Night Moves – March 2018

I must say it doesn’t seem nearly 3 months since we last posted to tell you of our plans for 2018…

This is probably because we’ve been so busy working on all these projects that we hadn’t noticed how fast the time was going… so better late than never, here’s the promised update!

We are delighted to be able to give you more details of the long-awaited definitive edition of Fact and Fiction. It will be a 3xCD set (with additional material available later by download).

Here’s an extract from the sleevenotes explaining the concept…

Fact and Fiction is the latest of our original albums to be given the Definitive Edition treatment. However, in a change to the previous releases I felt that, rather than augment the original LP with other tracks that featured in the band’s live set at the time, this time we should just focus on the original tracks and give a glimpse of how they had developed through the various processes of writing, rehearsing, demoing, recording, and finally being played live.

I’m delighted to say that we have been able to represent all of these in this release. In addition, as a number of cover versions and reworkings already existed, we commissioned new recordings from band members, contemporaries and current artists to show how other artists interpreted the tracks. We think these complement our own versions, and bring out the true strength of the original songs.

The content of the three CDs is as follows. Disc One – Studio 1982, Disc Two – Live 1983-2012 and Demos 1982, Disc Three – Covers & Interpretations 1983-2018.

Disc One includes all the recordings done at Revolution Studios: the album, the single, and the original version of Human Being.

Disc Two includes a live version of each album track compiled from a number of different sources enabling us to show how Geoff, Andy and Mark (and the rest of us) interpreted the songs on stage. Several of these recordings are previously unreleased, most notably three tracks recorded at Geoff’s farewell shows in 1983 (two from the night not featured on the Live and Let Live album), specially remixed for us by Karl Groom. There are also as-they-were-played renditions of World Without End and Creepshow, the latter from 2012’s Summers End show, described by Prog magazine’s Jerry Ewing as “simply amazing!” And, as an encore, the guitar-based version of Fact and Fiction from the forthcoming A Night To Remember, recorded at the Barbican in December 2012.

The live tracks are followed by the demos, recorded in our favourite local studio (where we recorded Blondon Fair for Virgin several years later). For the first time we are including the demo of Creepshow (closing section) which starts with a completely different speech. Originally titled ‘After The Bomb Drops’, this was later replaced by the ‘Nerve Centre, Mirror one’. This early version references the ‘haphazard planning for nuclear war’ lyrics of Fact and Fiction.

Disc Three contains at least one version of all the original album’s eight tracks. We would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has allowed us to include their recordings. The contributors read like a list of prog-rock royalty, and include Tim Bowness (successful solo artist, No-Man with Steven Wilson), Clive Nolan (Arena, Pendragon, Caamora), Galahad, Coburg, (featuring the enchanting voice of Anastasia Coburg) Pendragon, Alan Reed & Kim Seviour, the Eh Geoff Mann Band, and last (but most certainly not least) our own ‘musical superhero’ Mark Spencer, who has given us advance mixes of two tracks that he hopes to release on his own album in the future.

Later on we plan to make available, by download, a further 60 minutes or so of material – that we couldn’t find room for on the 3 CDs. This will include some of the earliest incarnations of the ‘F&F’ tracks, some as they were being written! In addition more tracks from rehearsals, live versions featuring some special guests, and at least one other radical reworking… ;-)

To accompany the CDs there are some extensive, sleevenotes written specially, including an extract from Michael Anthony’s ‘Words & Music’ book that reviews Geoff’s lyric writing in incisive detail.

In addition we have never-before seen scans of some of Geoff’s original handwritten lyrics and sketches, as well as new photos, etc. As Paul Tippett is once again in charge of Art & Design you can be sure it will be lovingly put together!

In total the 3CD set will have no less than 39 tracks, many previously unreleased. As it is a VERY special release celebrating, not only the music but also, the words of our dear friend Geoff, we plan to make a significant donation to charity from each copy sold. As a result we are setting the retail price at £ 15.

I’m delighted to say that it will be released in conjunction with Festival Music on the F2 record label, the home of all our previous Definitive Edition releases. If all goes to plan the official release date will be 1st May, however we will shortly be inviting pre-orders, via our web-site, as this will help us greatly in deciding exactly how many CDs to make in the first pressing!

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Work continues on the audio and video for A Night To Remember, our Barbican show recorded in December 2012. Only last week (Mar 5) several of us rocked up at the Barbican to film some interviews to be included as part of the extras. Thank you to SamS, MarkF, MartinF, and AndrewG (our ‘Vox Pops’), Stu Calder for facilitating, and David Read for filming.

David is also working on the other extras and the artwork for this release, while Mark Spencer polishes up the final mixes, that is between recording, rehearsing and gigging with no less than 4 other bands! Alan Reed, Galahad, the C:live Collective, and Coburg…

We plan separate BluRay, DVD, Double CD, and Download releases later this Spring – before the World Cup starts! 

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As we mentioned last time Andrew Wild has updated and expanded Play On, our official biography. It will have about another 60 pages covering the period from 2008-2018, and will be issued after the Fact & Fiction and Barbican releases so it can be right up to date. This should be early summer and it will, once again, include the Play On DVD – our complete archive of memorabilia: news stories, photographs, rare videos and lots of music unavailable elsewhere.

At the moment we are assuming that most of you that already have the first edition will not want to buy another copy, and his will be reflected in the initial print run. However should this not be the case, PLEASE let us know, and we’ll make some more!

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The C:Live Collective, album ‘The Age Of Insanity’ has just been released, with the gig at Winter’s End in Chepstow confirmed for the end of April.

More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/theclivecollective/.

We’ve not seen any official reviews yet, but there are stunning renditions of We Are Sane (The First Estate part 1) and This City (is London) on it!

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Posted Apr 3rd 2018