Tracks 11 & 12 were on the original CD release
Track 13 Ju-Ju Money is the Bouquet of Steel version rather than the 3rd album version which was included on the original CD
Tracks 14 to 18 are included here for the first time
Work is an out-take
Target Talk is an early demo of Home Is The Range
Living In is an early demo of Postcard

Sleep No More REN CD 10

1 Eye Dance
2 Sleep no More
3 Be Brave
4 Gone
5 Dark Parade
6 Diagram
7 Restless
8 Goat Of The West
9 Light Years
10 Our Secret
+ bonus tracks
11 Eye Of The Lens
12 Another World
13 At Sea
14 Mass
15 Dark Parade 1 (demo)
16 Goat Of The West (demo)
17 Be Brave (demo)
18 Gone (EP version)

Tracks 11 to 13 were on the original CD release
Track 14 Mass was on the original CD release of Fiction & is here restored to its rightful place
Tracks 15 to 18 appear here for the first time

Fiction REN CD 11

1 After The Rain
2 Zinger
3 Now I Know
4 Not A Word
5 Ju-Ju Money
6 More
7 Pictures
8 Birdman
9 Don't Look Now
10 What Else!?
+ bonus tracks
11 It's History
12 After The Rain (remix)
13 Private Party
14 (Do The) Empty House
15 Red Planet Revisited
16 For Your Information
17 What Else (live)
18 (Do The) Empty House (live)

Tracks 11 to 13 appeared on the original CD release
Tracks 14 & 15 appeared on the original CD release of Sleep No More and are here restored to their correct place
Tracks 16 to 18 are included here for the first time
For Your Information is an out-take

Time Considered As A Helix Of Semi-Precious Stones (the BBC sessions)
REN CD 12

1 At Sea 2 Eye Of The Lens 3 Total War 4 Real Story 5 Waiting For A Miracle 6 Ju-Ju Money 7 Independence Day 8 Eye Dance 9 Gone 10 Dark Parade 11 Our Secret 12 Now I Know 13 Citadel 14 High Tide 15 Mister Memory 16 Island Heart 17 You Move Me 18 Nature Trails

Beats Working For A Living - Sheffield Popular Music 1973 - 1984 can be bought online at www.sheffieldvision.com. The book costs £19.95 and is published by Juma Printing and Publishing.

This CD is the 2nd in what will be a two volume series, and was compiled in conjunction with Steve Fellows / Kevin Bacon.  From Beyond - 1987-1995 was released in May 2000.  

Volume I (1979-1986) will take longer to put together as it involves getting permission to use recordings owned by Polydor, Island & the BBC. 

Thanks to Mark Stratford & Steve Fellows for the above information.

SOUP (by Simon Robinson)

Some information from the ex-Comsat Angels camp. It seems like ages since Steve left the band, and eventually went on to bigger (argue amongst yourselves whether better!) things, masterminding the Gomez bandwagon.

It was a difficult period for all concerned. There were a lot of reasons for Steve's decision, but the dreadful lack of media interest in both of the Thunderbird releases - despite a lot of hard work by what was a very small indie label - got everyone down. I still feel the two albums were amongst the band's finest work, but pride in being associated with them (on however small a scale) will always be tempered with the knowledge that they deserved a much better reception.

After Steve left, the rest of the group were faced with difficult decisions but in the end decided to keep up regular rehearsals and start listening to new singers. Over the months various people came along to jam with the band but the arrival of Peter Hope - who simply opened one of his numerous books of handwritten lyrics and started to growl over the top of the band's increasingly long grooves - settled it. Peter has been active in the local music scene for a good while, releasing numerous albums and solo CDs, some more avante garde than others. He is perhaps best known for his work with a group called The Box who were tipped for big things in the mid-eighties.

During 1997 and 1998 the group continued to rehearse and then began laying down tracks in a Sheffield studio. Demos began to surface early in 1999, when it was discovered that the band had christened themselves SOUP (they were determined not to carry on as The Comsats). The music was a real shock. Try to imagine laid-back Comsat's merged with a kind of Captain Beefheart-like vocal approach, and you'll begin to get some idea of where they were headed. But once that initial shock wore off, it became clear to many who heard the tracks that this was something fairly special and unique. Put simply we couldn't stop playing it!

Sadly it was not very commercial in terms of how most major labels see new acts these days. Any musicians with a career as long as the Comsat's were going to find it a struggle, but faced with responses like "we love it but we couldn't market it" one is bound to start questioning A&R policy. So the band have decided to keep this as a recording project, and issue the CD in a low-key way and see what happens.

The plan is to spend a little longer in the studio sorting the mixes out and then get it pressed up. The CD will be issued via English Electric later this year, distributed through Pinnacle in the UK. A possible German deal is also being looked at.

Mail-order will be available, and we hope to be able to stick up some sound samples shortly on the English Electric web pages when these are finished. Details will be forwarded later.

We ought to mention the older material which was issued by RPM and Thunderbird Records. In 1998 the two labels underwent major organisational changes, with the two partners (Mark and Simon) agreeing to separate out the catalogue.

Mark retains the Thunderbird label, but plans regarding The Glamour and My Mind's Eye haven't yet been finalised. Both are currently available on mid-price - although we hope revised editions with bonus tracks can be released at some future time.

RPM has now been merged with Cherry Red Records. It is planned to overhaul the catalogue and then start adding new titles. Mark will run the label for Cherry Red. Simon has left RPM and has set up his own label operation based in Sheffield which includes plans to add to the English Electric catalogue (which so far only includes Steve Fellow's strange guitar offering).

The Polydor Comsat Angels reissue titles will be available again on RPM soon. The rest of the RPM Comsat titles have been deleted and will be reissued via English Electric next year.In addition, English Electric are working on plans to reissue Land and 7 Day Weekend on CD, along with the non album tracks etc. Both appeared (without any extra material) on CD a couple of years ago (mainly in Holland, although they did carry German and French catalogue prefixes as well) but only in very limited quantities, with very poor packaging (and I mean VERY poor - single sheet inlay, cheap copies of the covers, low res. digital scans etc.). They were deleted within six months and even the band couldn't get copies.

Simon Robinson / English Electric

***Please note - since receiving this note I have received reports that Soup have disbanded - TK***