Cherry Red | UK | 2xCD | 2020 | QCDBRED794

Associates: Perhaps DLX RM – UK – 2xCD [2020]
Disc 1: Perhaps + Bonus Tracks

1. Those First Impressions
2. Waiting For The Loveboat
3. Perhaps
4. Schampout
5. Helicopter Helicopter
6. Breakfast
7. Thirteen Feelings
8. The Stranger In Your Voice
9. The Best Of You
10. Don’t Give Me That I Told You So Look
11. Perhaps [Instrumental]
12. Breakfast Alone [Instrumental]
13. Thirteen Feelings [Instrumental]
14. The Stranger In Your Voice [Instrumental]

Disc 2: Bonus Tracks

1. Those First Impressions [Extended Version] 
2. Waiting For The Loveboat [Single Version]
3. Waiting For The Loveboat [Extended Version] 
4. Waiting For The Loveboat [Slight Return
5. Perhaps Perhaps 
6. Schampout [Edit] 
7. Breakfast [Single Version]
8. Breakfast [Edit]
9. Kites
10. Take Me To The Girl [Single Version]
11. Take Me To The Girl [12” Mix]
12. Take Me To The Girl [Instrumental]
13. The Girl That Took Me 

Warner Strategic Marketing ‎| UK | 2xCD | 8573-88496-2 | 2002

Back in 2016 I wrote about the DLX RMs of the first three Associates albums that were on my want list. [sad fact – they still are!] At the time the earlier material was more well established with “Sulk” actually being a successful album. “Perhaps” had only been released as a 2xCD with the long unreleased “Glamour Chase” album in a 2xCD package with “O-card” as seen at left. There were three tracks of bonus material added to “Perhaps” with “In Windows All,” “Heaven’s Blue,” and “Take Me To The Girl” added to the first disc. At the time, it made sense that the unsuccessful “Perhaps” would be bundled with its stillborn followup. But after the 2xCDs of “The Affectionate Punch,” “Fourth Drawer Down,” and “Sulk” in 2006, the stakes were upped for “Perhaps” to also get such a treatment and I never even noticed it at the time! Shocking.

How hard was it for you to buy UK cassettes from the 80s in the 90s… in America?

It’s happened now with Cherry Red offering a 2xCD DLX RM of “Perhaps” with most, but not all, of the requisite rarities as bonus tracks. Fortunately, the first disc, while being of a 52 minute album of considerable length, still managed to include the four bonus cassette only bonus tracks of its original 1984 issue. These were instrumental versions of: “Perhaps,” “Breakfast,” “Thirteen Feelings,” and “The Stranger In Your Voice.” Only the instro version of “Breakfast” [known as “Breakfast Alone”] had seen action as a B-side to the “Breakfast” single elsewhere. So it has the all-important cassette-only tracks, but what else is coming our way in January?

The first 12″ single

The first single was “Waiting For the Loveboat.” The UK 12″ came in two variants. The first had the following tracks.

A] “Waiting For The Loveboat” [Extended Version]
B] “Schampout” [Extended Version]

The nearly nine minute A-side was even longer than the 6:55 LP version by way of an nerve-shredding extended coda almost psychotic in its intensity. “Schampout” was the “extended version” B-side but that only meant that it was the full length LP version. It was not an extended remix.

The alternate 12″

The second version was identical except for a sticker on the cover and an extra song before “Schampout” on the B-side of the disc.

A] “Waiting For The Loveboat” [Extended Version]
B] “Waiting For The Love Boat” [Peel Session]
B] “Schampout” [Extended Version]

Here listeners got the very early “Waiting For The Loveboat” (Peel Session) arrangement where the song was radically different with full Alan Rankine involvement before the band fissured.

the 2nd single

The next single had the following tracks in only one variant. The 7″ had an edit of the A-side [available here].

A] “Those First Impressions” [Extended Version]
B] “Thirteen Feelings”

“Thirteen Feelings” was a fantastic deep cut prodded into B-side status here. The extended A-side was not as mandatory as the earlier sings had been.

The third single

The lush ballad, “Breakfast” was a Martin Rushent production with the following tracks on the 12″ single.

A] “Breakfast” 5:34
B] “Breakfast Alone”
B] “Kites”

Of particular interest was the 2nd Associates version of “Kites” with Billy MacKenzie singing that had previously been a 39 Lyon Street version in 1981 with Christine Beveridge taking lead [for contractual purposes].

The fourth single was non-LP

A final single was issued after the album was released and was also included here. “Take Me To The Girl” existed in two distinct variants. First the 12″ single.

A] “Take Me To The Girl” [Extended Version]
B] “The Girl That Took Me”
B] “Perhaps Perhaps”
B] “Take Me To The Girl” [Instrumental]

All of these tracks are accounted on the new CD for but things vary on the 10″ single also available in a very different cover design.

The only Associates 10″

A] “Take Me To The Girl”
A] “Perhaps ”
B] “God Bless The Child” [Live At Ronnie Scott’s]
B] “Dogs In The Wild” [Live At Ronnie Scott’s]
B] “The Boy That Santa Claus Forgot” [Live At Ronnie Scott’s]

Those are all of the 12″/10″ single tracks. The 7″ers had edits, some of which will be included here, but the tracks in blue are what is missing from the new edition. Cherry Red had indicated that they could not source masters for all of the cuts. Not mastering from vinyl is admirable. With the length of the album, I can’t imagine that there was enough space on a second disc and the remainder of the first to include everything. But there is more than enough here to add this to the nearly infinite want list. I have bought every Associates/MacKenzie reissue following his sad death in 1997 so I’m not about to stop now!

Seeing as this was Cherry Red, the resulting discs will retail for £10.95 [$14.18, today] so I’m down with that. It will be issued on January 31st, 2020. Preorder below.

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