One of my all time favourite singles/EPs, this release just has so much going for it on many, levels. First off, the A side is a great song – and this somewhat meatier and beatier ‘rock’ arrangement is significantly different from the rhythm-machine-driven more minimal album version, by comparison. Secondly, the three extra tracks spread across the double-pack single are all top drawer Bill Nelson work and could equally have deserved a place on the contemporary ‘The Love That Whirls’ album, no question about it. Thirdly, that sleeve design – elegantly minimal, the early ’80s aesthetics that Bill exhibited were highly influential and this simple yet stylish choice of colourways was a winner.
Poring over the credits for both this single and the ‘The Love That Whirls’ album give some details away. On the single, the A side version of ‘Eros Arriving’ is credited as being produced by Chris Hughes and Bill Nelson and all instruments played by Bill Nelson with the exception of drums, played by Merrick. For the uninitiated, Chris Hughes and Merrick are on and the same person – Merrick the nom de plume of Chris Hughes as of one of the Adam and the Ants drummers of 1980-1981. And Chris Hughes more famously associated as producer and band member of Tears For Fears. Another name cropping up in those credits is Dave Bates, long-time A&R man at the Phonogram label and again a major crossover with Tears For Fears, having discovered and been long involved behind the scenes with them. Bates I believe was the A&R connection that go Bill Nelson on Mercury in 1981 and rescued ‘Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam’ from its fate as the EMI-scrapped second Red Noise album. The Adam and the Ants connection doesn’t just stop with Chris Hughes/Merrick though – ‘Haunting In My Head’ features Bogdan Wiczling on drums, originally with the sadly neglected Fingerprintz, he would go on to join as drummer with Adam Ant in 1982 through 1985.
Tracklist:
Record One:
- Eros Arriving (Single Version)
- Haunting In My Head
Record Two:
- He And Sleep Were Brothers
- Flesh
Tracking all of these tracks down on CD format isn’t straightforward. The single version of ‘Eros Arriving’ only appears to have been released on the CD versions of the ‘Two Fold Aspect Of Everything’ compilation CDs (which differ in track selection quite significantly between the UK Cocteau and US Enigma label releases) – both long out of print and difficult to find nowadays. A few years back there was a compilation album curated by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne released by the UK Supermarket Sainsbury’s when vinyl was flavour of the month, titled ‘Videosyncratic (A Taste Of Synth Pop)’ and it listed ‘Eros Arriving (Single Version)’ in the sleeve note credits – but, its the regular album version that is included on the CD.
The three tracks from the double-pack single were all included on the most recent re-issue of ‘The Love That Whirls’ in 2005 and two of the tracks had also been included on the first CD re-issues of the album in the 1980s. All four tracks from the double-pack single were included on the ‘The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything’ compilation. A deep-dive look at the CD life of ‘The Love That Whirls’ was posted some while ago, so feel free to swot up in more detail there…
I assume that ‘Eros Arriving’ was given the additional polish of a Chris Hughes production as a push to give it a hit single status, though sadly it had only modest chart success back in the day.
The double-pack 7″ comes in a blue and silver colourway, the standard single disc 7″ in a red and silver colourway. The stylish and minimally retro-futuristic ‘Guitar’ illustration would also be made available on t-shirt designs from Bill’s ‘Acquitted By Mirrors’ fan club in time.
Back to the sleeve-note details and this time for ‘The Love That Whirls’ – Bill’s notes reveal that the material for the album was recorded at intervals between April and November of 1981 – and that what was released on the album comprised only half of the recordings made. It seems a fair assumption that three tracks on the double-pack and the two tracks from the B side of the subsequent ‘Flaming Desire’ single go a good way to making up the remaining material that Nelson also noted would “hopefully appear in various forms throughout the coming months” – but not quite half, so I wonder what other tracks were from the same sessions and whether or not everything got released in the end, or not.
The double-pack 7″ comes in a blue and silver colourway, the standard single disc 7″ in a red and silver colourway. The stylish and minimally retro-futuristic ‘Guitar’ illustration would also be made available on t-shirt designs from Bill’s ‘Acquited By Mirrors’ fan club in time.
Red and blue was also used for the variations of the second single to be lifted from ‘The Love That Whirls’, namely the ‘Flaming Desire’ singe – again, should your interest be whetted, a more detailed look at the version craziness of this single can be found in a previous post.
I once saw this in a Georgetown [Washington D.C.] record store in the 2×7″ version when I was shopping the first time with my friend Echorich. I had found and pulled the “Eros Arriving” single on the face of it since I had never seen a copy before, though I had all of the tracks on the “Two Fold Aspect Of Everything” LP and then on various CDs. But Echorich expressed an interest in it so I ceded it to him. I appreciated the metallic silver ink, but it was not strictly necessary to own. But some records you just buy on principle. It’s interesting in an adjacent but unrelated fashion that every recording I ever had of “Hope For The Heartbeat [remix]” on vinyl and CD had what sounded like an editing glitch in it. I assumed the master that Bill had was compromised somehow.
I’m going to have to do a close listen on the ‘Hope For The Heartbeat’ remix now, not spotted that before now. ‘The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything’ was a godsend of a compilation, when it comes to the CD edition, the US Enigma issue edges the UK issue in its selection.