To this day I still don’t know what the story is behind this single and why it was never properly released, seemingly withdrawn at the last minute back in late 1985 – no doubt why it is extremely difficult to come by.
This particular copy is the West German 12″ edition. The tracks on this 12″ are;
To Breathe (Extended Version) (5.46)
Metal And Flesh (5.30)
To Breathe (Instrumental) (3.50) Continue reading “Hard Corps ‘To Breathe’ West German 12″ (Polydor/Metronome, 883-413-1), 1985”
A curiosity, to be sure. ‘Days In Europa’ has a bit of version history to it from not long after its first release. Originally issued on vinyl in late 1979 it was re-issued in remixed form and a new sleeve design within six months! The original version was produced by Bill Nelson and came in a sleeve design copied from a magazine cover (Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung) from the time of the 1936 German Olympics, the Skids appropriation of which came in for some flak about flirting with Nazi imagery. The remixed version changed the sleeve design radically (though the original design makes a cameo appearance as a painting on the wall), removed one song (‘Pros And Cons’) and replaced it with an earlier single, ‘Masquerade’, and generally fiddled about with the sound somewhat. I have to say that I much prefer the original Bill Nelson production.
This Japanese CD dates from 1991 and was the first appearance on CD for the album. On first look you’d expect it to be the remixed version from 1980, since that is the sleeve design (and tracklisting!) that the CD features. It is actually the 1979 Bill Nelson produced version included in the CD however and only comes with the ten tracks from the original issue. Therefore, despite the fact that the sleeve design lists ‘Masquerade’ as one of the songs, you won’t find it on there and ‘Pros and Cons’ is included instead. Continue reading “Skids: ‘Days In Europa’ Jap promo CD (Virgin VJCP-23105)”
