Tag Archives: deluxe edition

Watch: Levellers release video for “lost” track ‘Alive’ ahead of ‘Zeitgeist’ reissue

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Sometimes, “lost” tracks are lost for a reason. One in a while, though, a gem will surface from the vaults that has the power to make fans not only sit up and listen, but actually question why such a great recording could’ve been shelved in the first place.

Such is the case with ‘Alive’, a track from the Levellers archive, released as a single as part of the pre-release promotion for a 30th anniversary reissue of the band’s much loved fourth album ‘Zeitgeit’. Huge fans will, of course, recognise ‘Alive’ as having pride of place as part of the bonus tracks on the “special edition” of the Levellers’ 2017 release ‘Notes From The Underground’, but its inclusion on a reissue of a far more celebrated release is guaranteed to introduce it to new ears.

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GREENSLADE – Large Afternoon

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Between 2018-2019, Esoteric Recordings – the prog rock subsidiary of Cherry Red Records – ran a brilliant reissue campaign for 70s band Greenslade. Their four major albums were lovingly repackaged and expanded with a wealth of live material, BBC Sessions and various alternate edits. In the case of fan favourite ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra’, the 1973 album was even coupled with a bonus DVD featuring the band’s appearance on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test, making the short set available in full, officially, for the first time. Such a good job was made of these affordable reissues that it was hoped that the campaign would be extended to include keyboard maestro Dave Greenslade’s first two solo albums – 1976’s ‘Cactus Choir’ and 1978’s lavish album and book set ‘The Pentateuch of The Cosmonololgy’ – since both deserved a similar level of TLC. Sadly, it wasn’t to be: instead, fans merely got a compilation disc presenting the best of Greenslade appended with one rare nugget – ‘Feathered Folk’, recorded live at the Reading Festival in 1973, which, in fairness, should’ve featured on the ‘Bedside’ reissue. [As of April 2025, neither of those aforementioned solo discs have had a decent CD send off; the Angel Air reissue of ‘Cactus Choir’ sounds awful, and ‘Pentateuch’ exists in an inferior edited version.]

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DELUXE EDITION DREAMLAND: Dire Straits – Dire Straits

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Following the launch of the Universal “Deluxe Edition” range in 2001, it has become increasingly normal practice for classic albums – and sometimes not-so-classic albums – to be reissued in an expanded format.

At the affordable end of the deluxe reissue scale, such releases normally take the form of a 2CD set, combining the original album of the chosen release with a disc’s worth of b-sides and/or rare and unreleased material. Most of the big bands of the 70s, 80s and 90s have been awarded deluxe reissues, but for years, there had been one very notable absence: Dire Straits.

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MARCELLA DETROIT – Jewel

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Marcy Levy is a legend. Throughout the 70s and 80s, she put in some seriously hard yards as a session vocalist and touring singer, working with Eric Clapton, Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Belinda Carlisle and many others. Clapton’s mellow blues ‘Better Make It Through Today’ aside, Marcy’s contributions to the guitarist’s 1975 album ‘There’s One In Every Crowd’ are the record’s highlight, and on recordings from the 1977 tour for ‘Slowhand’, she and second guitarist George Terry can be heard doing some seriously heavy lifting as the heart of the best band EC ever had. In the late 80s, Levy became famous as Marcella Detroit, one half of sophisticated pop duo Shakespears Sister; her unmistakable vocal gymnastics turned ‘You’re History’ from a good pop track into a great one, and she will be forever associated with their 1991 mega-hit ‘Stay’. Never one to be stuck in a musical rut, Marcella’s career powered forth and in the mid 90s, her second solo album, 1994’s ‘Jewel’ was a massive success.

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THE FALL – Fall Sound Archive Vol 8: The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click)

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The Fall’s twenty third studio album had a tricky birth. In 2003, a release called ‘Country On The Click’ was almost ready to make its way into the world, but plans changed at the eleventh hour. Depending on which stories you believe, the original release was either cancelled because Mark E. Smith was unhappy with the final mix, or shelved because it’d somehow found its way onto file-sharing services and bootlegged. Either way, a second version of the record – now titled ‘The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country On The Click)’ – made it onto Britain’s record shop shelves in October of that year.

Initial reviews were generally positive, and over the years, it’s become somewhat of a fan favourite in “later period Fall” terms, and it’s pretty easy to hear why. The bulk of the material adopts a fairly typical “Fall sound” – if, indeed, there ever was such a thing – but the arrangements are often superb, and Smith appears in particularly great form throughout, armed with lyrical barbs and a suitcase worth of obtuse lyrical references that serve some superb riffs and angular noises. It doesn’t seem to matter which way you approach ‘The Real New Fall LP’, it plays very strongly.

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