Belle Stars Second album finally coming- 35 years late!

British ska/pop band (all girls, by the way) made three albums- the first was released in 1983 and contained the big hit singles "Sign of the Times", "Iko Iko" and "The Clapping Song", the second album was recorded in 1984, produced by Anne Dudley, but not issued (and a third in New York with Dominic Bugatti in 1986 but not fully completed.)
Now, finally, that second album is being released this year!

 

This is the sign of the times!

Someone had to say it.

 

Do you have any additional information about this album?

 

Tracks include:
Crime of Passion
Is This The Night
Paypack
Cool Disguise
It's Me
Fatal Flaw
and a live concert.
Apparently it's 3 CDs and a DVD.

 

Is the one that would have contained "World Domination"? A friend's older sister travelled back to London from the US and had a 12" mix of it on a cassette at the time and it sounded the business. They were long forgotten by then in the UK.

 

No, that's the third album!

 

Any pre-order links?label?

 

No pre-order yet but I'll link when it's available.

 

Great!thanks.

 

So this is material that hasn't showed up even on compilations, so I assume this wasn't recorded for Stiff. I am very curious about this. With Anne Dudley's involvement in 1984, it ought to be good.

 

The second album was recorded for Stiff and a couple of tracks emerged in 1984 including the single A side 80s Romance which is on compilations. But twelve other finished tracks remained unreleased.
Including this one:

 

All of the Belle Stars are very excited that this album is finally seeing the light of day.
Clare, Jenny, Judy and Lesley are still in the music biz to some degree or another so if you see them, ask them about it.
Stella, SJ and Miranda aren't in music any more- which is a shame as they were the original three founders of The Bodysnatchers with Nicky Summers in 1979 and went on to form The Belle Stars in 1981.
There was a rumour that the original Belle Stars studio recording of "Walk Like an Egyptian" which The Bangles did a carbon copy soundalike cover of was to be included but I don't know if it's been unearthed yet.

 

Just for interest, has something happened that suddenly made them decide to release this?

 

Yes, in a way. About 4 years ago very rare (unseen) promo videos for some of The Belle Stars early singles appeared suddenly on YouTube (unbeknownst to the band) and garnered a lot of interest which has grown ever since. 2 years ago three record companies were competing to release the completed but not released second album, but last year it was discovered that some of the multitracks were missing and it wasn't until this year that good quality tapes of the missing songs were found. This is the era of the "complete box set" so the decision was made to take that approach. Lots of rediscovered unpublished photos too. And an unissued live show.

 

cool
Interesting and bizarre

 

Just goes to show anything can happen in this day and age! A far cry from the Big Business Board Room driven Record biz of the past.

 

Well, still business driven. They saw some interest and figured they may get some money back on the recording costs lol
but it's cool. I'm pleased for the ladies, hopefully if it sells they will get some financial kickback

 

I have a treasured cherry red released dvd of the "BELLE STARS LIVE" That is amazing!!great band!I am excited about any new/old release!!!

 

NEVER heard Crime of Passion before - this live version is absolutely fantastic! You can certainly hear the parts Anne Dudley arranged loud & clear...is this clip from the live DVD that's available on Cherry Red? Very excited for the release of their second album finally

 

The Belle Stars always remained Londoners- they never sold out and became "Americanized" like so many other bands.

 

No, it hasn't been released... yet! The Cherry Red DVD is from their final gig the following year.

Me too

 

Ah - so the clip you posted is going to be on the DVD which is with the second album release? I will probably need to search out the Cherry Red DVD from the final gig anyway I think!! Cheers for the updates & exciting news

 

This looks like it's from the cherry red dvd....I don't have it in front of me at the moment but I'll confirm when I find it among my vast number of cds/dvds.i am not particularly organized!

 

It's an amazing dvd....as are the cherry red DVD's of FELT... YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS......THE GUN CLUB & THE CHAMELEONS!All worth seeking out!!

 

By the way, if you bump into them, this is what some of them look like in 2019:

Sarah Jane

Jennie

Clare

Miranda

Stella