A very early recording by the Enigma.
The original Play with Fire from the Manchester Musicians' Collective album Unzipping the Abstract. I remember hearing this for the first time at the Sawyers Arms in Manchester in a play through of the entire album. I was mightily impressed and especially as the band were all around 16 years old. A fantasitic menacing and minimalistic debut.
The original recording of Back to Reality made at Manchester Musicians' Collectives' Frank Ewart's flat.
Probably my all time favourite Enigma song. Again a poor recording but the pathos of the song is not lost. 'But it's been getting this way for far far too long' is heartbreaking. The verses seem to be about Oscar Wilde. A lovely mystery of a song. Martin wrote it when he was 16.
Very early Enigma recording. Sourced from very hissy cassette tape and heavily processed to extract the audio information. Strong track nevertheless. Great tom tom drumming by Martin O'Brian who supplied the CD of the tape
The Doors, Jim Morrison and the Velvet Underground are name-checked in this song as Relics of the 60s but in reality alot of the band were big fans of all the above.
'More tickets for parties' Hard to say whether this was ironic or not. 'Bluey Hills', in case you were wondering, was a fictional detective in the Australian cop series 'Bluey' played by stand-up comedian Lucky Grills.
'I say to you that it's alright, my haircut's really out of sight, I wear my trousers very tight, to show my bollocks' must be the greatest of rhyming (non rhyming) couplets since Joe Strummer's 'Well I believe in this, and it's been tested by research, he who fucks nuns, will later join the church' Great funky disco track about hating funky disco music. Great whistles too!
Early Enigma track. This track was included on Greater Manchester Punk Two Now We Are Heroes 1978 - 82 CD and vinyl on Vinyl Revival Records released in 2017.
It's a pity about the poor sound quality and the pitching problems, as My Friends is a beautiful, well constructed song about male friendship and the rejection of offered advice in favour of making ones own mistakes. A version of this song appears in the Legacy Vol 1 section of this website.
The Vibrators, The Clash, Joy Division and The Fall are name-checked in this call for only fast songs. Some nice stop starts too.
'Their hands are all out at the cash flow' Not sure what this on is about, but a good tune nevertheless.
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