From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V1 #162 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Wednesday, November 11 1998 Volume 01 : Number 162 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Malka's pet fish [Andrew N Westmeyer ] Newman/Virgin Prunes FAQ [Andrew N Westmeyer ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 12:22:05 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Malka's pet fish Hi, I'm new to the list and this is my first post. Pink Flag rocks my world. :) Anyhow, I just got My Pet Fish yesterday and my CD player is already wearing grooves into it! This has got to be the best thing Swim has done to date. (Although "Prepare for the others to follow" still has the best album cover.) I don't have everything committed to memory yet - give me time - but here are what I would say are the highlights: "One", with it's reverse vocals, which I'm determined to figure out for the web page; "Like machines", with all of the guitars!; "The fishes and the shining sea", which I sang in the shower this morning; and "It's odd", which is a remake of "Rosh ballata", although this time in English. And I have a question for Charles "Van Halen" Snider - which riff do you play in "Like machines" and which did Ben Newman play? We need to sort these things out. :) (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 19:27:19 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Newman/Virgin Prunes FAQ Someone asked recently about the Virgin Prunes - Colin Newman connection. Here's a CN production FAQ which has been floating around (for a very short time :). This should answer the basic questions. BTW, 2 Virgin Prunes tracks ("Baby Turns Blue" and one other) are on the Gothic Rock 1 & 2 compilations by Cleopatra. If you're really interested in finding VP stuff, those might be the easiest places to try. A - --- Mr. Newman's production career has hardly been extensive but he has produced some siginificant records. More or less the entire list (if you don't count self productions and collaborations with Malka) consists of 4 items. 1. If I die I Die by the Virgin Prunes 2. Raging Souls by Minimal Compact 3. The Debutante by Sonoko (half the album) 4. Instar by Silo The Virgin Prunes was the first and produced by the same producer/engineer team (Newman/Steve Parker) that did Not To and the Singing Fish. Although everybody got on well, the Prunes were only happy with about half the album (they put all the tracks they liked on one side and the ones they didn't on the other side). Posterity seems to have judged it more on Newman's side than on the Prunes side as the album is generally viewed as their meisterwork, it was also a continual seller in it's original vinyl form up to the point when Rough trade (the original label) went bust making it one of the best selling records that any member of Wire has been involved in. The single "Baby turns Blue" was also the only Wire associated track to get serious daytime playlisting on the UK's main national Pop radio station Radio One (it was single of the week on the breakfast show which is pretty much the top rotational slot). The Prunes catalogue reverted to the band on Rough Trade's demise and they licensed it to New Rose, who also went bust. Political wrangling amongst the original members has kept the titles languishing unreleased until this day although the odd tracks appear on compliations. After the album was completed the Prunes and Newman fell pretty much out of communication. And the artistic standoff was not resolved until 1995 when during the Immersion installation at the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin the fences were mended and both Gavin and Googie came clean that they had judged the album too harshly. ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V1 #162 *******************************