Celebrating vinyl / CD / cassette / memorabilia releases of musical gems and curiosities from the punk era onwards
The third in a series looking at US albums compiled by cherry-picking a couple of already released UK albums to create something else – we started with O.M.D. by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, then on to Heaven 17 – this time it’s yet another Virgin records act and again a self-titled compilation, with Japan.
Continue reading “Japan ‘Japan’ US compilation album (Virgin/Epic ARE 37914, 1982)”
The second in a brief series focusing on US albums compiled by cherry-picking a couple of already released UK albums to create something else – last time out it was O.M.D. by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, this time it’s the turn of Heaven 17. Released in America and in Europe, this release pulled together much of the band’s debut album, ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ along with a couple of tracks that would shortly thereafter be included on the second album, ‘The Luxury Gap’, plus the early single ‘I’m Your Money’. There was no UK equivalent release for this album, so I came to it many years later as one of those interesting regional curiosities that the the record industry of the time would throw up, and which were exotic manna for collectors such as I.
Continue reading “Heaven 17 ‘Heaven 17’ US compilation album (Arista AL6606, 1983)”
Quite a few of my favourite bands were to see their albums sliced and diced and re-packaged for overseas markets. With no UK equivalent, these were interesting regional curiosities that the record industry of the time would throw up and were exotic manna for collectors such as I. Released in America only, this compilation is one such example, others being similar releases by Japan and Heaven 17. ‘O.M.D.’ pulled together much of the band’s debut, self-titled, album and their second, ‘Organisation’.
His contract with Virgin coming to an end, the year 2000 saw an attractive and interesting selection of Sylvian’s work pulled together as the ‘Everything and Nothing’ compilation CD. The selections reached back to the 1980 period with Japan through to previously unreleased works that were leftovers from the previous year’s ‘Dead Bees On A Cake’ album, finished off in 2000. The album kicked off with one such leftover, ‘The Scent Of Magnolia’. This featured promo CD contains a unique 3’28” ‘Radio Edit’ of that song.
Tracklisting:
‘Extended Ultravox’ is a 1998 UK released CD that was the first such compilation to bring together some of the wonderful Ultravox 12″ A side single mixes to CD format. It has since been superseded by the later ‘Extended’ release from 2018, which somewhat broadened the scope of what to compile.
Continue reading “Ultravox – ‘Extended Ultravox’ UK CD (EMI Gold 7243 4 93465 2 9, 1998)”