After The Fire: Bright Lights 1974-1983, 6CD Box Set

[discoginfo]

Lots of unreleased stuff it seems

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/after-the-fire-bright-lights-1974-1983-6cd-box-set

• The definitive collection of After The Fire, 'Bright Lights' contains all of the bands five albums as well as demos, B-sides and live tracks, with 12 recordings that are issued here on CD for the first time and 14 that are completely unreleased.

• The project has been overseen by founding member Peter Banks who, along with members Andy Piercy and John Russell, has been interviewed exclusively for the sleeve notes and has also opened up his photo archive, providing a wealth of rare images.

Disc One features the band's debut album 'Signs Of Change' as well as bonus tracks.

Disc Two contains three early demos, previously unreleased on CD as well as 13 previously unreleased demos recorded in preparation for 'Laser Love'.

Disc Three features 'Laser Love' that includes hit single 'One Rule For You' as well as rare single edits, B-sides and live tracks.

Disc Four includes '80-f' as well as nine recordings that have never been issued on CD before, including rare B-sides and seven tracks from the original version of '80f'.

Disc Five contains 'Batteries Not Included' and two bonus tracks.

Disc Six features 'AT2F', one track unreleased on CD, a completely unreleased track as well as a rare extended version of the band's hit 'Der Kommissar'.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

Signs Of Change

1 Dance Of The Marionette

2 Back To The Light

3 Now That I've Found

4 Signs Of Change

5 Jigs

6 Pilgrim

Bonus Tracks

7 Samaritan Woman

8 Dreamaway

9 Hallelujah

10 Back To The Light (Demo)

DISC TWO

Early Demos & Pre-Laser Love demos

1 Here On My Island (Previously unreleased on CD) 2 Psalm (Previously unreleased on CD)

3 Choice (Previously unreleased on CD)

4 Time to Think (Previously unreleased)

5 Listen to Me (Previously unreleased)

6 Check it Out (Previously unreleased)

7 You Never Told Me (Previously unreleased) 8 Suspended Animation (Previously unreleased)

9 Can You Face It? (Previously unreleased)

10 Your Love is Alive (Previously unreleased)

11 Little Sun, Little Rain (Previously unreleased)

12 Beatles Medley/Help! (Previously unreleased)

13 Life in The City (Previously unreleased)

14 Like the Power of a Jet (Mix 3) (Previously unreleased)

15 One Rule (Previously unreleased)

16 Suspended Animation (Previously unreleased)

DISC THREE

Laser Love

1 Laser Love

2 Joy

3 Take Me Higher

4 Life In The City

5 Suspended Animation

6 Like The Power Of A Jet

7 One Rule For You

8 Time To Think

9 Timestar

10 Check It Out

Bonus Tracks

11 Your Love Is Alive (B-side of 'Laser Love' 7")

12 Life In The City (12" version)

13 Listen To Me (B-side of 'Life In The City' 7")

14 One Rule For You (Live) (Live Rainbow Nov 79) (Promo)

15 Time To Think (Live) (Live Rainbow Nov 79) (Promo)

16 Take Me Higher (Live) (B- side to 'Frozen Rivers' 7")

DISC FOUR

80-f

1 1980-F

2 Love Will Always Make You Cry

3 Can You Face It?

4 Who's Gonna Love You (When You're Old And Fat And Ugly)?

5 Starflight

6 Wild West Show

7 Billy, Billy

8 It's High Fashion

9 Why Can't We Be Friends?

10 Joanne

Bonus Tracks

11 Why Can't We Be Friends? (B-side of 'Love Will Always Make You Cry' 7")

12 Every Mother's Son (B-side of 'Love Will Always Make You Cry' 7") (Promo)

13 Starflight ('80-f' Four Track Sampler) (Previously unreleased on CD)

14 Love Will Always Make You Cry ('80-f' Four Track Sampler) (Previously unreleased on CD)

15 It's High Fashion ('80-f' Four Track Sampler) (Previously unreleased on CD)

16 1980-F ('80-f' Four Track Sampler) ) (Previously unreleased on CD)

17 Wild West Show (7" version) (Previously unreleased on CD)

18 Billy Billy (Live) (B-side of 'Rich Boys' 7") (Previously unreleased on CD)

19 Another World (From unreleased version of '80-f') (Previously unreleased on CD)

20 Operator (From unreleased version of '80-f') (Previously unreleased on CD)

21 Satellite in Orbit (From unreleased version of '80-f') (Previously unreleased on CD)

DISC FIVE

Batteries Not Included

1 Short Change

2 Frozen Rivers

3 Sometimes

4 Sailing Ship

5 I Don´t Understand Your Love

6 The Stranger

7 Rich Boys

8 Carry Me Home

9 Dancing In The Shadows

10 Space Walking

11 Gina

12 Stuck In Paris (Nowhere To Go)

13 Bright Lights

Bonus Tracks

14 Nobody Else But You (B- side of 'Dancing In The Shadows" 7")

15 Starflight (Live)

DISC SIX

AT2F

1 Young Love

2 Step By Step

3 Don't Say Goodbye

4 Cariba

5 Who Do You Think You?

6 Dark Side

7 1984-F

8 Over And Over

9 It's Over

10 Night Is Still Falling

11 It's Over (No Voiceover)

12 Genz

13 Space Walking (Demo)

14 Stand By Me (Demo 2)

Bonus Tracks

15 I'm Bored (Demo) (Previously unreleased)

16 Starflight (new version)

17 Sternenflug (7" version) ) (Previously unreleased on CD)

18 Der Kommissar (7" version)

19 Der Kommissar (Specially Extended Remixed Version) 7”

[jaybag]

This is great to see. There was a compilation a few years back that included the Laser Love, 80-F and Batteries Not Included albums but in a few cases they shortened a few of the songs so they'd fit on the CD ("with the approval of the band", IIRC) and the mastering was considered subpar. Hopefully this new box set will make things right!

[awrc]

It was a little worse than just badly mastered, the Edsel set was mastered entirely from vinyl.

I have to say that while I was initially very excited by the news of the Bright Lights box, the absence of anything along the lines of “produced from the original master tapes” in Cherry Red’s blurb for the set has me very wary. Yes, the box set was overseen by Memory Banks himself, but this is being produced by Cherry Red.

It’s one reason I’ve not pre-ordered (the other being Cherry Red’s tendency to release big or involved sets six months or more after the originally announced date). When the set does appear, if it’s not from vinyl, I’ll buy.

[oldwaver2]

It sad to see so many great under appreciated 80s artists recording's never see a digital release and some Prog-rock band does a blatant cover of an already popular international club hit and gets so much attention. I'm glad Falco had some major attention later on and didn't become a footnote like Robert Hazard or Racey.

[discoginfo]

Many of the early tracks in this Box Set are previously unreleased = not issued on vinyl before = not ripped from vinyl for this box.

[awrc]

As for the previously unreleased stuff, it’ll be very interesting to hear, but I’m still hopeful that the CBS albums will be from the masters. The comments I saw re the previous box suggested that it was from vinyl because that was all they could get, not that the masters had been destroyed. For me, the albums are important as the unreleased stuff, my original albums disappeared long ago. The inclusion of tracks from the original version of _80-F_ - presumably the Tony Mansfield-produced one - does make me hope they’ve got access to the vaults this time.

Very disappointed to see somebody bashing the band re “Der Kommissar” - it’s a 6CD set, 90-odd tracks yet it includes just the 7” and one remix of that track, which puts it properly in perspective. Yes, the first album was prog rock, but they put out three good albums that were synth-driven new wave, and the band teetered on the edge of making it big, but disbanded, recording the Falco covered right at the very end, when the label desperately tried to get them to reform to plug it *and they didn’t*. They were very definitely deserving of proper releases of those albums.

As for other bands that deserve to be heard on digital, these days the bar has been set very low by the streaming services and Qobuz. All sorts of stuff turns up - the Eddie & Sunshine album, plus two singles (all mastered from vinyl, alas), stuff by Secession, and so on. Even Win’s debut album is on the streaming services - ripped from the 1987 release of the CD (which still sounds better to me than the LNFG release, although the latter *does* have those Peel session tracks). There’s labels like Medical and Dark Entries putting out all sorts of obscure stuff on Bandcamp. Yes, there’s still stuff that’s ignored, and I’d love to see Cherry Red do a 2CD version of their Freur release with both albums in full, plus extras, but Cherry Red doing this set is *not* at the expense of obscurities.

[discoginfo]

About track 11 "Why Can't We Be Friends" on disc 4, this is a live version and it says "B-side of Love Will Always Make You Cry", and it is correct that it was the B-side to that single, however, on the vinyl it does not mention it is live, which is strange, and I don't have the vinyl to check it, does anyone have the original vinyl and could check? Thanks!

[jaybag]

About track 11 "Why Can't We Be Friends" on disc 4, this is a live version and it says "B-side of Love Will Always make Me Cry", and it is correct that it was the B-side to that single, however, on the vinyl it does not mention it is live, which is strange, and I don't have the vinyl to check it, does anyone have the original vinyl and could check? Thanks!

Discogs showed the following note on the Love Will Always Make Me Cry single: "The B side, Why can't We Be Friends, is a studio recording, with added crowd noise to create the illusion of a live recording."

[discoginfo]

Thanks for info, I missed that! Not sure, though, how "Juleshynam" knows that - good ears, or inside info?

[jaybag]

Thanks for info, I missed that! Not sure, though, how "Juleshynam" knows that - good ears, or inside info?

You dare question the acumen of Juleshynam??? Ha yeah I had that same thought but it does sound a lot like the studio version - maybe just an extended version?