Murphy is *very* hit or miss live these days, both vocally and with whatever band line up he has backing him. Never saw Bauhaus in the early 80's during their original run but did catch the '98 reunion at the Hollywood Palladium which was a mind-blowing show both due to how great the band was but also due to the audience which ranks as one of the most bizarre crowds I've ever seen a show with. Also saw them twice on their second reunion in '06 both as headliner and opening for Nine Inch Nails also great shows even if Murphy was starting to show his age. I highly recommend seeking out the officially released live DVD, "Gotham" from the '98 tour.
I scanned through the 5 albums Peter Murphy set. The bad news: All albums suffer from added compression and loudness. This is of course no surprise, however I still find it disappointing. I find them to be inferior, in all cases, to previously available CDs. The good news: The dynamics are not completely squashed. There is a good amount of previously unreleased or previously unavailable on CD material.
I am sorry, faulty memory. It is the version on 1979-1983 that is different, and it's not just the guitar on the intro that is different, it also has a little over a minute edited out.
Bauhaus with a PM drummer were lined up as the Riot Fest headliner the year after the Misfits. Someone got cold feet right before it was announced.
That’s the 7” edit from the 1982 UK Ziggy Stardust / Third Uncle 45, with the bass intro shorter, and other edits. It’s still the BBC version though.
While I am at it I would also like to correct myself concerning statements I made earlier in this thread concerning the version of Yin and Yang the Flowerpot Man on the Express CD I have been meaning to get into the weeds of Express on CD for quite some time, perhaps on a new thread. Briefly, there are several different masterings of Express. I currently have eight different CD pressings containing six unique masterings. versions (mixes) of Yin and Yang the Flowerpot Man and Ball of Confusion vary. I am without any UK pressings, so there may be at least one mastering I do not have. US pressed CDs have the original Yin and Yang, Canadian pressed CDs (including CA pressed US CDs) have the remix. The remastered 2001 BBL 2031 CD has both versions. I have: CA for US red face Big Time Love And Rockets - Express US blue ring RCA Love And Rockets - Express US silver face Big Time Love And Rockets - Express DE Ballaphon Love And Rockets - Express CA Vertigo Love And Rockets - Express CA BBL 74 Love And Rockets - Express JP 33CY-1144 Love And Rockets - Express US BEGA 2031 Love And Rockets - Express Both US CDs have the same masterings. Both CA CDs have the same masterings. The CA for US is a slight variation of the CA. Does anyone have and can anyone post the levels of either or both of the early UK CDs (BEGA & BBL 74)? Also is the BEGA 74 CD silver face, and is it pressed in the UK?
The UK BEGA / BBLs are a bit of a minefield. The very first UK BEGA74CD for Express was Made in Japan and is the only version I’m aware of that has a very high gloss booklet, incidentally. Then the BEGA74CD appeared a little later as a Made in UK disc with Mastered By Nimbus around the matrix. This same Nimbus Mastered disc was then reissued at mid price with the new BBL74CD cat number. Then the BBL74CD mid price appeared with another, non Nimbus disc inside it. There are variations of these, with UK or France manufactured discs. This last one was the last UK one before it was all started afresh with the 1999 BBL2031CD. The Nimbus discs I believe are all the same mastering whatever the catalogue number. But the non Nimbus BBLs and the very first UK Made in Japan disc are both different to the Nimbus and each other, in my experience, although I no longer have all of them. I still have a ton of Seventh Dream CDs and my favourite, (unique?) mastering FWIW is a BBL66CD containing a Made in France MPO disc! I can’t do levels, but I will offer that my Canadian Express CD is quiet, but obviously a copy tape used or something, whereas at the other end of the scale, the 1999 is loud, not brickwalled, but loud and slightly peak limited yet source and EQ are IMO superb. Horses for courses and all that!
Since this thread is back let me just add the Drastic Plastic reissues of Love and Rockets are excellent.
I concur! The Drastic Plastic lp's are very good (Kevin Gray cut the first two from cd masters- but they sound great). I was told Earth, Sun, Moon, was cut by Gray from the original tapes, which is probably why it sounds so amazing. Outside of Drastic Plastic, I also highly recommened the Bluray of Seventh Dream.
Earth Sun Moon was recorded all analogue too, which probably helps. Ash said in some interview they did it deliberately as they wanted to go back to basics a bit, hence the re-hiring of their old Bauhaus engineer Derek Tompkins and IIRC using his vintage gear and vintage studio (he was a lot older than the band and went way back to the 1960s).
The latest Express remaster was originally issued 2000 or thereabouts actually, not 1999. This is the version found in the in print 5 Albums box set.
I've always enjoyed seeing Peter live, so I'll be on board if this comes to the States. And I say this as someone who likes PM more for his solo material than Bauhaus. Should be a good show regardless. How would you describe In Glad Aloneness? I keep meaning to check it out, but it slides further and further down the to-buy list. Really? Granted, the last time I saw him was sometime around 2010, but I though he and the band were great. If I had a complaint, it was that the house sound was pretty brutally mixed and excessively loud - even with earplugs. PM was in good voice for a dude of his age screaming his head off and very charismatic (per the usual). My first PM show was only a few years before, so it's not like I have heady '80s or '90s memories of the man live, but I can't see that he's in particularly rough shape live. I'd even argue that he puts on a better show than most people closer to MY age in the rock world... The boost is definitely not destructive to the music. In some ways, it's actually kind of appealing because they did goose some rather anemic low frequencies relative to the original CDs. May not be to everyone's taste and I certainly need to spend more time with the new discs, but they sound great to my ears.
Quite an interesting feature from this week on the 30th anniversary of the Billboard Alternative Chart, focussing on Peter Murphy who had one of the chart’s earliest big hits with Cuts You Up: Why Peter Murphy's 'Cuts You Up' Was One of the Biggest Alternative Hits of the Pre-'Nevermind' '90s
Another good recent item: a 32 minute radio interview with David J, currently on tour with Peter Murphy. It's really interesting, about family, relationships, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, even some new (to me) titbits such as it was David who suggested to Daniel after Bauhaus ended, that Tones on Tail should become an ongoing, fuller project and that he should recruit Kevin. David liked Tones a lot it seems, nice! Lots of stuff about the inner workings of all the bau men and their bands, fascinating. Well worth your time, as is IMO supporting the new vinyl reissue of David's absolutely superb, masterpiece 1985 album Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh RETROPOPIC 171 - BAUHAUS SPECIAL: DAVID'S MUSICAL JOURNEY & WHY HE PERFORMED WITH PETER MURPHY AGAIN Crocodile Tears And The Velvet Cosh, by David J
David J and Peter Murphy flying out of Australia this week after their thunderous In the Flat Field tour there. Great picture. Peter Murphy Official Site: Photo
I just picked up Hot Trip To Heaven in the used bins last weekend and was surprised how electronic sounding the album is.
That's a real grower, IMO. David J mentions it in the recent interview linked upthread as still being one of the band's favourites. As he says though, commercial suicide as their "comeback" albun after the preceding 5 years spent on solo projects. Much of these guys best work wasn't commercially successful on release though: Crocodile Tears, Pop, Hot Trip, Dali's Car..
I have a few myself: BEGA 66 CD MPO france BBL 66 Nimbus CA Vertigo US RCA US BBL 2025 The MPO and the Nimbus share the same mastering. The Vertigo has the original album version of If There's a Heaven Above. Ball of Confusion is still shoved into the middle of the album, but God and Mr Smith is not tacked on at the end. It is decent sounding but not as good as the MPO or Nimbus. The RCA feels the need to outdo Express in the goofy track order department. It features a then new Re-mix of Dog-end of a Day Gone By. It also includes Inside the Outside. It is inferior, sound wise, to the Vertigo. The BBL 2025 is of course somewhat loud and compressed. It does have a couple of unique mixes as bonus tracks. Close to 30 years ago I lost my first CD in a mix up (I ended up with two RCAs). I seem to remember my original CD face looking like the Japan pressed Should the World Fail To Fall Apart, but that could be my mind playing tricks on me.
Tones on Tail-Everything! def worth tracking down for fans of similar if it hasn't already been mentioned.
Yeah the first Made in Japan Seventh, Express and Should the World all had that large Beggars logo on a silver face, your memory is right I agree with you about the Vertigo and RCA Sevenths, but although you’re right the 2025 remaster is louder etc, I do think it’s a good CD even though I tend to prefer the MPO to blast. The 2025 has excellent EQ and actually sounds more analogue to me than the original vinyl. It was remastered by the original producer too, John A Rivers, so I think for a couple of dollars it should be in fans of the album collections. Its mastering doesn’t IMO stop it sounding vastly superior to the trebly, feeble RCA.
While they're at it, and while we're briefly on the topic of Tones on Tail, I feel like Pop is waaaay overdue for a vinyl reissue (the original UK version, of course).
There seems to be a few Bauhaus and company threads going on. It's inspired me to listen to Love and Rockets self-titled tonight.