1981 was a busy year for Talking Heads solo projects, following the high-profile ‘Remain in Light’ successes. David Byrne managed to bring two separate projects (one with Brian Eno of course) to light, while The Tom Tom Club scored the quirkiest of the hits. Perhaps more in the shadows, certainly in terms of sales and profile, was Jerry Harrison, who by the year end had brought out his first solo album. ‘The Red and The Black’. But while it might not have been a hit, it certainly did point towards the sound that Talking Heads would adopt by 1983’s ‘Speaking In Tongues’.
^ Jerry Harrison ‘The Red and The Black’ front cover^ Jerry Harrison ‘The Red and The Black’ back cover
Sometime after Davey Henderson had ceased on his mission to lubricate your living room and the Fire Engines had stalled, he ponied up with new outfit, ‘Win’, which I rank in my top three Scandalously Neglected Acts Of The ’80s and who also hold the dubious accolade of being The Band I Spent The Most Money On A Single CD On for when I simply, positively, definitely, absolutely had to scratch that materialistic itch and possess the shiny, silvery disc of ‘Uh! Tears Baby’. If you are unfamiliar with Win (and it would not be difficult, regardless of their swagger, given the lack of commercial success they enjoyed despite the music machinery’s best efforts to Re-issue Till We Got The Message And Bought The Damn Thing with ‘You’ve Got The Power’), their confections of delicious, sugar-thrill, polished to perfection ramshackle pop, wrapped in the then relatively fresh packaging garb of über-corporate irony, certainly appealed to yours truly, if not the greater populace. But before producer David Motion had brought the same gleaming machine-finish that he had squeezed and primped Strawberry Switchblade into for Win’s ‘Shampoo Tears’, ‘Super Popoid Groove’, et al, their first release was the rougher-cut ‘Unamerican Broadcasting’. And this short but sugary sweet post shines a light on the curious custom sleeve promo copy I came by back in the day in the second-hand bins and which, until this last weekend, I had never seen another copy of knocking around.
^ Win \’Unamerican Broadcasting\’ custom promo 12 inch single front sleeve design
The original 1996 UK edition of Brian Eno’s published diaries, essays, short stories and correspondence, ‘A Year With Swollen Appendices’, was in book only format, with no musical accompaniment – the French edition, ‘Une Année aux Appendices Gonflés’, appeared a couple of years on in 1998 and came replete with an exclusive CD accompaniment in the shape of ‘A Year’. I was fortunate enough to be in Paris in December of 1998 and chanced upon this while browsing through a branch of the wonderful FNAC chain and swiftly handed my Francs to the cashier and exited with this lovely item.
^ Brian Eno ‘A Year…’ French edition book and CD (fronts)
The CD runs for just under 30 minutes and its six tracks are unavailable on any other releases, as far as I’m aware.
Definitely one for the the dedicated Eno fan in search of a small object of desire, this 3″ CD single was issued in 1989 on the then popular smaller CD format. The front cover features a still from the opening credits of the UK programme ‘Arena’ from the BBC, which had used the title track from Eno’s ‘Another Green World’. Quite why it was seen fit to bash this out on a CD single I can’t recall, one imagines that the record buying public weren’t champing at the bit for such a release – nevertheless, it has its charms.
^ Brian Eno ‘Another Green World’ 3” CD single front cover
A little known Scottish band, was aware of them at the time but never heard them. Through the delights of vinyl blogs I have since become acquainted with their limited output and have liked what I have heard. One can imagine that they possibly got sucked up and spat out by the EMI corporate machine looking for the Next Big Thing. Only one album and three singles (one post-EMI) saw light of day, none of which have ever seen a subsequent CD release as far as I’m aware.
^ Berlin Blondes ‘Science’ Japanese single picture insert – front
This particular number is a Japanese promo edition of their first single, ‘Science’. The album and first two single were produced by Mike Thorne, more famously associated beforehand with Wire and subsequently with Soft Cell. Musically, this might bridge both worlds, to some extent, with the requisite angular guitar and a very prominent bass to the fore, but plenty of synthesizer on board to colour the sound along with drum machines. Well worth seeking out if you have a penchant for early 80s pop oddness, this contrasts well with a lot of other material from the same era. Continue reading “Berlin Blondes, ‘Science’ Japanese 7″ promo single (EMI, EMS 17031, 1980)”
