Blue Orchids - reissues, new album, Martin Bramah solo album

[midnighttoneon]

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/blueorchids

Now up at PledgeMusic, a whole slate of releases from Blue Orchids! Formed by two founding members of The Fall (Martin Bramah and Una Baines) plus another early member, Eric McGann (aka Rick Goldstraw), Blue Orchids quickly singed to Rough Trade and released a string of great records - the singles "The Flood" and "Work," their debut album "The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain" and the "Agents of Change" EP before the original line-up shattered, with later versions of the band featuring members of The Smiths, James, Dislocation Dance, The Monochrome Set and more. They were also the backing band for Nico from the Velvet Underground for quite a while. Their releases have been infrequent, but now, all at once, they're issuing:

"Awefull" - an LP-only release which gather all the Rough Trade label non-LP material and extra tracks. The PledgeMusic campaign exclusively adds a special booklet with lyrics and notes, a badge and a download card with extra tracks - demos and outtakes from the era.

Martin Bramah's never really released "The Battle Of Twisted Heel" is an LP / CD and contains the same bonuses (as above) only in versions specific to this release. The download card in particular has a lot of great stuff, incluing a collaboration with Jon Langford (Mekons, Three Johns) and more.

"The Once And Future Thing" is a brand-new LP / CD, again with a special booklet, badge and download card filled with extras.

"The Blue Orchids Bomb Manchester And Hamburg" is a double CD, each with a live show, once from 1981, the other from 1985. It also comes with a badge.

There's other stuff for fans as well, and they've already been sending out more exclusive downloads with rare tracks to pledgers.

Check it out at:

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/blueorchids

[Barmy]

Thanks for this.

Frankly, NWO's usefulness has been reduced to identifying more obscure releases. I love Blue Orchids. Have no need to hear about Depeche Mode and the like, PLEASE.

And frankly NWO needs to substantially consolidate its categories. Would love a reissue site that didn't just parrot Cherry Red.

[midnighttoneon]

The new Blue Orchids records are fab, too - what I've heard of them. I agree with you about Depeche Mode and all that, there's enough about those releases that they'd be hard to miss if you were a fan, but not everything's for everyone, Blue Orchids or Depeche Mode.