Lloyd Cole And The Commotions Collected Recordings 1983-89 Box Set

	£		36
	$		48

This Box Set retails at £51 and is brand new and unwrapped

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Collected Recordings 1983-1989

5 CDs, 1 DVD and a book, in a box.

We began work on this in February 2014. It’s been a lot of work. There were two product managers. Joe Howard (son of Dr Robert Howard) initiated the project and then moved on. Lewis Robinson took his place. Lewis and I have exchanged hundreds of emails as we tracked down the original tapes, cassettes, u-matics, and Ian Jones at Abbey Road has done a fabulous job in transferring them to CD.

All three studio albums are included, all three are re-mastered, but we did very little to Mainstream other than adjust level. Bob Ludwig’s original work was near perfect and still sounds great almost 30 years later. The original 1/2? mixdowns of Easy Pieces could not be used as the tape had disintegrated and baking, etc could not save it. We worked from the 1/4? back up (made the same day as the 1/2? for this very reason) and to my ears the album is significantly improved. The big news, to my ears, is Rattlesnakes. We were able to use the original 1/2? tapes and upon hearing a ‘flat transfer’ I was shocked at how far we had strayed from the original recordings over the years. I sent the files to the band to listen to to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. Is this as great as I think it is? They agreed. We decided to make the new CD as close as possible to the original tapes. The trade off would be volume. If we wanted the album to sound loud, then we would lose the dynamics which were what was making it sound better. We chose the sound over the loudness. You have a volume control on your stereo. You can turn it up if you need to.

The first bonus CD is all our collected b-sides, not including live recordings, unless they were songs we hadn’t recorded in the studio – so the 1986 recordings from New York are there. The only remix included is our own extended mix of My Bag, as we all pretty much agreed it was the only decent dance mix we ever made.

The final CD is rarities, from the unreleased 1983 single Down At The Mission, the 1985 Paul Hardiman recordings, the 1986 Paris recordings with Chris Thomas, demos, etc. Pretty much everything we recorded which wasn’t a complete disaster is here. Full track listing below.

The book contains an extensive essay by Pete Paphides, who spent way more time and wrote many more words than was originally the plan. He spoke to all the protagonists. It’s a lovely story, if a little sad, at times.

Lloyd Cole Collected Recordings_3D

Disc one – Rattlesnakes

1. Perfect Skin

2. Speedboat

3. Rattlesnakes

4. Down on Mission Street

5. Forest Fire

6. Charlotte Street

7. 2cv

8. Four Flights Up

9. Patience

10. Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?

Disc two – Easy Pieces

1. Rich

2. Why I Love Country Music

3. Pretty Gone

4. Grace

5. Cut Me Down

6. Brand New Friend

7. Lost Weekend

8. James

9. Minor Character

10. Perfect Blue

Disc three – Mainstream

1. My Bag

2. from the Hip

3. 29

4. Mainstream

5. Jennifer she said

6. mr. Malcontent

7. Sean Penn Blues

8. Big Snake

9. hey Rusty

10. These Days

Disc four – B-Sides, Remixes & Outtakes

1. The Sea and The Sand

B-side to Perfect Skin

2. You Will Never Be No Good

B-side to Perfect Skin

3. Andy’s Babies

B-side to Forest Fire

4. Glory

B-side to Forest Fire

5. Sweetness

B-side to Rattlesnakes

6. Perfect Blue (Hardiman mix)

B-side to Jennifer She Said

7. Jesus Said

B-side to My Bag

8. Brand New Friend

1985 Wessex Studio recording. Previously unreleased

9. From Grace

Unfinished 1985 Wessex Studio recording. Previously unreleased

10. Her Last Fling

B-side to Brand New Friend

11. Big World

B-side to Lost Weekend

12. Nevers End

B-side to Lost Weekend

13. Mystery Train (Recorded live at The World, New York, 1986)

B-side to Jennifer She Said

14. I Don’t Believe You or (Recorded live at The World, New York, 1986)

B-side to Jennifer She Said

15. Love Your Wife

B-side to From The Hip

16. Lonely Mile

B-side to From The Hip

17. Please

B-side to From The Hip

18. My Bag (Dancing Mix)

12” single

Disc five – Demo Recordings & Rarities

1. Down At The Mission

Unreleased single A-side

2. Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

Unreleased single B-side

3. Patience

Demo recording

4. Eat My Words

Demo recording

5. Forest Fire

Demo recording

6. Perfect Skin

Demo recording

7. Poons

Demo recording

8. Old Hats

Demo recording

9. You Win

Demo recording

10. Old Wants Never Gets

Demo recording

11. Another Dry Day

Demo recording

12. 29

Demo recording

13. Jennifer She Said

Demo recording

14. Hey Rusty

Demo recording

15. Everyone’s Complaining

Unreleased recording. Studio Grande Armée (Paris). Produced by Chris Thomas

16. Mr Malcontent

Unreleased recording. Studio Grande Armée (Paris). Produced by Chris Thomas

17. Jennifer She Said (Polished Rough Mix)

Unreleased recording. Sarm Studios (London). Produced by Stewart Copeland and Julian Mendelsohn

18. Hey Rusty

Unreleased recording. Sarm Studios (London). Produced by Stewart Copeland and Julian Mendelsohn

DVD – Promotional videos & television performances

Promotional videos

1. Perfect Skin

2. Forest Fire

3. Rattlesnakes

4. Brand New Friend

5. Lost Weekend

6. Cut Me Down

7. My Bag

8. Jennifer She Said

9. From The Hip

10. Mainstream

Television performances

11. Perfect Skin (Top of the Pops, June 1984)

12. Rattlesnakes (The Old Grey Whistle Test, November 1984)

13. Speedboat (The Old Grey Whistle Test, November 1984)

14. Brand New Friend (Wogan, September 1985)

15. Brand New Friend (Top of the Pops, September 1985)

16. Lost Weekend (Top of the Pops, November 1985)

17. Mister Malcontent (Recorded live in concert at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, June 1986)

18. My Bag (Wogan, September 1987)