the Virgin Prunes, Gavin Friday - classic or dud

I succumbed. I caved in and bought the above `Prunes "rareities" compilation (after reading interviews with Gavin at www.virginprunes.com, I couldn't resist). Am happily not disapointed. Instant indication of quality: whilst blasting "Moments'n'Mine" here at work -- and mistakenly thinking everyone else had left -- a researcher from down the hall came in with a look of abject disgust and said: "What on earth are you listening to?" Heh!

Supposedly, all the re-issues have been sonically "baked," and the sound quality is light years better than the New Rose releases of a few years back. I was even tempted to buy If I Die, I Die.. for a third time. But wisely demured. Over the Rainbow is also appended with some archival photos, which is nice (if you care about such things). Hard to believe from listening to these recordings that they were so buddy-buddy with U2.

Hadn't realized Gavin had spinal surgery a couple of years back! My slight petulance over his seeming musical disappearance is now disspelled.

NED: Where the hell have you been? Sorry, but I need new music, and I need it now. I'm tired of waiting.

GAVIN: I can't feel me legs.

NED: Fair enough.

FADE TO BLACK.

Wow. I didn't know that either. Certainly explains a lot.

Well, yes and no:

http://www.virginprunes.com/archives/20040929sisterrayfans01.html

Yes, that's Gavin with the massive muttonchops -- and yes, that's Guggi next to him.

The three part interview on the virginprunes.com site starting here, which talks about the remastering/rerelease deal and so forth, is well worth a read.

He looks like a Rock Star out of a movie.

The way rock Stars should look.

Also, much to my amusement, trawling around the main fan site turned up this news item from last June:

http://www.virginprunes.com/news/prunes_at_i_love_music.html

!

It recently occurred to me that every NYC music venue I ever saw Gavin Friday perform in -- CBGB, Sin-e, The Bottom Line and The Westbeth -- is gone. :::sigh::::

arrrggh I cannot believe I have missed this thread.

My favorite, and in my opinion the most essential of, the allstar cast of Rough trade records circa 1980-83.

The New Form Of Beauty series deserves an entire essay that I don't have time to write this evening. Some of my all time favorite records, marrying theatrical excess and sonic experimentalism with song structure in a way that not much else has since.

They were on Touch & Go, for the last studio LP.

All the stuff was reissued by Mute on a series of double CD's a few years back ad should be findable, in order of amazingness:

New Form Of Beauty
If I Die, I Die
Over The Rainbow (includes Heresie and early singles iirc)
The Moon Looked Down And Laughed (Touch & Go LP)

There were also some excellent DVDs that went around on the net a while back, much welcomed because this was in many ways a live/visual band.

well I ripped my Mute reissues and by chance took a look in the wave editor, these CDs are ruined by a truly astonishing amount of clipping and overmodulation. really really disappointing, my vinyl rips sound way better.

Don't think "Come To Daddy" was nominated in the 10minutes plus poll. Such a fucking great song.

Some of their cds are going for crazy prices. I don't think the early singles are on any of them except Artfuck and some reissues have different bonus tracks. They really need a box set.

What the hell does Gavin Friday even do these days? Adam n Eve and Shag Tobacco are pretty neat albums.

those Mute reissues are clipped garbage, see my post above. avoid at all costs. that might explain why other CDs are going for more, though.

one of my favorite bands ever, at least before they "lost the ability to fly" to quote the Heresie 2x10" reissue liner notes

I've got the Mute versions and the sound fine to me. These are becoming a bit scarce and expensive too.

if you look at those files in a WAV editor you can see the clipping, it's not just an audiophile issue. thousands of samples per song are flatlined.

I'll try and listen out for that next time.

like, I grant you that the Rudimentary Peni remasters we discussed don't sound THAT different, but this is truly egregious overcompression, worst I've ever seen, and just lazy negligence on the part of whoever oversaw the reissues.

whomever, argh

I only bitch about this because I love these records so much. Also a total outrage/tragedy that the original artwork for the New Form series was apparently lost.

All the albums on Amazon's mp3 store appear to be the same Mute releases

of course (cries)

Man, I tried and tried to like this band . I was working at Tower when the reissues came out and bought them all. If I Die was alright and The Moon Looked Down Laughed had a couple okay songs, but overall, it was audio performance art and I wasn't into it.

Now, on the other hand, Gavin Friday's solo catalogue is awesome.

Shag Tobacco is one of the clearly overlooked classics of the '90s imo

man I don't know that shit at all, I like the fearless art/noise vibes a lot more than the cabaret overdose that I imagine he got into later

that being said, I should listen.

Austin, the New Form records are where it's at

If I die I Die is relatively straightforward and totally amazing. The transition from "Ulakanakulot" to "Decline and Fall" is sublime.

And the part in "Come To Daddy" that goes "I told you not to wear that dress" to him shouting "NO ONE CARES ABOUT MUMMY" is just incredibly awesome. So many other great things about it too.

I bought this one when it came out: https://www.discogs.com/Virgin-Prunes-A-New-Form-Of-Beauty/release/1159366

It was my least favorite of that remaster campaign.

That's the one I've got. I think it's been heavily abridged?

It's missing the live side of the Part 4 tspe

Colin Newman's fingerprints are all over "If I Die", which is what makes it their most consistent album.

Gavin's "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" is such a special record. A blend of his Scott Walker love and a touch of his Virgin Prunes weirdness. Totally slept on.

Like I said, I love Gavin Friday's solo discography. You want to talk about overlooked, but brilliant, his album Catholic from a few years back was fantastic and it was totally ignored.

Really impressed by The Moon Looked Down And Laughed (the Baby label version, not Mute), so many great songs and Gavin's voice is so wonderful. As much as I would have liked more of the early savage stuff, it has it's own fascinating strangeness and odd touches like Gavin sounding like he's buzzing with electricity at the end of "Love Lasts Forever". "Betrayal" is gorgeous, I think maybe it should have ended with that because it packs much more punch than the actual last track. I'm in two minds over whether they should have milked the "my whole world is on fire" part for longer. A beauty.

The old irish guy voice on Heresie is brilliant. Second track is like a subway nightmare.

I think The Moon Looked Down And Laughed is my favourite now, even though it doesn't really represent their usual style.

one of the more beautiful soundtracks i own is the Gavin Friday/Maurice Seezer score for THE BOXER. Very moving and haunting and moody, mostly, and an impressive achievement for guys who afaik haven't done much in the way of film scoring. it has some film dialogue mixed in sparingly, on a few of the tracks. it can probably be found for a couple bucks on ebay.

I'll keep it in mind.

Nice

their glory days, it just wasn't the same without Guggi :(

eons ago in college a friend had a bootleg cassette tape of a show where they did "Moon Looked Down And Laughed" tracks but with the 5-piece (6 if you count Dav-Id) lineup, wish I could find that somewhere

(sorry for revive, no news) How is there so much 1983 live footage from them on Youtube? Not complaining though, amazing

Ohohoh! Seen an expanded remaster of If I Die, I Die today! I think that's the only album reissue so far, some vinyl single reissues, and seemingly everything is available digitally.

Lots of new stuff on youtube, mini podcasts and video projects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdvpXJq5vis

thanks!

"2022 remaster" - I have no problems with the 2004 remaster?

I liked it too, but it was very clipped and Sleeve didn't like it, so I'm curious about what people say and if the extras are noteworthy

lol yeah don't get me started on those botched Mute CDs, more clipping than I have ever seen anywhere else ever

oh I see - yeah, the new remaster fixes that.

yeah this new LP remaster sounds great, can confirm

it's such a bummer that all the original artwork from this era seems to be lost, but there are tons of super cool new photos from the era that are used here to great effect, I'm still keeping the 1982 Italian Base pressing that I've had for decades because the art is all different but this is a worthy reissue and highly recommended

this is also available as a double CD with bonus tracks on the 2nd disc, I can't comment on the mastering here but I assume it's better than previous CD iterations
https://www.discogs.com/release/25162990-Virgin-Prunes-If-I-Die-I-Die

I can really hear the remastering details on "Bau-Dachong" which is my fave, I am thrilled

It would appear that "Fádo" from the 2004 reissue is different than "Fado (rough mix)" on the new release. The piano-driven second half of the former in particular doesn't appear in the latter.

Enjoyed that youtube series. I learned there's another 2 parts of A New Form Of Beauty that might yet be released (Gavin wouldn't tease us without delivering would he?), I was surprised that his favorite release was Heresie

If you can, find "The Hidden Lie".

It's a live album that I picked up at the old cut-out store in Old Town in Chicago.

It's my personal favorite Prunes album. Beautiful sound quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU9s85pTlz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbSSn2meuM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujlhMEHLrsE
4 part doc, on a channel with a treasure trove of Prunes/Gavin Guggi videos

thank you! gee I'd love to hear those other New Form parts before I die, or Gavin dies...

but hey, if I die, I die, right?

Okay, that documentary is badly cropped so I can't see the names of some of the speakers and there's more parts that I can't find, it obviously had longer to go