Belfast child (edit) - Simple Minds

Can it really be 13 years since I last bought a Simple Minds single? I guess so, but this time I felt it was quite necessary. I bought 'Belfast child' back in 1989, right after it came out, as it's probably one of the band's best ever songs. While I was selecting some singles from an online seller, I came across this promotional 7" featuring an edit of that song. 

Driven by curiosity, I had to buy this promo, because I really wanted to know how anyone could trim down this epic piece. I have to say it was done quite well: the lenghty intro was scrapped and near the end some slow bits were also edited out. All in all, this is still a five minute song - but it does constitute an edit, in this case. The B-side does have a playable groove, but it is all silent.

My collection: 7" single no. 7210
Found: Discogs.com, received 29 May 2024
Tracks: 'Belfast child (edit)'

Love comes quickly (live) - Pet Shop Boys

A nice surprise happened last week when I was on my break at work: an announcement of the newest issue of Electronic Sounds with a free Pet Shop Boys single, pressed on gold-coloured vinyl. I ordered it then and there, and later that day I found out the single was pressed in a limited edition of 1,000 - and it was already sold out!

A bit of a collector's item, then, this single featuring three live tracks from the Boys' concert at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen. The entire concert is due to be released on DVD later this year, so all is not lost if you've missed out on this single. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7208
Found: Electronic Sounds, received 25 May 2024
Tracks: 'Love comes quickly (live)' / 'Paninaro & Always on my mind (live)'

Dizzy - Olly Alexander

The Eurovision Song Contest took place earlier this month, and one of the most eyepopping performances came from the United Kingdom. Not entirely in a good way, apparently, because the viewing public only gave Olly Alexander zero points. 

That's not to say that 'Dizzy' is a bad song: the performance was perhaps a bit too, er, explicit. Halfnaked men in boxer shorts in what looked like a bathroom spinning around and toppling all over eachother probably made a lot of voters dizzy - opting to vote for other, sometimes worse, songs instead. Fortunately the song was released on this beautiful red vinyl 7" in an inner and outer sleeve. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7207
Found: Recordstore UK, received 24 May 2024
Tracks: 'Dizzy' / 'Dizzy (extended)'

Vitam vitr v udoli - Karel Gott

In 1968 Karel Gott represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Tausend Fenster', a song written by Udo Jürgens. Since Karel was a Czech singer, it shouldn't be too surprising that he also recorded the song in is mother tongue. And so, 'Tausend Fenster' became 'Vitam vitr v udoli', a lyric that is totally unintelligible for most world citizens.

However, the song was released by the Czechoslovakian record label Supraphon, and this is the single I finally got to buy recently. This is one of the pleasures of Discogs, the worldwide market place: you would never find a single like this in a western European record store, or even a record fair!

My collection: 7" single no. 7206
Found: Discogs.com, received 22 May 2024
Tracks: 'Vitam vitr v udoli' / 'Neverim'

Popmuzik - M

After 'Popmuzik', 'Popmuzik', 'Popmuzik', 'Popmuzik' and 'Popmuzik', I recently found out that there was a new release of 'Popmuzik' on a 10" single, pressed on pink vinyl. It was another one of those Record Store Day releases, with an interesting tracklisting, because it contained an 11 minute remix on the B-side. And so of course I had to order this one.

The disc doesn't disappoint. Of course I am familiar with the original 7" version, but the three other versions were new to me, and their diversity really surprised me. Maybe all the versions of 'Popmuzik' need to be brought together on a CD release one day. Although listening to all of them in one go is probably going to be slightly exhausting. 

My collection: 10" single [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 18 May 2024
Tracks: 'Popmuzik (Original 7" version)', 'Popmuzik (Live Latin Performance Vancouver 2000)', ''Popmuzik (R&B 1978 Demo Version)' / 'Popmuzik (Second Sun Remix)'

Run - Snow Patrol

'Run' by Snow Patrol is easily one of the best songs of this century, but so far I haven't been able to buy a copy on 7" vinyl for a somewhat reasonable price. Which is why I was quite surprised to locate a copy of the 10" single for a more than reasonable price.

This clear vinyl 10" single is a bit crackly but it does present two remixes of 'Run'. One by Jacknife Lee, an 7 minute and 27 seconds epic, and a more modest four minute version by someone calling himself 'the freelance hellraiser'. It's sudden surprises like this which makes online shopping more fun.

My collection: 10" single [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 18 May 2024
Tracks: 'Run (Jacknife Lee remix)' / 'Run (Freelance Hellraiser remix)'

Seal our fate - Gloria Estefan

'Seal our fate' was released as the second single from Gloria Estefan's album Into the light (1991). In the UK, the 7" vinyl single was released as a "Limited Edition Tour Souvenir Pack" with a few attractive photographs of the singer and a poster.

The single became a moderate success, peaking at number 24 in the UK singles chart and number 10 in the Dutch Top 40. I never bought the single because I felt the song was not really good enough, but this Tour Souvenir Pack was attractive enough for me to want to own it anyway. I do think that Estefan's output in the Nineties wasn't really that impressive, but anyway. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7201
Found: Discogs.com, received 14 May 2024
Tracks: 'Seal our fate' / 'Seal our fate (remix edit)'