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Tracklisting & More Information
As part of The Stranglers' celebration of their Ruby Anniversary, the definitive collection of the B-side recordings they made whilst signed to Epic is released for the first time, via their own label. Appropriately, as befits a band marking forty years together, Here & There: The Epic B-sides Collection 1983-1991 gathers 40 tracks across 2CDs and is also released as a 40 track digital package. The Stranglers released no less than 13 singles in the UK during this period, which saw them produce five albums: four studio and one live. The Stranglers signed to Epic Records in 1982 having been with United Artists / Liberty since 1977. The change of label coincided with changes in marketing policy across the UK industry - often dubbed ""the Frankie Goes To Hollywood effect"". Previously, The Stranglers' had released only one 12"" single - an extended version of Bear Cage in 1980 - but from 2nd Epic single, Midnight Summer Dream until 1990, each release had a 12"" version which required extra studio or, increasingly, live tracks to ""add value"" to the package. Other formats such as picture discs (shaped and standard) were also released, followed by CD singles, 7"" EPs and, occasionally, the much unloved cassette single. Fortunately, this was a fertile period for the band and their creative output was more than able to satisfy the demands of their label's marketing department. Consequently, there is a rich crop of tracks from which this compilation has been gathered. CD1 comprises 20 studio tracks. It contains a large number of songs which could have graced any of their albums or, indeed, potentially been A-sides themselves. As ever with The Stranglers, the songs from this time feature either Jean-Jacques Burnel or Hugh Cornwell as the lead vocalist and draw from intriguing and typically broad subject matter, such as faltering relationships (Instead of This, In One Door), girls (You, Since You Went Away), vulnerability (Achilles Heel), a post-Golden Brown anti-drugs stance (Head On The Line), the French CRS riot police (Permission), Paris (Hot Club, Place de Victoires), word play (Savage Breast, Poisonality), the then-new scourge of Aids (Dry Day), homosexuality (Norman Normal), photographers (Hit Man), psychedelia (Pawsher) self-mocking (Motorbike), tongue-in-cheek (Aural Sculpture Manifesto) the birth of a child (Something) and Europe, in the track which gives the album it's sub-title, Here & There - although their lyrics were never quite that straightforward and are often wrapped in double meaning...
Disc 1
1. Here & There
2. In One Door
3. Since You Went Away
4. You
5. Instead Of This
6. Head On The Line
7. Achilles Heel
8. Permission
9. Norman Normal
10. Dry Day
11. Savage Breast
12. Hit Man
13. Poisonality
14. Something
15. Pawsher
16. Motorbike
17. Hot Club
18. Place De Victoires
19. Burnham Beeches
20. Aural Sculpture Manifesto
Disc 2
1. Midnight Summer Dream / European Female (Live)
2. Shakin' Like A Leaf (Live)
3. Uptown (Live)
4. Souls (Live)
5. Was It You? (Live)
6. Strange Little Girl (Live)
7. Who Wants The World (Live)
8. Peaches (Live)
9. Straighten Out (Live)
10. Always The Sun (Live)
11. Nuclear Device (Live)
12. All Day & All Of The Night (Live)
13. Punch & Judy (Live)
14. Hot Club (Riot Mix)
The Chronicles Of Vladimir
15. (The Strange Circumstances Which Led To) Vladimir & Olga...
16. Vladimir & Sergei
17. Vladimir & The Beast (Part III)
18. Vladimir Goes To Havana
19. !Viva Vlad!
20. Vladimir & The Pearl
DOUBLE CD
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