Sigue Sigue Sputnik, anyone?

The emperors new clothes. Funny for about 5 minutes.

 

What I originally thought when they hit the scene (like a dayglo fright-wigged meteorite), but I wound really liking them. Flaunt It is a great album. Suicide produced by Giorgio Moroder, basically. The follow-up, Dress For Excess has its moments too, notably Albinoni vs Star Wars. The video's terrific:



Tony James is a very smart bloke.

 

Get these:

Flaunt it (You got your Sex Pistols "Never mind the bollocks", you got your Jesus and Mary Chain "Psychocandy", and you have this!)
Dress for Excess - more somber sounding followup to Flaunt it. Essential!!
Sci-Fi Sex stars (not credited to sputnik). Very, very essential, IMO.

Definitely get this as well:
Martin Degville - World War IV (at least as good as "Flaunt It", IMO).

Sputnik reunited for the new millennium with the following:

Piratespace (Warning: change of sound. More bassy, more muddy. Some good songs though)
Black Elvis (a couple of new songs, and a bunch of Elvis covers. Good.)
Ultra Real (aaaahhhh... this is the sputnik of 1986 and 1989..)

Sputnik broke up directly after "Ultra Real". Martin Degville has continued on making great music under the name "Sputnik 2: the future" as well as "Sigue Sigue Sputnik Electronik". He's actually released a LOT of product.... too much to actually keep track of.

And if you're really, really "hungry" for some more, track down the "Sputnik: Next Generation" CD, which is basically Sputnik without Degville and a younger singer instead. Very, very satisfying!

FIN.

 

This song was from the proposed 3rd Sigue Sigue sputnik CD (circa early 90's), that got derailed by Tony joining Sisters of Mercy. This song wound up on "Sci Fi Sex Stars" instead. Even though it is upbeat, a "somber tone" permeates it and gives me the chills. Let me know if you agree:



It is music like this that makes life worth living.

 

Very, very sputnik sounding, yes??

 

And of course, this is Sigue Sigue Sputnik at it's absolute finest:



Let's see if anyone can guess what this song is about... hee hee...

 

"Flaunt It" is a GREAT album!

I'm gonna have to chase up that comp with the 12" mixes.

 

Sputnik is way underrated. All people saw was the hype and they drank the newspapers kool aid, which essentialy became what most people think of them. It's a great exemple of how the dailies and the weeklies basically brainwashed people into what they should think. I know Martin, I met him way later in the early 00's and he is a wonderful individual, as well as probably the ultimate singer / frontman.

It took balls to walk dressed like he was back then. TJ SSS story is essential reading to get how wonderful this band was. http://www.sputnikworld.com/The_Sputnik_Story.html
Lots of links to Mick Jones and The Clash and BAD in that story.

I hanged out with TJ for a couple of days about a decade ago as I had invited him to DJ at a party in Paris. He is a great individual too, and he genuinely believes anything he states. I was happy to give him the first french Generation X magazine cover, from 1978, in color, which he never saw then, and now proudly hangs on his office wall.

I won't tell you how wild is hanging out with Martin thought. Find out by yourself

 

I liked Tony James. I was a fan of Generation X and then Gen X, so I was ready to embrace his next project.

 

Tony is nearly a professor. He's knowledge and culture and ethos on how to build a band should be followed by many, alas, not many current band does. It's like no one think beyond "let's do a band to get the girls" with a few that get lucky and get the money too. Any band should be thoroughly thought out, it's concept, place in musical history etc. That's what is brilliant about TJ, he does comes up with brilliant band concept, and actually succeed executing them. The only failure is failure by the media or record compagnies to follow suit.

 

TJ definitely has his PHD in Rock 'n' Roll. He turned himself into a pretty cool guitar player as well with Carbon/Silicon.

 

Something to note about either TJ or Billy Idol -- many artists are one note. They start on a scene, and fade away with it. Some like The Stones or Metallica get to sail through the years and the scenes, basically becoming corporations -- very rarely do you see an artist reinvent himself and his band from one scene to another. TJ and Billy both started out with Punk, reinvented themselves through the 80's, and through the 00's, TJ with Carbon Silicon and Idol on the "dinosaurs" scene. It takes truly a sharp mind and talent to achieve this and not be frozen in time and in nostalgia act.
Many think they are buffoons, but I truly respect these guys. They are true punk rockers at heart, whatever kind of music they make.

 

The mythical "pirate trailer" shown to the record companies to get the band signed, preserved now on youtube forever, warts and all

 

I've got Flaunt It, 20th Century Boys (Best Of), and The First Generation. That's enough for me. Great stuff.
Their debt to Suicide is immense.

 

Flaunt it just has been re-released in japan in a mini lp box made to look like the original LP box

 

Very nice, how's she sound?

 

Man I would love to hang with Martin!!!!

 

I have a bit, though only with TJ and Neil along, and from what I can tell, keeping up with Martin is a serious hang.

 

No idea about the eventual remaster of the Flaunt It reissue, I saw that picture on another board. Will probably get it from CDjapan

 

Also I think the japanese CD is a different mix from the European with different samples.

As far as I know, there are 3 different mixes of the LP, UK/Europe, USA (all the samples are different), and Japan.

The adverts also varies from country to country.

 

I must stand corrected, only two mixes exists. US + World. USA is not part of the world. However the adverts differs (on vinyl).

 

Love Missile is a great record, but that's about it for me.

 

Unedited Uncensored version

 

Did anyone get the Japanese boxed Flaunt It? And if so is it an improvement on the original 80s CD?

 

I ended up skipping it in fear of maximum compression syndrome plaguing some of these Japan issues
Surprisingly my US 1993 Cleopatra issue sounds good...