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Part
1
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Waiting
For A Miracle
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Missing
In Action / "Baby" / Independence
Day / Waiting For A Miracle / Total War /
On The Beach / Monkey Pilot / Real Story /
Map Of The World / Postcard / Home Is The
Range* / We Were* / Ju Ju Money*
*1995
RPM CD reissue extra tracks
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The
bands first album, released for the first time on
CD in 1995, is one of the most startling debuts I
have ever heard. The album contains the original version
of The Comsat's most well-known track, Independence
Day - which sounds as powerful today as it did
when originally released in 1980. Waiting For
A Miracle, Baby & Monkey Pilot
are my other favourites from the album. Listening
to Waiting For A Miracle in 1996
(16 years after it was released!) you could tell this
was a band still learning their craft, and willing
to swim against the tide. Postcard sounds
like a band on their third album - with it's minimal
opening - deep bass and crashing conclusion. If only
all music was as powerful and emotive as this.
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"Say
something - say anything"
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| Some LP's (5,000 to be exact) were pressed with an alternate mix of Independence Day - check the label - if the band is listed as The Comsat "Angles", you've got a rarity on your hands! |
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"Waiting
for a miracle - but nothing ever happens"
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| Sleep
No More |
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Eye
Dance / Sleep No More / Be Brave / Gone / Dark
Parade / Diagram / Restless / Goat Of The West
/ Light Years / Our Secret / Eye Of The Lens*
/ Another World* / At Sea* / (Do The) Empty
House* / Red Planet Revisited*
*1995
RPM CD reissue extra tracks
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Comsat's second album is a lot harder and more
intense than their debut. It's pretty harrowing
in places, but well worth the ride (especially
now, with the clarity of CD). The CD re-issue
contains one of my favourite early Comsat tracks
- Eye Of The Lens. |
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Comsats sound like a band possessed on Sleep
No More. Steve's guitar playing, in particular,
is on top form. From driving power-chords to spacey
washes of sound, underpinned by deep bass &
pounding drums - with washes of distorted keyboards
and sound effects. The band even commented on
events of the time - Dark Parade is about
the American's ill-fated hostage rescue attempt
in Iran. |
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| Our
Secret
is full of hidden worlds and unspoken promises - with
a rallying cry chorus: |
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"We
will never, we will never,
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we
will never give it up."
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| Restless
is an atmospheric, harmonic-laden piece - with whispered
vocals and scatter-gun percussion. Gone highlights
Kevin & Mik's extraordinary understanding of the
need for restraint to build a rhythmic tension in a
song - then letting go completely as the song reaches
its climax. |
Buy the 2015 Edsel re-issue of Sleep No More on double CD and single vinyl from Amazon. |
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| Fiction |
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After
The Rain / Zinger / Now I Know / Not A Word
/ Ju Ju Money / More / Pictures / Birdman /
Don't Look Now / What Else!? / It's History*
/ After The Rain (remix)* / Private Party* /
Mass*
*1995
RPM CD reissue extra tracks
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| The
intensity of Sleep No More eased
up just a little with Fiction.
The album opens with another classic Comsat's
hit-that-never-was in After The Rain.
Now I Know is quite conventional in arrangement
- but all the more unique for it. Birdman
& Ju Ju Money are stirring songs
- performed with a deftness of touch. |
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Don't
Look Now features the sort of guitar style
that U2's The Edge would dine
out on for many years to come. I promise not
to mention that again. Why this album did not
establish The Comsat's as a band of the size
of some of their more well-known contempories,
I'll never know.
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A
Pop jewel in the shape of What Else!? lurks
towards the close of the set - sounding like a cynical
Beatles cross-bred with The Cure -
but oh what a beautiful baby! Steve's voice begs the
listener to "get together" as the "lights
go out" - but warning that "There is always
something else".
The
1995 RPM CD re-issue also includes the single
It's History and the rare track Mass
(which was actually a Sleep No More
out-take).
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Buy the 2015 Edsel re-issue of Fiction on double CD and single vinyl from Amazon. |
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| Enz |
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Independence
Day / (Do The) Empty House / Total War / It's
History / Another World / Eye Of The Lens /
At Sea / Mass / Home Is The Range / After The
Rain
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A
Dutch only release, as the title suggests -
an odds ‘n ends collection - tying up hard
to get hold of ‘b' sides - and the previously
unreleased Mass (a Sleep No
More out-take that re-surfaced with
the RPM re-issues).
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| The
album stands up well as a release in it's own right
- but it's collectabilty is diminished somewhat, as
all the tracks are now available on the CD re-issues. |
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| The
sleeve-notes are interesting - with the Comsat's throwing
some light on the meaning behind some of the tracks.
Apparently: |
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The Empty House
is a song where you can "spot the terrible pun
- it concerns a house we used to live in..."
It's
History was "intended as a comment on
the double standard - the girls know what I mean -
but maybe a bit too subtle...."
Eye
Of The Lens "Can the camera steal your
soul? In certain ways, I think so. A horror story
of the most basic kind, but not without a little irony.
I hope."
Mass
- "as in 'en-masse' or 'admass' not meant
in the religious sense...Close observers may notice
a certain similarity with lines in 'Private Party'.
I suppose this could be subtitled 'Public Party'..."
Home
Is The Range - "This song displays our
fascination with NOISE (it has to be relevant noise
though)..."
After
The Rain - "A sentimental song...I would
like to say that the LP was not called FICTION for
nothing you know!"
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| Land |
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Will
You Stay Tonight / Alicia (Can You Hear Me)
/ A World Away / Independence Day / Nature Trails
/ Scissors & The Stone / Mister Memory /
Island Heart / I Know That Feeling / As Above
So Below / Shining Hour
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| The
bands most outright commercial album - containing
the radio-hit Will You Stay Tonight?
- saw some fans outraged at the change in direction.
I remember reading a review of a London gig around
this time - and apparently an audience member
shouted "Sell out" - Steve then out
heckled the heckler by replying "At least
I haven't got a beard!". And he still hasn't
(see pictorial evidence elsewhere in this site!).
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keyboards are more prominent on this album - which
is more "Pop" orientated than previous
releases. The band were pursuaded to re-record
Independence Day by Jive - while
this version is good - the tension of the original
is far superior to my ears. My personal faves
from this album include Nature Trails,
Will You Stay Tonight? (pure Pop thrills)
and Island Heart.
I
associate different records with different periods
in my life - and Land is no
exception - being released in one of my favourite
musical periods - shortly after the release
of ABC's Lexicon Of Love
(Sheffield again!) and The Associates
Sulk. The Comsat's Land
album fitted in perfectly with this new Pop
vision. Around this time Steve Fellows
and Andy Peake also played live as part
of The Human League's backing band -
at a one-off charity benefit in Sheffield City
Hall.
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Buy the 2015 Edsel re-issue of Land at Amazon.
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| 7
Day Weekend |
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Believe
It / Forever Young / You Move Me / I'm Falling
/ Close Your Eyes / Day One / You're The Heroine
/ High Tide / New Heart And Hand / Still It's
Not Enough
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| The
bands final release on Jive - the album
and its singles sank without trace in the UK.
It is a bit of a halfway house album - straddling
the commerciality of Land and
the Comsat's regular sound and finally emerging
unscathed as a collection of fine songs. High
Tide is probably the stand-out track (it
really should have been a single) - closely followed
by Day One. An excellent 12"
remix of Day One was issued - as opposed
to the not so good 12" mix of I'm Falling.
I'm
Falling is probably the Comsat's 2nd best
well-known song, due to it's inclusion in the
fondly remembered 80's US film Real Genius.
If I'd received a $ for every e-mail I've received
asking about this song....
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| The
Comsat's profile was probably at it's lowest during
this period. Jive were still trying to break
The Comsat's as a hit singles band - releasing track
after track as singles. |
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band's patience with Jive finally snapped around
this time - Steve Fellows was given an acetate
of the 12" re-mix of I'm Falling - and
on hearing the overdubbed guitar solo (by an unknown
session player) - popped the 12" in pieces through
the record companies letter box. The band and label
parted company soon after!
Many
Comsat's followers had given up on the band by this
point - but even now the album shows a definite maturity
in the bands writing and performance. And those
who hung on were soon to be rewarded with more fine
music.
Buy the 2015 Edsel re-issue of 7 Day Weekend at Amazon.
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For
Part 2 of "The Real Story", click
here
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CSA
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Interviews
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Story
on 
