Three Factory Twelves in 24-Bit

Life - Dites Moi

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Benelux Records (FBN 37) to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. A couple of years back, I spent December ripping Factory Records for fun on ESWA. Here are a couple which didn't feature back then for your listening pleasure. Everybody incl. Blogmeister works so hard.

A1 Dites Moi
A2 Tell Me Theme
B Tell Me

The Wake - Talk About The Past

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 88) in 1984 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio.

A1 Talk About The Past
B1 Everybody Works So Hard

Miaow -When It All Comes Down

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 179) in 1987 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio.

A1   When It All Comes Down (Catechism)
B1   Did She
B2   When It All Comes Down

Moving With The Times

The Wake - On Our Honeymoon (Plus....)

Ripped from a 7" vinyl single released on Scan 45 Records (SCN 1) in 1982 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. Time for a re-rip re-post, call it what you like ....this time with a few extras thrown in for good measure. This is a wonderful post-Altered Images, pre-Factory, self-financed release by Caesar and his chums (inc. Bobby Gillespie) on their own Scan 45 label. On Our Honeymoon is a delightful indie-pop song backed with the darker Give Up. Still to this day, I love Caesar's voice - he always sounds so sorry for himself. I've heard other songs by the band before they signed to Factory and they are much in the same vein, I suggest a closer examination of the archive on this one.......

A1 On Our Honeymoon
B1 Give Up

hint, hint....look in the archive.

Lost And Lonely Souls

The Wake - Harmony

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Factory Records (FACT 60) in 1982 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. The melancholic debut by The Wake will always be a personal favourite as it evokes great memories of my youth discovering new and different music, plus I always preferred the sad songs. I am certainly not a down type of person but Caeser's voice seems to be such a gentile and unique fit to these sombre yet tender moments. Testament and An Immaculate Conception remain two of the finest tracks recorded on to a Factory Record. 

A1 Judas
A2 Testament
A3 Patrol
A4 The Old Men
B1 Favour
B2 Heartburn
B3 An Immaculate Conception

Tidal Wave of Kevins

The Wake - Tidal Wave Of Hype

The fourth The Wake album opens with a rock riff. Look away, cover your ears, it can't be? It's four years on from Make It Loud and Caesar is still angry, and boy is he pissed off. Songs like Shallow End, Crasher, Selfish and I Told You So are essentially alternative rock songs, Provincial Disco and Britain have a dance backbeat. Only Back Of Beyond, Down On Your Knees and the lovely Solo Project are slightly recognisable as The Wake we all know and love. At last, everybody we know called Kevin is now immortalised in song. 

Ripped from a compact disc album released on Sarah Records (SARAH 618CD) in 1994 to high quality lossless flac audio.

01. Shallow End
02. Obnoxious Kevin
03. Crasher
04. Selfish
05. Provincial Disco
06. I Told You So
07. Britain
08. Back Of Beyond
09. Solo Project
10. Big Noise, Big Deal
11. Brit Mix

Quiet Please!

The Wake - Make It Loud

My fondest memory of The Wake were the Factory years. The debut Harmony album, the Something Outside single and the first Peel session are among my favourite artifacts from their formative years. They disappeared after the sublime Here Comes Everybody album in 1985, appeared briefly in 1987 with the uninspiring Something That No One Else Could Bring, and then vanished completely for another few years before reappearing on Sarah Records.

Something had changed, Caesar had bought a fuzz pedal for his guitar, his songs were angrier, wittier and more challenging. Gone was the charm, the innocence and the delightful melancholy which The Wake were best at. Ok, I know that a lot had changed in the musical world, C86 had been and gone, and Factory had failed to maximise the band's profile during the peak of eighties guitar pop. By listening to Caesars lyrics, it is also clear that the split from Factory was not amicable - just listen to Joke Shop. I still enjoy listening to Make It Loud these days purely because Carolyn Allen singing "Sensual, makes me tingle" on Cheer Up Ferdinand is one of my favourite moments in Britpop. The Wake had now lost their innocence.

Ripped from a compact disc album released on Sarah Records (SARAH 602CD) in 1990 to high quality lossless flac audio.

1. English Rain
2. Glider
3. Firestone Tyres
4. American Grotto
5. Joke Shop
6. Holy Head
7. Henry's Work
8. Cheer Up Ferdinand

The Wake - Crush The Flowers

I must admit that I was disappointed with the Sarah Records output by The Wake when I first listened to it. Gone were those gorgeous plucked guitar melodies, subtle drums and synth washes, Caesar had changed his vocal style, Carolyn was allowed to sing more and the band's sound had tilted more towards indie-pop/C86, or maybe even twee pop which Sarah was famous for. In hindsight, the final Factory EP was a hint at this change.

Regardless, I bought this, in it's wraparound flimsy sleeve with postcard and twee little bit of paper acting as a Sarah Records mail order catelogue. All of these are scanned and within the archive.

Crush The Flowers : ripped from a 7" vinyl single released on Sarah Records (SARAH 21) in 1989 to high quality FLAC audio.

A. Crush The Flowers

B. Carbrain

Hear

The Wake - On Our Honeymoon

Recently reissued by Capture Tracks for Record Store day and now deleted, here's a lossless rip of my original 1982 Scan 45 7" release of The Wake's debut. I see that copies of this are going for 118Euros on GEMM and 150Euros on Discogs. Anybody willing to make me a decent offer my my copy?

This is a wonderful post-Altered Images, pre-Factory, self-financed release by Caesar and his chums (inc. Bobby Gillespie) on their own Scan 45 label. On Our Honeymoon is a delightful indie-pop song backed with the darker Give Up. Still to this day, I love Caesar's voice - he always sounds so sorry for himself.

I've heard other songs by the band before they signed to Factory and they are much in the same vein. Full high resolution scans included, this time also featuring the inner bag and outer pvc bag which protected the wraparound sleeve.

On Our Honeymoon : ripped from a 7" vinyl single released on Scan 45 (SCN 1) in 1982 to high quality lossless FLAC audio.

A. On Our Honeymoon

B. Give Up

Enjoy

The Wake - BBC Radio David Jensen Session

A few weeks ago, I was very pleased to receive a CDR of this session from a blog donor (who wishes to remain anon) of this session. I used to have it on tape - recorded on day of broadcast from AM radio. The tracks were eventually to appear some 17 years later on the Assembly live album but still they sounded as if recorded off the radio.

These versions do not!

Rise and Shine was reworked a few years later and became Sail Through (on the Here Comes Everybody album) and Make You Understand morphed into two songs, World Of Her Own (on the same LP) and the single. Of The Matter. Talk About The Past was later re-recorded with Vini Reilly to become an indie hit for Factory Records, and Simon Topping added percussion to Calender and it became Torn Calender.

The session was recorded for the BBC Radio One's David 'Kid' Jensen and broadcast on his evening show on 16th February 1984.

In the order originally broadcast:
1. Rise And Shine
2. Make You Understand
3. Talk About The Past
4. Calender

Enjoy



The archive contains lossless FLAC files rather than MP3s

The Wake - Live At The Rock Garden

The first lossless FLAC posting is ripped from an audio bootleg tape bought in Manchester in the Summer of 1984.
It has two shows by one of my favourite Factory Records bands, The Wake. The first recorded from the audience at Covent Garden's Rock Garden in September 1983, features the band covering Stevie Wonder's Living In The City amongst others.
The second show, has the band on a New Order support slot (with a highly appreciative large audience) in Glasgow from earlier that year.

London Rock Garden : 8th September 1983
1. Something Outside
2. Rise and Shine
3. Sail Through
4. Living In The City
5. Talk About The Past
6. Here Comes Everybody
7. Make You Understand*
8. The Calender*
*Live in Wishaw 7th March 1984

Glasgow Tiffanys : 14th April 1983
1. The Drill
2. Uniform
3. Something Outside
4. Heartburn
5. Host
6. Country Of The Blind
7. The Old Men
8. Recovery

Download: Part One : Part Two : Part Three : Part Four : Part Five

You must download all five RAR files then extract as one complete file. Rapidshare account users can do this simultaneously (and at great speed), others must wait a while between downloads.

The Wake - Something Outside

There was a time when I proudly stated that this was my favourite single of all time. Now, in my mid-40's, I no longer make such brave statements, nor do I have any faves of all-time. Something Outside still, for me, ranks as one of the most wonderful records I have ever heard and those sublime guitar plucks with wide lush, washover keys still get the hairs on the back of my kneck standing on end.

I first heard this on Kid Jensen's evening show in late 1983, fell in love with it immediately and bought it in Manchester's old Virgin store the following day.

This was Bobby Gillespie's final contribution to The Wake and his top-string reggae bassline is, for me, his most significant. He is no musical genius and was infact sacked from the band for his lack of ability. Anybody who has heard Rock The Shack will no doubt agree. ;-)

Something Outside: Ripped from a 12" single released on Factory Benelux (FBN 24) in 1983
A. Something Outside
B. Host

Hear