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Contents:    The Associates

                       - The Affectionate Punch

                       - Associates - Singles

                       - The Radio One Sessions - 1981-1983

                       - The Glamour Chase/Perhaps

                       - That White Car In Germany

                       - Associates in rehearsal - 1980

                       - The Tree That Never Sang

                       - What's Out There

Warners atone spectacularly for their less then perfect Popera compilation with this comprehensive double

several years in the making and bedevilled with all manner of licensing problems, acquisitions dramas

and nearly scuttled in the 11th hour by of all things a squabble over Genesis and their "love songs"

all tracks have been digitally remastered from the original masters

click to hear track

-     Disc One   1. Boys Keep Swinging 2. The Affectionate Punch 3. Tell Me Easter's On Friday 4. Kites 5. Q Quarters 6. Kitchen Person 7. A 8. Message Oblique Speech 9. White Car In Germany 10. Party Fears Two 11. Club Country 12. 18 Carat Love Affair 13. Love Hangover 14. Ice Cream Factory     Disc Two   1. A Matter Of Gender 2. Those First Impressions 3. Waiting for The Loveboat 4. Breakfast 5. Take Me To The Girl 6. Heart Of Glass 7. Country Boy 8. Fever 9. Fire To Ice 10. Waiting for The Loveboat (Slight Return) 11. Just Can't Say Goodbye 12. Baby 13. Colours Will Come 14. Pastime Paradise     -   Warner Music UK Ltd.     to order click here                                                                                                                 The Radio One Sessions 1981-1983    after the indulgence of a year in the studio having to record a peel session in half a day was an honour and cudgel worth taking up - recording at the bbc was rather like going back to school - outraged establishment figures in the canteen being snarled at  by an equally outraged john murphy outraged by their outrage! the discipline and sufferance these sessions enforced (almost) invariably yielded performances of invention and precision..... click to hear track -     1. Me Myself And The Tragic Story 2. Nude Spoons 3. A Matter Of Gender 4. It's Better This Way 5. Ulcragyceptimol 6. Waiting For The Loveboat 7. Australia 8. Love Hangover 9. A Severe Bout Of Career Insecurity 10. God Bless The Child 11. This Flame 12. Helicopter Helicopter 13. Theme From Perhaps 14. Perhaps (Schizophrenic Version) 15. Don't Give Me That I Told You So Look 16. Breakfast - A BBC Music Production with Strange Fruit     to order click here

The Glamour Chase/Perhaps  

click to hear track

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The Glamour Chase

1. Reach The Top

2. Heart Of Glass

3. Terrorbeat

4. Set Me Up

5. Country Boy

6. Because You Love

7. The Rhythm Divine

8. Snowball

9. You'd Be The One

10. Empire Of Your Heart

11. In Windows All

12. Heaven's Blue

13. Take Me To The Girl

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Perhaps

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"

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to order click here

Click here for a free download         

Burgundy Car In South Kensington                               

  the original white car in germany

bought to reduce taxi fares between the associate's rented house off the Fulham Road and Playground Studios - Camden, this 1962 Mercedes 220SE Convertible was much loved by the band - most frequently heard in-car sounds - "Rise" by Herb Alpert -

note the very rare juxtaposition of car and parking meter

    Holiday Inn - Swiss Cottage

    1981

    the making of sulk

rare diurnal shot of alan rankine

much of it was a blur

  The Tree That Never Sang                            

hyper rare associates track inspired by the, now cult, children's "tales from europe - singing ringing tree" (now available on video) which in a not infrequent burst of childhood nostalgia, the associate's attempted to buy the rights to -

click to hear         the tree that never sang

recorded at morgan studios willesden 1981 in the very small hours of the morning uniquely features backing vocal performances from all four band members mackenzie, rankine, dempsey & murphy.

Exclusive - Associates Rehearsal Session

Gloomy Sunday 

In 1980 The Associates had assembled a band for a series of dates in Scotland. Along with Billy & Alan were Australian drummer John Murphy and bass guitarist Michael Dempsey. E-Zee Hire Rehearsal Studios, in the shadow of Pentonville Prison, was a rather grim, but not untypical facility; dark, cold and smelly. Buoyed by enthusiasm though, The Associates assembled daily to work through their set. Despite the release of The Affectionate Punch being imminent and the purpose of the tour - to promote it; not for the first time the band perversely set about creating a series of new songs. Along with material such as Arrogance Gave Him Up, Nude Spoons and Bap de la Bap - which were to appear on Sulk, it was in this setting that the arrangement for Gloomy Sunday was chanced upon. 

The recordings you are about to hear were made on the most primitive of Philips Cassette recorders. Twenty years on we have managed to salvage something from this unique recording with all manner of processing too tedious to relate. Naturally, it all gets reduced again on the net.

Gloomy Sunday Part 1 - Stream Duration 5 Minutes.

In Part 1 you hear Billy dictating the bass line to accompany the guitar pattern "Watch Mike you don't follow Alan's syncopation". When the song settles down, Billy starts improvising a melody over this simple arrangement. Here he's looking for a lyrical idea that works with what he enjoyed as a track with a marked "Teutonic" (one of his favourite words) feel. Perhaps this European sound took him to Hungary. It ends with a familiar injunction to all he worked with - "Once more"!

Gloomy Sunday Part 2 - Stream Duration 6.45 Minutes.

 In Part 2 Billy states - "This is an idea -this is fucking mental really.....but"! and he launches into the lyric of "Gloomy Sunday".