Little, Brown/Constable | UK | hardcover | 352 pp. | ISBN: 9781408720899S
I just got the email from the Simple Minds mothership minutes ago and I’m a little shocked at how reality has refused to bend to my expectations. I you can set the Wayback Machine for about five years ago, there was to be a Simple Minds book called “Book Of Brilliant Things.” Then it morphed into strictly a fan history of the band and not at all what I was expecting. Then the name changed to “The Heart Of the Crowd.” Cheeky of them to steal a crucial Magazine lyric but that band had already done their book and were not using it. Memo to self [and everyone reading this]: the 2nd edition of Helen Chase’s Magazine biography is out and I need to post on it!
Ultimately, “The Heart Of The Crowd” was a tough slog for this fan as it was 90% about the fans’ themselves and featured scant band input. When that book shifted title and emphasis, I famously declared “I’m certain that Jim Kerr will be writing his autobiography in the imminently coming years, and that it will be called “Book Of Brilliant Things.” As we see, not so much!
Meanwhile, Graeme Thomson wrote the book that I only bothered to rough draft with his “Themes For Great Cities: A New History of Simple Minds.” I’ve wanted that since it was announced in 2022 and last year, when in the UK, I made certain to buy a copy! But it’s still in the “to read” pile…along with a book by John Foxx! Now we hear that the Jim Kerr memoir has manifested and it’s not at all what I was expecting as I prepare my dish of crow.
The angle on this upcoming book is evidence of some intelligence behind the scenes since the most predictable thing in the world would have been Jim Kerr’s autobiography. Fortunately, that resulting book, coming our way was written by Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill… with Graeme Thomson in there adding his editorial sauce. The subtext of the book is the lifelong friendship between Jim and Charlie which dates back to their early schooldays.
This should bring some freshness to the resulting 350+ pages and give it a fighting chance to attain some vitality by the inclusion of the crucial Mr. Burchill to the long history of the band. I love the vintage photo of the belligerent young toughs in their quiana shirts with the Toryglen Tower behind them in a haze. It’s very real and of the tale even if I question its commerciality. I’m amazed some suit somewhere [in summertime] didn’t demand a Live Aid shot of the band on this 40th anniversary year of the event. Instead, this book has the cover that it absolutely should have.
The book will be released on October 2nd of 2025 and can be pre-ordered from many places at £25.00 in hardcover. There are signed copied out there but the Simple Minds web store is already sold out of the signed copies with Kerr, Burchill, and Thomson’s signatures. It looked like there was no upcharge for the signed copy from the band store. Och, those thrifty Scots usually price things right for this Monk. Fortunately, other resellers still have their contingent of signed copies if you look around. For the sake of argument, we’ll link to Rough Trade UK for their offering. DJ hit that button!
Roberta Bayley’s iconic photo given a surround remix
Last Friday you may have noticed the earth quaking to its very roots. No, it wasn’t yet another tedious lapse into authoritarianism action by the USA…those are as common as dirt, now. This was the announcement that Rhino have just issued a Blu-Ray boxed set of the first four Ramones albums as remixed into Dolby Atmos® by the original producers of the albums.
I’m not immune to the allures and charms of Surround Sound. Even though I’m now hearing impaired in my left ear, I have time for the occasional Surround mix of a cherished album. I have sprung for 5.1/Dolby Atmos® DVD/Blu-Ray discs of several cherished acts in the Record Cell. I have surround sound mixed discs by:
ABC ★★★
John Foxx
King Crimson
Roxy Music
Simple Minds
TVLKING HEVDS
Ultravox
xPropaganda
The thread running through each of these bands is that they are all engaging in ornate, lushly produced music of many synthetic traits. None of these acts sounded like they plugged into the amps and hit record! They used the studio like a canvas. That’s fine. Art Rock is one of my favorite things. But too much Art Rock will get you bloodless and comatose, soon enough!
That why we have Ramones.
The news that their master tapes have now been remixed into Dolby Atmos® mixes by their original producers, Craig Leon and Ed Stasium, gives me pause. First of all, those early Ramones albums were recorded for about one hundredth of the studio bill for a “Rumours” or “Hotel California.” I can guarantee that the engineers weren’t isolating each Ramone with baffles and airless mike technique so they could remix until their face turned blue!
I’ll bet that there was a ton of bleed through on all four members, who were recorded live until they got the keeper take of every track. But when that master is played, it will positively reek of power and commitment. Outside of Artificial Intelligence processing of the masters, I cannot imagine how that Leon and Stasium could have managed to isolate tracks for surround remixing. And if you are using AI on Ramones albums, that’s so wrong on so many different levels that I don’t know where to begin!
Rhino | US | 4x Blu-Ray | 2025
Ramones: 1! 2! 3! 4! – US – 4x Blu-Ray [2025]
Ramones (1976)
“Blitzkrieg Bop”
“Beat On The Brat”
“Judy Is A Punk”
“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
“Chain Saw”
“Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”
“I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement”
“Loudmouth”
“Havana Affair”
“Listen To My Heart”
“53rd & 3rd”
“Let’s Dance”
“I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You”
“Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World”
Leave Home (1977)
“Glad To See You Go”
“Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”
“I Remember You”
“Oh Oh I Love Her So”
“Carbona Not Glue”
“Suzy Is A Headbanger”
“Pinhead”
“Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy”
“Swallow My Pride”
“What’s Your Game”
“California Sun”
“Commando”
“You’re Gonna Kill That Girl”
“You Should Never Have Opened That Door”
Rocket to Russia (1977)
“Cretin Hop”
“Rockaway Beach”
“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”
“Locket Love”
“I Don’t Care”
“Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
“We’re A Happy Family”
“Teenage Lobotomy”
“Do You Wanna Dance?”
“I Wanna Be Well”
“I Can’t Give You Anything”
“Ramona”
“Surfin’ Bird”
“Why Is It Always This Way?”
Road to Ruin (1978)
“I Just Want To Have Something To Do”
“I Wanted Everything”
“Don’t Come Close”
“I Don’t Want You”
“Needles And Pins”
“I’m Against It”
“I Wanna Be Sedated”
“Go Mental”
“Questioningly”
“She’s The One”
“Bad Brain”
“It’s A Long Way Back”
So this is just four Blu-ray discs in a box with the album tracks on them in Dolby Atmos®. No rarities. Nothing beyond the four album you should already own in stereo. Save for the spatial mix. If anything, I would imagine that true mono mixes [and not stereo to mono fold downs] might serve the best way to enhance the power of Ramones music! Imagine how album number five would sound if it had been mixed in mono! I can’t see anything but a dissipation of the quintessential Ramones energy here in their new forms.
And if I’m being honest, I always felt that the one bit of sacrilege that Ramones could have/should have indulged in, let’s say in 1989, would have been to re-record “Blitzkreig Bop” with Ed Stasium producing and have gotten the top five single they richly deserved with that song! I’ve always thought that “Blitzkreig Bop” was amazing, but it was recorded too cheaply [first album cost, I believe, between $6,000 and $7,000 to record!] and quickly to reflect the sort of sound quality needed to have fit on Top 40 radio. And Ed Stasium just had a much better head for electric guitars than Craig Leon, it must be admitted. Maybe if he had produced the first Ramones album, it would have turned out differently?
But that’s water under the bridge as we now have 2000 copies of this box on sale at Rhino.com for the low, low price of…$59.98. That’s $15/disc and really inexpensive for a Blu-Ray surround mix disc. I typically pay £23-25 for any I buy, though they often have upwards to six different mixes of any album on them to assuage the cost.
I’m imagining that the streaming services that feature Dolby Atmos® sound have begun hosting these four albums for any subscribers. So the curious may partake without dropping coin. I’m sitting this one out, though it would probably be a good investment to buy one of these boxes and sit on it for a few years to flip. But I’m not into speculating. Meanwhile, if this is your cup of meat, then DJ hit that button!
Three weeks ago we got another missive from the John Foxx mothership. There was a new compilation LP gathering up all of the “Metamatic” era singles/B-sides and adjacent music on a good old fashioned black vinyl LP. 140 g one hopes. Metamatic has been busy this year with the LPs as this is the fourth one issued and it’s only June! It’s called “No One Driving” and it looks very familiar.
Metamatic | UK | LP | 2025 | META81LP
John Foxx: No-One Driving – UK – LP [2025]
Underpass (Single Edit)
Film One
No-One Driving (Single Version)
Glimmer
Mr. No
This City
Burning Car
20th Century
Cinemascope
To Be With You
Miles Away
A Long Time
All of the A-side mixes/edits and B-sides are accounted for and the two extra songs were taken from cassettes and notes and completed by Foxx for the 2007 2xCD DLX RM of “Metamatic” and have been associated with the mothership era ever since. The cover pic taken from the “No-One Driving” single sleeve makes it look dangerously close to the 1981 Canadian compilation simply called “John Foxx” and also compiled from that album era/campaign.
The LP will be released on September 12th, 2025 and to herald its appearance Foxx will be doing in-store signings in the UK. I have already ordered this and the “Evidence” LP that I was slacking on for too long today, but if it’s your turn then DJ hit that button.
JOHN FOXX IN-STORE SIGNING | UK
Friday, Sept 12 | Rough Trade East | London
Saturday, Sept. 13 | Sister Ray | London
Monday, Sept. 15 | Rough Trade | Bristol
NEU METAMATIC T-SHIRT
If you’re strapped for appropriate Foxxian garb to wear to those UK signing events, then you might be just be the target audience for a new “Metamatic” T-shirt design that 1of100 is currently offering.
A limited edition for the cognoscenti
1of100, as their name implies, make limited run, numbered T-shirts of whatever they design. The shirts are numbered from 1 to 100 on presumably the wooden button that is attached near the hem of each shirt. The interesting thing is that any buyer gets to pick the number they want. For a limited run organic cotton T-shirt the £48.00 asking price is not terribly onerous. If I didn’t have the more beautiful full color blue tee [with the full neon tube “M” that Metamatic produced many years ago and I bought for myself, because I HAD TO, I would probably want one of these! But if you want one know that there’s only three left! Numbers 72-74, for some reason. DJ hit THAT button!
Here’s another salvo of tour shirts that I once called mine before a cabinet filled to overflowing forced a culling of the casual wear one is most likely to see this Monk when encountering me in what used to be called “meat-space.” What do they call reality now? The lackluster images are the actual photos I took for the eBay postings with the second gen 1.3 MP first digital camera we got in 2001.
Looking at this garish wonder of a shirt now, I must have been sick in the head to even consider parting with this bad boy! With the electric lavender, pink, and sickly green color palette it screamed bad taste. The essence of The Cramps, yes? Plus it had the dates on the back [Orlando is at the bottom of column 2] and the show was actually on the design. It’s not always like that owing to liquid tour planning.
In 1990 I had waited a whole decade from first becoming a fan before finally seeing The Cramps live. What felt like an impossible slog through time back then! Four years later, Bryan Ferry would finally happen after a 20 year span! In 2025, I’m looking to see my first DEVO show after 47 years of fandom. Surely a record I won’t see beaten in my lifetime as DEVO date back to the year I first got a stereo.
The show had Flat Duo Jets opening and was a bracing cocktail for the senses. Watching Lux Interior climb the stacked amps in size 12 FMPs was borderline painful; waiting for the seemingly inevitable fall and splatter onstage of the practically nude frontman. The Cramps were having a moment in the sun with the “Stay Sick!” album. Where they were possibly at their peak of popularity.
It was six years after becoming smitten with them until Cocteau Twins finally did a tour of the States large enough to actually catch. I flew to Atlanta to see the show with my Atlanta friend Jeffrey [who graciously put me up in his parent’s home] as we were thrilled to see Les Cocteaux.
This was a wonderful show at Center Stage; a well-appointed PAC of modest size where I once had tickets to see a David Sylvian show that never happened. We waited to catch the band after the show and were able to chat for a minute with Liz Frazier. Telling her what it meant to us to see them live. No autographs; that would have been wrong.
This is a beautiful shirt. It’s kind of a shame that I let this one go. It’s the only cover art of theirs that was not by 23 Envelope that still looked fabulous. Of all the Cocteau Twins albums, I think that maybe I should have kept three: “Head Over Heels,” “Treasure,” and this one. But space is at a premium in the Record Cell. I’d not played any Cocteau Twins in twenty years I’m guessing.
Webb Wilder: Doo Dad 1993
This was another Webb Wilder shirt I bought that first night I saw them. I got the “It Came From Nashville” color design and the second of two “Doo Dad” shirts. I kind of went hog wild, I guess! But it was Webb Wilder! He once helped put a rubber stamp truck driving school out of business!
This “Doo Dad” shirt featured a guitar pick design with the bottlecap “Doo Dad” man from the back cover. With Webb’s tagline “pick up on it.” And The Credo on back.
I was sort of a KMFDM fan as I was listening to a lot of “Industrial” music in the late 80s-early 90s. For this I blame Cabaret Voltaire and though the band were prolific I ended up wanting more. The trouble was; most of the bands in that space were not Cab Volt! Worse yet, after a while, neither were they!
I had always loved the single “More + Faster” that I’d videotaped off of 120 minutes. When I saw that KMFDM were coming to Orlando, I bought a handful of their releases and got ready. I was working at a company doing computer-based training then and one of the interns also liked “Industrial” music, so we saw here there with her boyfriend. She did not know Killing Joke so I made her a mix tape and saved her life!
KMFDM tickets were ridiculously inexpensive – $5 as I recall, and the band were playing at “J.J. Whispers,” a huge night club complex where we rarely ventured for either dancefloors or gigs. The band by 1992 were right on the cusp of becoming a Metal act as the cross pollination of guitars into Industrial was souring the machinenmusik that had originally attracted my ear as Aggro at any cost was becoming the norm. So there were no other KMFDM shows in my future.
But this was a long sleeved tour shirt with the Virgil Finlay-esque cover art by BRUTE for the “More + Faster” single! I had to have it – especially since the ticket price was so low I felt guilty. The lyric quote on the back was certainly congruent with my sentiments.
One of two Chris Isaak shirts I bought when seeing him the second time at the Orlando Arena opening for Tina Turner in 1993. Chris and the band worked hard to make the 18,000 seat box feel more clublike as he and saxman Johnny Reno went wireless in the stands. After their set Chris told the audience to come to the merch table and say “hi” which never happens at an arena show!
So I did. I bought another design that Chris signed and drew a caricature of himself on it which I still have. But it’s getting pretty long in tooth by this time! This would be the second time I bought a Tina Turner ticket just to see the opening act having previously seen Level 42 open for her in 1987 on their “Running In The Family” tour. I never saw Tina Turner ever. And now I’m selling off most of my Chris Isaak and Level 42 collections! ironic, no?
This was from the second Man or ASTROman? concert I attended with my soon-to-be wife on our first “big date” in early 1995. We trekked to Tampa and saw MOAM play in the Stone Lounge. It was inside of a former gas station and was a very cool Punk Rock club with oodles of charm. By this time I may have been an official member of the MOAM Fan Club! The only music fan club I ever joined! You got T-shirts, membership card, various ephemera, and most importantly, a discount at the merch table, which I definitely took! For at least seven years I bought every MOAM 7″ single I saw; which was quite a lot! I liquidated them to help fund the big European tour last year.
Dick Dale was a name I remembered from my early childhood in Santa Monica, California. One of my friends would go on about Dick Dale all the time, and when I saw he was playing at The Junkyard, a big Rock/Blues club in Casselberry, Florida, I made sure to go with him and his girlfriend. My friend Sandra and her fiancee might have been there as well – my memory is a bit fuzzy. So I was expecting an evening a fun surf guitar.
What we got was POWER. The sheer power of Dick melting picks on his high gauge strings as this total guitar badass was pinning us back against the wall. Never before had I seen a show that so clearly leapfrogged my expectations by a factor of at least 20! It was all I could talk about for a month afterward! THIS was the power of music writ large. A life changing moment as this lifelong music fan finally felt the earth move under my feet. I can get pretty analytical about music and my relationship to it but this concert dared me to get slack-jawed afterward.
It helped that Dick said less than 20 words for the first half of the show. He totally let the music do the talking. Afterward he unzipped his mouth and got pretty loquacious. We all stayed behind afterward and talked with him like meth-heads, probably. Dick was an unbelievable 55 years of age then.
The show was so white hot that we told all of our friends about it and trekked to Tampa the next night with pals Rick and Jenny in tow. If Sandra and Dan weren’t there that first night they definitely went to Tampa on the second. Dick was playing the WMNF-FM Tropical Heatwave Festival and we didn’t regret the travel one bit. And it was hilarious seeing Man or ASTROman heckling Dick from the same crowd we were in.
I bought two T-shirts at The Junkyard and a VHS video I still have. I also still have the classic Tribal Thunder shirt as autographed by Dick. Dick thought that his fans who followed him around needed a name, hence this design.
Here’s more proof that almost all I need is available in the Bandcamp ecosystem. Last weekend the artist used the contact form on the website and while I had a spare moment, I was able to immediately sample and yes, buy their new EP, just released on May 30. As the world is spiraling into chaos and darkness like I’ve never seen in my lifespan, Thalie Némésis is producing the soundtrack to resist the horror.
Militaristic rhythm and drone paint a bleak image as the bass strums low and deep. A flute patch adds a contrapuntal Eastern unease to the music as the gently distorted guitar increases the tension. Which ebbs and flows in the song as Thalie sings the resolute lyric of defiance. Until the point the drums and the guitar escalate the tension into a harsh release for the final word. It’s a powerful piece as you can hear below.
“I will silence you I will erase you I will reduce you To nothing more Than a language Without sound A mirage Just as you did to me”
A Barbaric Language
“A Demi-Mots”[half-words] began with a compelling rhythm as Thalie sang in French on this song. Building the tension of the song subtly and slowly. Allowing the tension to slightly release with a watery guitar vibrato before the guitar and drums began to howl and thrash like a trapped beast. Leading into the still darker mood of “Acedia Is My Partner In Crime.” Spinning a web of palpable dread with the insect-like chittering of the rhythm track. As the song unfolded, one could sense the horizon tilting as the ground beneath our feet began to give way to the inevitable, imminent collapse that we could not forestall.
Tympani rhythms and howling synths conspired to place “Cassandra [Le Baiser De La Fin]” in a space adjacent to Gary Numan’s excellent “Absolution” single that I always liked. As Thalie recounted the tragedy of Cassandra, offering prophesy ultimately unheard, slashing guitars added their sting to the chaotic, roiling mix.
“No Surrender” began via rhythm guitar untied with an Armenian zurna for a churning mixture of Eastern and Western textures to disrupt and unsettle our expectations. Pounding drums juxtaposed against pizzicato strings mixed delicacy and brutality into a paradoxical cocktail of delicacy and force. The percussive movement of the middle eight offered a calm within the storm before the song turned back on itself to build to its climax before ultimately dropping out except for the dying embers of a loop fading out.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Thalia was drawing from Greek and Armenian traditions in creating “Catarsi Apotropaica,” or “apotropaic catharsis.” An incantation to banish curses and dark omens. Such as what haunts the land currently. More we can’t ask from music. To engage with the difficult work of righteous living in a time where fear, corruption, and mayhem drip down the walls of this mad world.
Thalie brought a voice to the music here that reminded me of Curve’s Toni Halliday. It fit the Eastern modalities at play very well, and it hardly mattered whether she was singing in French or English as the intent came through loud and clear. We are eager to see where she goes next on her journey. But is it our tragedy to ignore the voice of this Modern Cassandra? Not if we invest the $6.00 to buy this EP at bandcamp! DJ hit that button.
On the cusp of a second culling I’m considering of the Tour Shirt collection, we’re looking at the shirts sold off during the first cull in 2007. A surprising number of these were of what I’d call core collection bands; bands where I bought every single track they released, as in the case of Cocteau Twins. And yet, the fact that I was willing to sell off precious tour shirts surely telegraphed the huge CD cull I’m currently in the middle of organizing. It’s 18 years later and it’s no shock that every one of my Cocteau Twins releases [save for the one with Harold Budd] are also on the chopping block. With Cocteau Twins, they were absolutely crucial to me from 1983 to about ten years later. After that, I doubt I’ve ever played a single one of their discs more than four times. Images, as ever, are from the actual eBay auctions from where I sold them off.
The last time I saw Cocteau Twins was in Tampa at The Ritz in 1994. Their latest album, “Four Calendar Cafe” was not compelling to me. It was still Cocteau Twins, and I was still all-in on buying the tour shirts, obviously. This black one was a colorful design that was a riff on the rather uninteresting cover art, which was not by 23 Envelope any longer.
I disliked wearing this one in Florida since the heavy ink coverage on half the shirt made this one a bear to wear in the hot, sweltering Florida climate. Leading me to only wear this during the so-called winter the state barely had. That was a very practical consideration one had to have when planning your T-shirt wardrobe.
I had seen INXS three times. The first, on the “Kick” tour was fantastic. PiL opened, and was value for the ticket right there. But the band were as hot as they would ever be as their over-the-top commercial breakthrough took them from stardom to super stardom. For about five years, INXS could do no wrong as they were one of the most popular Rock bands on the planet and were, surprisingly, also one of the best. It doesn’t always flow like that!
Then I saw the “X” tour in Daytona Beach which was almost as strong, for an album I liked even better. When INXS were coming to Tampa in 1993, it was a foregone conclusion that I would be there, but crucially, I never bought the “Full Moon Dirty Hearts” album. Friends swore to me that I should pass it up. To this day I’ve not heard it. The show was in the worst venue in Florida, the USF Sundome. A college sports arena extremely ill-suited to music enjoyment. Every show I saw there was vexing, but it didn’t help that INXS were falling hard off of their pedestal on this album. Still, I bought the shirt. And sold if off!
I finally got to see Duran Duran in 1993 after being a fan for 13 years. That was the year they staged a dramatic comeback with twin top 10 singles from their strong “Wedding Album.” They also played the USF ScumDome with a highly theatrical show that kind of overpowered the music presentation, if I’m honest. It was early in the life of the album as their commercial fortunes were on the uptake after some years in the doldrums. That tour would continue for three legs and bigger and better venues would beckon.
I went a little hog wild on the tour shirts I bought. The previous year I made “collecting” Duran Duran my hobby after seemingly finishing up on Ultravox [or so I thought!] and their resurgent popularity was unexpected to me though I dove in deep and for a few years bought hundreds of DD discs. This full-wrap “photo booth” shirt with the art silk-screened on the fabric before cutting and sewing was a fantastic design that when looking at it now, makes me regret selling it off, in all candor. If you pair black ink with a metallic color [gold in this case] you can make a strong reduced palette that really pops visually.
I bought more than just T-shirts at that table. There was also a very luxe tour book, a cloisonne pin, and even a Duran Duran condom.
SIOUXSIE + THE BANSHEES: Bootleg design
I saw Siouxsie + The Banshees once. In 1987 on the “Twice Upon A Time” tour. Three years before I started buying tour shirts, so I never got a chance to buy a Siousxie + The Banshees T-shirt. Yet, when I saw this presumably bootleg Siouxsie design in an Atlanta record store, using a great Derek Ridgers photo session from 1988 with Siouxsie styled as Bastet; the Egyptian cat goddess, I, er, pounced on it.
WEBB WILDER: It Came From Nashville Reissue 1993
I first encountered Webb Wilder in a short film; my favorite short film ever! “Webb Wilder Private Eye In – The Saucer’s Reign!” I saw the first WW album a few years later but only on LP. I started buying his albums with #2 and onward on CD. Webb Wilder is a roots rocker with a sideline in comedy acting and I loved how he blurred the line between a music career and a colorful character featured in the short films of Stephen Mims.
The first time I saw Webb Wilder and The Beatnecks was a the Sapphire Supper Club and my friend and I could hardly believe we were seeing the man in the flesh. It is music that rides the razor’s edge between Country and Rock with no shortage of expertise. I went ape on the shirts on the merch table and this was the four color version of the “It Came From Nashville” artwork. That tour had the debut album finally reissued on CD which I also bought that night. Along with other shirts as well.
WEBB WILDER: Doo Dad 1993
That night I first saw Webb Wilder was technically with the “Doo Dad” album as his latest release. So I bought a few shirts for that album as well. The first was a surreal image of a gator swatting a stick man from the booklet of the CD. It had, like all Webb Wilder T-shirts, the Webb Wilder Credo on the back side. You know that band is special when they actually bother to have a credo.
The heather shirt also had one of my favorite design features: printing on the sleeve! In this case the “Doo Dad” man made of bottlecaps on the back of the CD. The garish pink lettering really stood out on the heather shirt.
I spent a lot of the 90s seeing surf bands extensively. Next to Grunge or Techno, it was a no-brainer! Man Or AstroMan were sort of “Punk Surf” with riotous live shows bursting with lo-tech multimedia overkill! All the better to enhance their wiseguy, sample-ridden material filled to bursting with grade-Z sci-fi hoo-hah!
The first time I saw them was as the band [who had just finished their own set] were heckling Dick Dale from the audience I was also a part of in 1993 at WMNF-FM Tampa’s Tropical Heatwave Festival. I would soon near their nitro-burning surf music shortly afterward on college radio and seeing them live became a must! When I saw that they were playing at The Covered Dish in Gainesville in 1994, I drove up there from Orlando to see the show.
A group of fans and I were chatting with the band before the show. Besides where to find good vegetarian dining in Gainesville, the hot topic was of the then-current “Star Trek Generations” film that united [somehow] the Classic Trek and Next Generation cast in the same misbegotten film! They were dubious. And right. They thoughtfully recorded and released the actual concert as the “Live: Transmissions From Uranus” album so now we can all hear the results!
Live, they props onstage [tesla coil!] as well as a host of TVs playing back several lurid sci-fi movies during their set, but also a 16 mm sci-fi film unspooling behind the stage on a scrim! Their AV geek dedication to their art was second to none! They spent as much time setting up and breaking down the stage as they did playing.
While I was stunned by the realization yesterday, that I was finally going to get to see Lene Lovich perform live…along with DEVO as as a bonus [!!], in came the missive from Spandau Ballet Central that coming soon was something else we’d have to save our shekels for if we wanted a copy. An expansive box covering the first two album period of the band from 1978 to 1982. Certainly the bullseye where my interests in the band lay most strongly at this point and time. Due for release on Sept 11, 2025. Just a few months down the road.
I was an early passenger on the Spandau Ballet train. I’d been hooked…hard, on Ultravox’s game-changing “Vienna” album by late 1980. Soon afterward, I caught wind of another band that Chrysalis had signed to capitalize on the New Romantic trend that seemed to follow in Ultravox’s wake. So as soon as “Journeys To Glory” was released in America, I was on a copy like white on rice. As compared to Ultravox, this band were sheer greenhorns. I was non-plussed by it all and wrote the band off as hype. I felt that there was more musical inventiveness and excitement in any single minute of any track on “Vienna” than in ten copies of “Journeys To Glory.” I moved on.
By the summer of 1981 I saw that Spandau Ballet had pivoted towards Funk from the New Romantic sound they began with. I was dismissive of it at the time and what I’d heard from the second album, 1982’s “Diamond,” was nothing that I thought I was interested in. It wasn’t until I heard the Vegas Soul of the song “Lifeline” that I thought the band were making anything for my ears. I bought the US 12″ remix single, followed by the great “True” album and was on the cusp of actually becoming a fan. Then seeing the “Live Over Britain” concert on MTV gave me a shove and I fell hard for the band. I worked my way backward and quickly came to treasurethe deeply odd [at the very least] “Diamond” album.
I then embarked on a program of buying all of the Spandau Ballet I could find and almost 60 discs later, have a rather large Spandau Ballet collection. Which I rendered down into a comprehensive BSOG [with DVD!] sixteen years ago. Now the band have crossed the line into a multi-disc box that looks set to put the 2010 2xCD remasters of their canon very much in the shade. They only had a smattering of the commensurate tracks and were brickwall mastered for poor sound. Frankly, it looks like they are following the lead of the three figure David Bowie career boxes; albeit with mixed formats. Covering a period of their career in some depth. It wouldn’t be the first time they were chasing after Bowie!
ALL YOU NEED IS ‘EVERYTHING IS NOW’
Oh dear…one of those LPs + bonus tracks on CD hybrid boxes that drive us batty
Spandau Ballet: Everything Is Now – The Early years 1978-1982 – UK – 2xLP + 6xCD + Blu-Ray + Book + T-Shirt [2025]
JOURNEYS TO GLORY LP
To Cut A Long Story Short
Reformation
Mandolin
Muscle Bound
Age Of Blows
The Freeze
Confused
Toys
DIAMOND LP
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)
Instinction
Paint Me Down
Coffee Club
She Loved Like Diamond
Pharaoh
Innocence And Science
Missionary
CD1 | JOURNEYS TO GLORY | SINGLES, REMIXES & VERSIONS
To Cut A Long Story Short (7” A-side)
The Freeze (7″ Version A-side)
Muscle Bound (7″ Version A-side)
Glow (7″ Version AA-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Version)
The Freeze (Version 7” B-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Mix 1 A-side)
To Cut A Long Story Short (Version) (Mix 2)
The Freeze (12” A-side)
The Freeze (Special Mix 12” B-side)
Glow (12″ Version)
Muscle Bound (12” B-side)
CD2 | DIAMOND | SINGLES, REMIXES & VERSIONS
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)(7” A-side)
Paint Me Down (7” A-side)
She Loved Like Diamond (7” A-side)
Instinction (7” Trevor Horn Version)
Feel The Chant (Short – 7” B-side)
Man With Guitar (B-Side of Paint Me Down)
Gently (B-Side of Instinction)
She Loved Like Diamond (Instrumental B-side)
Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)
Feel The Chant (Long – 12” B-side)
Paint Me Down (12″ A-side)
Re Paint (12” B-side)
CD3 | DIAMOND | 12” REMIXES FOR 1981 BOX S ET
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) (Remix)
Instinction (Remix)
Paint Me Down (Remix)
Coffee Club (Remix)
She Loved Like Diamond (Remix)
Pharaoh (Remix)
Innocence And Science (Remix)
Missionary (Remix)
CD4 | BBC SESSION 1981 / BBC IN CONCERT – BOURNEMOUTH 1982
The Freeze [BBC Session]
Mandolin [BBC Session]
Muscle Bound [BBC Session]
Glow [BBC Session]
The Freeze [live UK]
She Loved Like Diamond [live UK]
To Cut A Long Story Short [live UK]
Glow [live UK]
Paint Me Down [live UK]
Instinction / Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [live UK]
CD5 | BBC IN CONCERT | PARIS THEATRE 1982
Instinction (Version 1) [live Paris]
The Freeze [live Paris]
She Loved Like Diamond [live Paris]
To Cut A Long Story Short [live Paris]
Pharoah [live Paris]
Glow [live Paris]
Muscle Bound [live Paris]
Confused [live Paris]
Paint Me Down [live Paris]
Coffee Club [live Paris]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [live Paris]
Instinction (Version 2) [live Paris]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) (Reprise) [live Paris]
CD6 | DEMOS
Toys [1979 demo]
Age Of Blows [1979 demo]
Eyes [1979 demo]
To Cut A Long Story Short [1980 demo]
The Freeze [1980 demo]
Confused [1980 demo]
Reformation [1980 demo]
BLU-RAY | DOLBY ATMOS | PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS | AND LIVE PERFORMANCES
To Cut A Long Story Short [Steven Wilson remixes]
The Freeze [Steven Wilson remixes]
Muscle Bound [Steven Wilson remixes]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [Steven Wilson remixes]
Paint Me Down [Steven Wilson remixes]
Instinction [Steven Wilson remixes]
To Cut A Long Story Short [music video]
The Freeze [music video]
Muscle Bound [music video]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [music video]
Paint Me Down [music video]
She Loved Like Diamond [music video]
Instinction [music video]
She Loved Like Diamond[OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST/1982]
Coffee Club[OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST/1982]
Interview at the Underground Club with Pat Wadsley [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Intro/Jim Fouratt [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
The Freeze [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Mandolin [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Reformation [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Toys [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Age Of Blows [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Muscle Bound [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Confused [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
To Cut A Long Story Short [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
Glow [LIVE AT THE UNDERGROUND CLUB, NYC/1981]
To Cut a Long Story Short. 26th July 1980 [HMS Belfast footage]
44 pp. Autographed Coffee [Club] Table Book
T-Shirt
Yes, it’s true that the planners of this box were obviously looking towards the ethos behind the Go-Betweens boxed sets that managed to pair the albums on LP and the numerous bonus materials on CD. Making for a highly annoying [if you’re me] blurring of formats in a single package. If there’s anything actually worse than the dreaded redundant vinyl [CD and LP of a title in the same box] it’s this approach. As near as I can tell, the tracks in red are new to CD and or our ears. Importantly, every track variant on the many 7” and 12” singles are all present and accounted for. While most of the Bournemouth show is on the second disc of the 2010 DLX RM of “Diamond,” the Paris Theatre Show from late in 1982 seems to be a debut for us. I will admit that I’d like to hear that whole show and hope that I can buy those tracks in iTunes one day.
The semi-legendary boxed set of “Diamond” that was issued on 4×12″ singles is now a discrete disc all on its own.. in spite of the fact that the last three tracks are not actually remixed as the track list above states. Maybe they replicated the fades that the boxed version had. Famously, the LP segued the last three tracks on side two together for a stab at that David Bowie “Low” side two, sound.
The demos, for the most part, are making their debut. A pair of them figured on the 2002 “Reformation” 3xCD box that makes a fine single Spandau Ballet release if you’re only having one. Having heard the two earlier demos, it remains to be seen how different these might be. I found the 1980 demos to be neck and neck with the same tracks on the first album. I will call foul on the fact that CD 6 has a scanty seven demo tracks of probably no more than 30 minutes of music if I’m being generous. But it may have had to play out like that owing to the density of the preceding discs.
At first I was highly intrigued by the notion of Dolby Atmos® and 2.0/instrumental mixes of the material by the indefatigable Steven Wilson but apparently Wilson is human as he’s only remixed all six of the band’s A-sides from the period. A pity, as I’d really like to hear him take a stab at the Proggy side two of “Diamond!” “The Freeze [Steven Wilson Remix] is on iTunes now and sampling it revealed that he strongly reined in the effects overkill on Tony’s vocals! He’s no longer bellowing in our faces but instead sits within the music cohesively. He’s also simplified the mix and it sounds much warmer and subtler as it emphasized the rhythm guitars and plenty of spaciousness. All of the brittleness of the track is gone. Since it’s called “The Freeze” maybe this is an error? I actually liked what I had heard but my friend Echorich was scornful. Your mileage may vary.
The package has a nice new design using elements from the old days, courtesy of original designer Graham Smith. One unusual factor is that the covers to the LPs are not the original designs but a new one mapped to the parameters of the box itself. The sleeves to the LPs and CDs seem to have icons that look like they may be gold foil stamped for that extra posh look. Smith also designed the T-shirt and 44 pp. book that accompanies the box. They got all five members [presumably not in the same room] to sign 200 copies of the box both with and without the T-shirt as sold exclusively in the band’s web store. So I’m reading that as 400 signed copies en toto. And what’s the asking price for this package of Spansau stuff?
Doing a “Simon LeBon”
¡¡¡Madre de dios!!! They are asking $199.99 for signed box without T-shirt!!! And $224.99 for the signed box with the T-shirt. At that price, go for the T-shirt! Seeing as how I’m probably the target audience for this boxed set [hint: I already own five different pressings of “Diamond”], and also how there’s no way I’d begin to consider buying this at that price, I wonder if the mooted volume two, covering the supper club soul version of the band from ’83-’84 will ever take flight?
As for me, I have this bespoke box with most of what’s on offer here, and I’m happy to see if I can buy the Paris Theatre live tracks on iTunes. I have a huge collection of the group and I don’t think that I spent that much on the whole of it! Meanwhile, if you have more money than sense, are highly suggestible, and an early period Spandau Ballet fan, then more power to you! DJ hit that button!
AUTOGRAPHED BOX W/T-SHIRT: $224.95
STOP THE PRESSES! NO SIGNATURES/T-SHIRT: $99.98
Perceptive commenter strange_idol brought it to our attention that the US Rhino web store has the unsigned, and sans T-shirt box for sale in pre-order for the sensible…even possibly desirable charge of $99.98. Like The Brains said, Money Changes Everything. If you can stand just the music, the price is more closely aligned with the value. Just make sure you already have vintage [well mastered] CDs of “Journeys To Glory” and “Diamond,” like your friendly, neighborhood Monk and if you get this you’ll be golden. DJ hit THAT button!
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