Category: Versions, versions

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Japan – ‘Nightporter’ remix single, 1982

UK 7″ single (Virgin, VS 554), 1982
A: ‘Nightporter’ (Remix) (5’02”) / B: ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ (Remix) (4’58”)

UK 12″ single (Virgin, VS 554-12), 1982
A: ‘Nightporter’ (Remix – Extended) (6’48”) / B: ‘Methods of Dance’ (6’53”)

UK 7″ promo DJ edit single (Virgin, VDJ554), 1982
A: ‘Nightporter’ (Remix – Edit) (3’38”) / B: ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ (Remix) (4’58”)

Japan 'Nightporter' UK 7 inch single sleeve
^ Japan ‘Nightporter’ UK 7 inch single sleeve

Japan were rich pickings for collectors in their heyday, due to the large amount of single releases that competing record labels issued to try and capitalise on the market that existed for a band who’s time had finally come, with the rise of all things New Romantic. Yet, as many flopped as would succeed. The band had been signed to the German label Ariola-Hansa and put out three albums and a handful of accompanying, and non-LP, singles between 1978 and the start of 1980, only to jump ship to Virgin, where a further two studio LPs would see a release. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to what hit and what didn’t. ‘Life In Tokyo’, easily one of the bands most commercial efforts was released and re-released several times over and never became anything more than a minor hit in the lower reaches of the Top 40 of the day, while the genuinely eerie sounding ‘Ghosts’ which you would never imagine as single material proved to be the bands biggest ever hit single, when it peaked at number 5 in the Top 40 in early 1982.

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Hard Corps ‘To Breathe’ unreleased UK 7″ (Sonoscope/Polydor, HARD 2, 1985)

Hard Corps 'To Breathe' UK 7
^ Hard Corps ‘To Breathe’ UK 7″ sleeve design – front

Some while back I posted about the West German 12″ single of ‘To Breathe‘, with a promise to blog on the UK edition too sometime. This time round the focus is the UK 7″ single. To recap, ‘To Breathe’ (a re-recording of the track ‘Respirer’ which was one side of their first, self-released single along with ‘Dirty’ in 1984) should have been the second single from Hard Corps and their tenure with Polydor (via the band’s own ‘Sonoscope’ imprint), the first being ‘Je Suis Passée’. But something clearly went wrong with the band/label relationship, as the single never made it to the shops. Clearly some copies did leak out though, this UK 7″ edition amongst them. I came by it at a record fair many years back – it cost a fair bit really, but it was good to finally see a copy as up till then I had only come by a 12″ pre-release promo copy (which never came with a picture sleeve). There is also a UK 12″ of the ‘standard’ release, but I have never come across one of those on my travels as yet. Continue reading “Hard Corps ‘To Breathe’ unreleased UK 7″ (Sonoscope/Polydor, HARD 2, 1985)”

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The Cure ‘Seventeen Seconds’ UK Cassette (Fiction, FIXC004, 1980)

In selecting the items that appear on this blog, there’s no particular rhyme or reason. Sometimes I’ll choose to focus on genuinely rare and elusive items, other times go into almost forensic detail in displaying the contents of a particular re-issue or special edition – and on occasions like this, choose something that is not especially rare or unique but just has a little something odd from the more common release.

Cassettes are often one of those things that people could care less for. And with good reason – for a good long while they were (in the UK at any rate) very much the poor relation of the format family – often more expensive than the vinyl LP, but coming with only a a bare minimum of packaging – lyrics? inner sleeve? picture label? poster? gatefold? Nahh… just a simple J-card inlay with nary so much as any picture apart from the front. And more often than not hissy in the sound quality department. Little wonder they had their detractors.

This particular Cure cassette is a prime example of the bare minimum of packaging. (Not, I hasten to add, that the original vinyl LP pushed the boat out either, it didn’t even come with an inner lyric sleeve initially.) To be fair though, cassettes did have their moment in the sun for a period in the ’80s with the advent of the Walkman – then fold-out lyrics inserts, chrome quality and extra tracks would regularly be added as enticements.

The Cure 'Seventeen Seconds' cassette
^ The Cure ‘Seventeen Seconds’ cassette

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Propaganda – ‘(The Beta Wrap Around of) P: Machinery’ UK 7″ single (ZTT, ZTAS21, 1985)

One of my own personal favourite mixes of a track from the meisterwerk that is ‘A Secret Wish’, this second release of ‘P: Machinery’ appeared at the tail of 1985, Propaganda (in their live incarnation) having toured with their ‘Outside World’ live shows. Sadly, it fared no better with chart success than had the first release. For me, this 7″ mix had a darker feel, perhaps due to the more ominous intro, the easiest to spot change from the original version, while the end brass work out repeats to fade rather than slamming to a dead halt, another easy recognition.

Front cover/label design
^ Front cover/label design

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Talking Heads – ‘Houses in Motion’ UK 12″ single (Sire, SIR4050T, 1981)

As a fan of long standing, I find it puzzling that plenty of Talking Heads versions which only ever appeared on singles have never appeared on CD to this day. Puzzling because they were a pretty heavyweight band and were on major labels, not some obscure little indie with no budget to properly archive and store their back catalogue. I’ll no doubt visit a few of the others at some point, but to kick-off with, amongst these as yet unissued on CD versions is the ‘Special Re-Mixed Version’ of ‘Houses in Motion’ which appeared as the A side of the second single to be lifted from the ‘Remain in Light’ album in the UK in May 1981.

Talking Heads 'Houses In Motion' UK 12 inch single sleeve (front)
^ Talking Heads ‘Houses In Motion’ UK 12 inch single sleeve (front)

Now, at the time, I always thought it seemed a rather ambitious follow-up to the unexpected hit that was ‘Once In A Lifetime’, and sure enough its sly, subliminal funk didn’t really trouble the charts at all. On first listen, the single remix doesn’t seem all that radically different from the album version. The souped-up bass guitar thumps during the chorus the most ear-grabbing alteration to me, along with Brian Eno’s chorus vocals turned down in the mix and some editing scissors taken to Jon Hassell’s trumpet to rein in its pyrotechnics somewhat, while clocking in around the 3 minute 45 secs mark it is somewhat shorter than the album version. But, most differently of all, there is an extra verse added! “Turn myself around, I’m sinking backwards and forwards, I’m moving twice as much, as I was before, I will be digging, at the centre of the Earth, I’ll be down in there, moving in a room”. Oddly enough, the lyrics are to be found on the lyric sheet for ‘Remain In Light’, even though they don’t appear on the album recording. As far as I’m aware, this remix has never appeared on CD format to date. (Though please feel free to get in touch if I’m off the mark here, I’d love to be wrong about this!) Continue reading “Talking Heads – ‘Houses in Motion’ UK 12″ single (Sire, SIR4050T, 1981)”