a couple of the solos. I've therefore extracted them and boosted the bass on them a touch so that they blend in more with the music on either side. Hopefully it fractionally improves your enjoyment of this superb piece of music. Soulseek/Mega updated.

Track listing

01 Comfortably Numb

Frank Zappa - Chalk Pie (1982)

'Chalk Pie' was a live album planned for release in 1982, featuring music recorded on Frank Zappa's  1981 tour. When it was delivered to the folks at his label it was not greeted enthusiastically, as the previous year Zappa had released two double albums and one triple, and so not wanting to overload his fans with product they asked for a single album instead. Zappa capitulated, and presented them with 'Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch', which they released in 1982. Almost all of the material that makes up 'Chalk Pie' ended up being released on various Zappa albums throughout the 1980's, although there are quite a few things which you will only find on this version. Some fans have found it a much better album than '...Drowning Witch', as it contains some of Zappa's more enjoyable difficult compositions of the time, as opposed to the 'silly songs' that make up side one of that album. The first side of 'Chalk Pie' is the same as side two of '...Drowning Witch', but with a different mix of the title track, incorporating the group vocal section from a Santa Monica gig, Zappa's vocal section from the Chicago late show, the first guitar solo from The Ritz, and the second solo from the Chicago late show. As well as that, it all contains studio overdubs, some of which render the basic tracks almost unrecognizable. 

'Envelopes' and 'Teenage Prostitute' are also live with studio overdubs, while 'The Dangerous Kitchen' is the same recording as on 'The Man From Utopia' but mixed differently, giving more prominence to Steve Vai's guitar. 'Chalk Pie' is a different mix to that on the 'Guitar' album, and 'We're Turning Again' is a combination of recordings from Santa Monica and Salt Lake City. 'Alien Orifice' is an unreleased version from Salt Lake City, and 'The Jazz Discharge Party Hats' is the same mix as on 'The Man From Utopia'. 'The Torture Never Stops' guitar solo is a previously unreleased take, and 'What's New In Baltimore?' is a different mix to that on 'Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention', as the guitar solo is longer, and it has fewer studio overdubs. 'Moggio' is the same recording as used on 'The Man From Utopia', but a different mix, and it's followed by a previously unreleased take of the guitar solo from 'The Black Page #2'. 'Clownz on Velvet' is an unreleased recording from The Ritz in November 1981, with Al Di Meola guesting on lead guitar, and 'Frogs with Dirty Little Lips' features Zappa's son Ahmet. It's a shame that 'Chalk Pie' went unreleased, as the continuity is excellent, as is the track selection, and while this may not be for newcomers to Zappa's music, it's certainly an essential listen for fans of the great man. 

Track listing

01 Drowning Witch
02 Envelopes
03 Teen-Age Prostitute
04 The Dangerous Kitchen
05 Chalk Pie
06 We're Turning Again
07 Alien Orifice
08 The Jazz Discharge Party Hats
09 The Torture Never Stops - guitar solo 
10 What's New In Baltimore?
11 Moggio
12 The Black Page #2 - guitar solo 
13 Clownz On Velvet
14 Frogs With Dirty Little Lips

Sonny & Cher - This Good Earth (1970)

As 1967 became 1968, with two hit records and one flop movie, 'Good Times', representing Sonny & Cher's accomplishments for the year, Sonny Bono decided that movie stardom was the obvious future for Cher, with himself as auteur. As he threw himself into the film 'Chastity', recording output dwindled, with the duo cutting just two tracks in 1968. The first, 'Circus' was Bono's dump on psychedelic culture, with an atomic explosion for the record's finale, while the brassy 'You Gotta Have A Thing Of Your Own' was an improvement, but did no better in the charts than 'Circus'. As a business plan, there's some wisdom in diversifying into movies and general entertainment, and Bono was correct about Cher's potential as a superstar, but he bowdlerized the script of 'Chastity' to suit his opinions about modern girls, and despite some praise for Cher's acting, the resulting film was a flop. 1969 began tenuously, with Cher migrating to Atco as a solo artist with hopes of a musical revival, and she was taken to Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, with an album green-lighted for an April release. Sonny & Cher's next single, the passably commercial duet 'You're A Friend Of Mine', failed to chart, and featured a solo Bono song on the flip, and to finalize their contract with Atco, Sonny & Cher once again reunited at Gold Star studios in early 1970 for 'Get It Together', which followed their last few singles in failing to bother the charts. Rumour has it that around this time Bono wanted to create an album which would repeat the success of 1965's 'Look At Us', and they decided to call it 'This Good Earth'. It was planned to be released after 1967's 'In Case You're In Love' album, maybe in 1970 or 1971, but their new record label Kapp Records issued 'Sonny & Cher Live' in 1971 instead, followed by 'All I Ever Need Is You' later the same year, and 'This Good Earth' was quietly forgotten. We know the names of six of the possible tracks, most of which were released as singles, and by adding a couple of stand-alone single releases from 1967, and some contemporary b-sides we have enough material to put together an approximation of what this album could have sounded like.   

Track listing

01 Circus  
02 You're A Friend Of Mine  
03 You Gotta Have A Thing Of Your Own  
04 Get It Together 
05 Hold You Tighter  
06 You And Me
07 Good Combination
08 I Would Marry You Today
09 She's No Better Than Me 
10 Just A Little
11 Gentle Foe
12 Plastic Man

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982) **FINAL UPGRADE **

I can't seem to leave this post alone, and although I was 95% happy with what I'd done, I still felt that 'My Father's House' could be better, and so I listened to every version that I could find on Youtube until I found one from East Rutherford in 1984 which not only had an introduction, but was also superb sound quality. So in what I hope is the final upgrade to this post, here is the definitive version of 'My Father's House' to slot into your album. As before, both Soulseek and the main download have been updated, and the link for the single track is in the comments.    

I was quite pleased with how the two live recordings from the recent U2 post turned out after I removed the crowd noise to make them sound more like studio recordings, and it occurred to me that Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska' could do with the same attention. The original post was a perfectly valid idea, in making it sound like a complete live concert using the same running order as the original acoustic album, but what we really wanted to hear was a studio quality version of this legendary album. Once I'd updated the first track I was astounded at the difference that it made, as when the song fades at the end and there is no cheering it really does sound like a studio recording, and so the rest of the tracks soon followed, and we now have as close to a true electric 'Nebraska' as I think we'll ever get. I've used the same live recordings as the original post, apart from a cleaner version of 'My Father's House', as they are generally regarded as the best electric versions of the songs, and I've just tweaked a couple of them to improve introductions, or to EQ them to match the other tracks, so give this a try and see what a real electric version of 'Nebraska' could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Nebraska

02 Atlantic City

03 Mansion On The Hill

04 Johnny 99

05 Highway Patrolman

06 State Trooper

07 Used Cars

08 Open All Night

09 My Father's House

10 Reason To Believe

I've left the original post in the links and on Soulseek, but renamed it 'Electric Nebraska Live', so that you can still download that if you don't already have it. 

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')

Morrissey - Bonfire Of Teenagers (2023) **UPGRADE**

Following my upgrade of Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska', another post that consisted of mostly live recordings was my reconstruction of Morrissey's abandoned 2023 album 'Bonfire Of Teenagers'. Since first posting this in August 2024, Morrissey has now performed another of the missing tracks from it in concert, so we now have eight of the proposed songs in some form or another, and as before, I've replace two of the missing songs with ones from his other unreleased album 'Without Music The World Dies'. The main difference between this upgrade and 'Electric Nebraska' is that I've been able to source much cleaner versions of the live performances, and so as this a real upgrade on the version I posted last year, I've replaced that version with this one, as no-one should need the old one when they can have this.   

Track listing

01 I Am Veronica  
02 Rebels Without Applause
03 Kerouac's Crack  
04 Without Music The World Dies  
05 I Live In Oblivion  
06 Bonfire Of Teenagers  
07 Notre Dame  
08 I Ex-Love You    
09 Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings  
10 Saint In A Stained Glass Window

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982) **UPGRADE**

I was quite pleased with how the two live recordings from the recent U2 post turned out after I removed the crowd noise to make them sound more like studio recordings, and it occurred to me that Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska' could do with the same attention. The original post was a perfectly valid idea, in making it sound like a complete live concert using the same running order as the original acoustic album, but what we really wanted to hear was a studio quality version of this legendary album. Once I'd updated the first track I was astounded at the difference that it made, as when the song fades at the end and there is no cheering it really does sound like a studio recording, and so the rest of the tracks soon followed, and we now have as close to a true electric 'Nebraska' as I think we'll ever get. I've used the same live recordings as the original post, apart from a cleaner version of 'My Father's House', as they are generally regarded as the best electric versions of the songs, and I've just tweaked a couple of them to improve introductions, or to EQ them to match the other tracks, so give this a try and see what a real electric version of 'Nebraska' could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Nebraska

02 Atlantic City

03 Mansion On The Hill

04 Johnny 99

05 Highway Patrolman

06 State Trooper

07 Used Cars

08 Open All Night

09 My Father's House

10 Reason To Believe

I've left the original post in the links and on Soulseek, but renamed it 'Electric Nebraska Live', so that you can still download that if you don't already have it. 

U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010)

In 2006 U2 began work on a new album with record producer Rick Rubin, but shelved most of the material from those sessions before beginning work with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in May 2007 in Fez, Morocco. The exotic musical influences that the group were exposed to in Fez inspired them to pursue a more experimental sound, but as the sessions unfolded, the band decided to scale back the extent of those pursuits. Having grown tired of writing in the first-person, Bono wrote his lyrics from the perspective of different characters, and recording continued at several studios in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland throughout December 2008. 'No Line On The Horizon' had been intended to be released in November, but after composing 50 to 60 songs, they delayed it to continue writing. Prior to the album's release, U2 claimed that their time in Fez, as well as Eno's and Lanois' involvement, had resulted in a more experimental record than their previous two albums, and when it appeared in February 2009 it received generally favourable reviews, although many critics noted that it was not as experimental as previously suggested. The album debuted at number one in 30 countries, but did not sell as well as anticipated, and after expressing disappointment over the relatively low sales of five million copies (!), the band discussed plans to release a meditative follow-up album, 'Songs Of Ascent', which would be a sister release to 'No Line On The Horizon', similar to 'Zooropa''s relationship to 'Achtung Baby'. 

In June 2009, Bono said that although nine tracks had been completed, the album would only be released if its quality surpassed that of 'No Line On The Horizon', with 'Every Breaking Wave' being mooted as the first single. Over time, the album continued to be delayed, and in April 2010 U2's manager confirmed that the album would not be finished by June, but indicated that a release "before the end of the year was increasingly likely". In October 2010, Bono stated that their new album would be produced by Danger Mouse, and that twelve songs had been completed, with the album having a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that 'Songs Of Ascent' was no longer the likely title. In the end the 'Songs Of Ascent' project was ultimately abandoned, and after numerous delays, U2 digitally released their thirteenth album, 'Songs Of Innocence', on 9 September 2014 in a surprise release. The band appeared the same day at an Apple Inc. product launch event to announce the album, and reveal it was being released to all iTunes Store customers at no cost, for which they were universally ridiculed. There are several tracks on 'Songs Of Innocence' that were originally slated to be part of 'Songs Of Ascent', such as the original version of 'Every Breaking Wave', which they also performed as a piano ballad. 'Mercy' was originally played live as 'Luckiest Man In The World', while 'Glastonbury' was a punchy rocker that was relatively stripped down, but later became reduced to just a bridge section on 'Volcano', and we also had the instrumental song 'Return Of The Stingray Guitar', which later morphed into the b-side 'Lucifer's Hands'. With these tracks as a starting point, and adding in some rare b-sides, film soundtracks and live recordings of songs that never made it into the studio, we can piece together a credible track-listing for what the album might have sounded like, and so here is U2's follow-up to 'No Line On The Horizon', which should have appeared in 2010.   

Track listing

01 Soon

02 North Star

03 Boy Falls From The Sky

04 Mercy

05 Return Of The Stingray Guitar

06 Are You Gonna Wait Forever

07 Glastonbury

08 Smile

09 Levitate

10 Every Breaking Wave

11 Winter

Screaming Lord Sutch - Jack The Ripper (1966)

David Edward Sutch was born in Kilburn, London, in 1940, losing his policeman father in the Blitz when he was only 10 months old. Being brought up by a devoted and resourceful mother, he left school at 15, running a window-cleaning business for several years before being bitten by the rock'n'roll bug in the late Fifties. Influenced by Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard at the Two I's coffee bar in Soho, but wanting to go even further, he formed the Raving Savages in 1960, and adopted the name Screaming Lord Sutch. In fact, most of his hollering-horror act was stolen lock, stock and barrel from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the American creator of 'I Put A Spell On You', right down to the entrance out of a coffin, though he replaced the voodoo mumbo-jumbo of Hawkins with very British Jack-the-Ripper references. Plagiarism notwithstanding, the Savages act, complete with axes and skulls, cage and loincloth, caused a storm on the London circuit, and came to the attention of the producer Joe Meek, who hooked up with Sutch and, the following year, produced ''Til The Following Night', which was released on the HMV label in 1961, backed with a rollocking version of Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly'. As their peak, The Savages included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Nick Simper on bass, and Nicky Hopkins or Freddie "Fingers" Lee on piano, alongside founding member Carlo Little on drums, but even though the Savages toured extensively in Britain and continental Europe, the music was always secondary to Sutch's stunts. During 'Jack the Ripper', the singer would stab the hapless pianists Hopkins or Lee (dressed as a prostitute) before flinging heart and liver (bought from the butchers) into the audience. 

Frustrated at the lack of airplay for novelty titles such as 'She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man', 'Monster In Black Tights' and 'Dracula's Daughter', Sutch decided to launch another attack on the media, and in 1963, taking advantage of John Profumo's resignation, he stood for the National Teenage Party in the subsequent by- election in Stratford-upon-Avon. He only won 209 votes and lost the first of many deposits, but a pattern was set for the next 35 years as Sutch and the Monster Raving Loony Party became a feature of every British election. On one US trip, Sutch had claimed to be "the sixth Earl of Harrow", and he eventually added the "Lord" to his name by deed poll in 1977. In 1969 he gathered together an impressive line-up to record his debut album, including Jimmy Page (who also produced the album) and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, guitarist Deniel Edwards and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little from The Savages also appeared, and 'Lord Sutch And Heavy Friends' was released in 1970, winning the accolade in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time. What he should have done is release his debut album some four years earlier, and made sure it included a selection of his novelty rockers and well-chosen covers, showing what The Savages could do when given free rein. Over the years, Screaming Lord Sutch has claimed to have influenced shock-rockers such as Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, the Tubes and Marilyn Manson, as well as the psychobilly sound of the Meteors, with whom he recorded in 1981, and his legacy will always be the horror-themed act that he put on in the 60's, so as a reminder of that, here is the album that he should have released in 1966. 

Track listing

01 Jack The Ripper
02 Come Back Baby
03 Dracula's Daughter
04 I'm A Hog For You 
05 Bye Bye Baby
06 The Cheat
07 Monster In Black Tights
08 'Til The Following Night
09 Good Golly Miss Molly
10 She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man
11 Don't You Just Know It
12 All Black And Hairy
13 You Don't Care
14 The Train Kept A' Rollin'

Diana Ross & The Supremes - Some Things You Never Get Used To (1968)

In May 1968 Diana Ross & The Supremes released the single 'Some Things You Never Get Used To' on the Motown label, but it stalled for three weeks at number 30 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart in July, and it became the lowest-charting Supremes single since 1963. This lack of success became the catalyst for Berry Gordy to revamp song-writing for The Supremes, since the loss of Motown's premier production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, which Gordy had assigned as the group's sole producers after the success of 'When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes'. Motown originally created an album to capitalize on the success of the single, but when it failed to hit the top of the charts the album was scrapped, and the single, plus a few other tracks, were included on the group's next official album, 'Love Child', in November 1968. The majority of the remaining songs remained unreleased until box sets and expanded re-issues began appearing some 20 years after they were recorded, and now here they are on the album which would have appeared if the title track had been more successful. Although 'You've Been So Wonderful To Me' appeared on the 'Love Child' album, I thought the strings were a bit obtrusive at the start so I've toned them down a bit, and because it was quite a short album I've added a couple of contemporary unreleased recordings to the end. 

Track listing

01 Some Things You Never Get Used To 
02 Heaven Must Have Sent You 
03 He's My Sunny Boy 
04 Come On And See Me 
05 Can I Get A Witness 
06 You've Been So Wonderful To Me 
07 My Guy 
08 It's Not Unusual 
09 Just A Little Misunderstanding
10 Uptight (Everything's Alright)
11 What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
12 Blowin' In The Wind 
13 Treat Me Nice John Henry
14 The Beginning Of The End Of Love

Rosie Ribbons - Misbehaving (2002)

Rosemary "Rosie" Ribbons was born on 22 July 1983 in Australia, with the family moving to Pontardawe near Swansea in 1987. Ribbons reportedly wanted to be a pop singer since she was eight years old, and was a big fan of Mariah Carey, who she learned to mimic in her singing, and she also started to write her own songs. During her final school year she lost interest, however, and ended up working in a supermarket, and it was when she was bored with that career that she auditioned for ITV1's talent show Pop Idol. She initially performed her own composition called 'Colours' to judges Simon Cowell, Nicki Chapman, Neil Fox and record producer Pete Waterman, and although impressed with her vocal, Cowell suggested that she pick a more familiar song. Taking his advice, Ribbons then wowed the panel with a rendition of 'Hero' by Mariah Carey, a performance that moved Waterman to tears. Ribbons progressed through the competition and made the top 50, winning her heat by a landslide, but although she was named amongst the favourites to win, she was voted out by viewers a few weeks before Will Young was crowned winner on 9 February 2002, ultimately finishing in 6th place. Although Ribbons did not win Pop Idol, Telstar Records signed her to a five-album deal, reportedly worth £1million, and after supporting Liberty X on tour, her first two singles 'Blink' and her cover of Jessica Simpson's 'A Little Bit' were both UK top 20 hits. 

However, as 'A Little Bit' only reached number 19, Telstar considered this a disappointing chart position, and so they went to work on getting ready to release the third single only a few weeks later. Initially they had chosen 'Good Thing' before deciding on a double A Side, featuring 'Good Thing' and 'Heaven', but after Ribbons had supported Blue on their 'One Love' Tour Telstar decided that a totally fresh, new track had to be released, and they wanted something that was guaranteed to succeed. They therefore put Ribbons back in the studio to record a modern-day remake of the Deee-Lite hit 'Groove Is In The Heart', at one point considering making it a double A-side with 'Naked'. Before any of this could happen, Telstar experienced financial problems and her contract was subsequently terminated before the third single or her album could be released. Originally to be called 'Levitate', promo copies titled 'Misbehaving' did surface under the title 'Misbehaving'. In 2007, now living in Dubbo, Australia, Ribbons auditioned for Australian Idol with another original song, 'Butterfly Wings', but this time the judges did not ask for a second, more familiar song, and she was accepted into the Top 100, and then went on to make the Top 24. In the fourth semi-finals on 29 August 2007 Ribbons sang R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts', but she didn't make the final 12, and so was eliminated from the competition. Ribbons returned to the UK after Australian Idol to perform and record new music, and in March 2012 she was the featured vocalist on the title track of the Alonestar EP 'Warrior', a release which also featured Ed Sheeran, who accompanies Ribbons on the track 'All Falls Down'. Telstar's back catalogue was eventually acquired by Phoenix Music International in 2018, and the album acquired a digital release, but no physical copies followed, and so here is that original 2002 debut by the Pop Idol finalist.   

Track listing

01 Good Thing
02 A Little Bit
03 Blink
04 Deadly Sin 
05 Heaven
06 Coming Up for Air
07 Trusted
08 No Space to Rent
09 Even Angels
10 Ain't That the Way
11 Colours

Dolby's Cube - May The Cube Be With You (1986)

Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson on 14 October 1958), came to prominence in the 1980's, releasing hit singles including 'She Blinded Me with Science' in 1982 and 'Hyperactive!' in 1984. He started his music career in the late 1970's, forming the Camera Club with Bruce Woolley, and after leaving them he joined Lene Lovich's band as keyboardist, and wrote her hit song 'New Toy'. In 1983, Dolby started collaborating with a number of artists in an occasional studio-based project called Dolby's Cube, which had no set line-up, and was essentially a forum for him to release material that was more dance-oriented. The first single released by Dolby's Cube was 1983's 'Get Out Of My Mix', followed by 'May The Cube Be With You', featuring George Clinton, in 1985, and work on the soundtrack to the film 'Howard The Duck' in 1986. For the soundtrack, Dolby wrote the film's songs, and chose the members of the on-screen rock band Cherry Bomb, with actress Lea Thompson performing her own vocals for the role of lead singer in the group, although she states that the filmmakers were unsure as to whether they would keep her vocals in the final film. Thompson was required to learn choreography with the band and record the songs so they could be synchronized during filming, and the final sequence, in which Cherry Bomb perform the film's title song, was shot in front of a live audience at The Warfield in San Francisco. Collaborators in Dolby's Cube at various junctures included former band-mate Lene Lovich, George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic, Francois Kevorkian, and Lea Thompson, with Joe Walsh, Stevie Wonder and The Brecker Brothers also making an appearance on some of the recordings. 

Track listing

01 Get Out Of My Mix>
02 Get On Out Of My Mix
03 Hunger City
04 May The Cube Be With You (3D Mix)
05 Howard The Duck
06 Googooplexus - Club Creature Caviar
07 Don't Turn Away
08 It Don't Come Cheap
09 I'm On My Way

Featuring:
03 Lea Thompson
04 George Clinton, Lene Lovich, The Brecker Brothers
05 Lea Thompson, Joe Walsh
06 George Clinton, Lene Lovich, The Brecker Brothers
07 Stevie Wonder
08 Lea Thompson, Joe Walsh
09 Tata Vega

The Ivy League - Tomorrow Is Another Day (1967)

John "Carter" Shakespeare and Kenneth "Lewis" Hawker were both from Birmingham, and came down to London to make a name for themselves in the music industry. They were offered a deal by manager Terry Kennedy, and moved with him to Southern music at 5 Denmark Street. He re-christened them Carter & Lewis, and produced the seven singles they cut for Piccadilly, Ember and Oriole between 1961 and 1964 under the name Carter-Lewis And The Southerners. They had developed a close harmony style similar to the Everly Brothers, and were soon established as a popular radio team, appearing on BBC Light Programme shows 'Saturday Club' and 'Easy Beat'. The group became a vehicle for publishing the songs that stemmed from the Carter-Lewis partnership, and in summer 1964 Carter and Lewis disbanded The Southerners in order to concentrate on writing and doing sessions. By July 1964, they expanded to a trio, by teaming up with another session singer and songwriter, Brian Pugh aka "Perry Ford". Pugh was also a songwriter, penning hits for Adam Faith with 'Someone Else's Baby', and The Fortunes' 'Caroline', and was running a studio for Reg Calvert in Denmark Street when Carter and Lewis approached him. The trio developed a clear liking for high-falsetto vocals, being influenced by The Four Freshmen and The Beach Boys, and they christened themselves The Ivy League. They started out providing backing vocals on other artists' sessions, such as Sandy Shaw's 'Always Something There To Remind Me', Tom Jones' 'It’s Not Unusual', and The Who's 'Can't Explain', but after deciding to record their own music they signed to Pye's Piccadilly subsidiary. 

Their debut single failed to chart, but the follow-up 'Funny How Love Can Be' crashed into the UK Top 10, prompting the need to form a backing group and go out on tour. Micky Keene and Dave Wintour left The Tony Colton’s Crawdaddies to become The Ivy League backing band, and were joined by keyboardist Mike O'Neill and drummer Clem Cattini. The original trio released a few more singles, but only managed to release one full-length album, 'This Is The Ivy League', as because they preferring writing and producing to touring, Carter and Lewis pulled out of the band, being replaced by Tony Burrows (ex-Kestrels) and Neil Landon (ex-Burnetts). At this time, the band cut the best record 'My World Fell Down', a John Carter/Geoff Stephens composition which Gary Usher and LA group Sagittarius turn into a masterpiece in 1967. The Ivy League toured the UK and Europe unflaggingly throughout 1966 with new backing band The Jaybirds, who later found success as Ten Years After. In the summer of 1967 Carter and Lewis recorded a song they wrote to articulate the sentiments of the flower-power movement, releasing 'Let's Go To San Francisco' under the name The Flowerpot Men', and as there was no real group of this name, they rented out the band name to Tony Burrows, who put together a tour ensemble to satisfy the popular demand generated by the single, which made number4 in the UK charts in September 1967. Although The Ivy League was basically a different group from 1966 onwards, Carter, Lewis and Ford continued to write all their songs, and by the end of 1967 they had released enough material to make up a second album, but as they broke up before that could happen, here is what their sophomore record could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Running Round In Circles
02 One Day
03 When You're Young
04 Suddenly Things
05 Our Love Is Slipping Away
06 Rain Rain Go Away
07 My World Fell Down
08 Four And Twenty Hours
09 Arrivederci Baby
10 Tomorrow Is Another Day
11 Willow Tree
12 I Could Make You Fall In Love
13 Tossing And Turning
14 Thank You For Loving Me
15 In The Not Too Distant Future