Good man!
That JILY CD single is easily one of my most played CDs.





I’m glad he was pleasant when you met him.

Sadly, as I’ve probably said before, I met him at that aforementioned Wolves Monaco gig and he was a right tool with me.
So much so, that it kind of put me off the band for a while. Stupid, eh?

So, the old adage of ‘never meeting your heroes’ certainly rang true with me.

However, I think this was smack bang in the middle of Hooky’s ‘cokehead / fighting Mrs Merton’s boyfriend days’, so I’m sure I didn’t see him at his best.

He seems a lot more pleasant these days.

Since this is more interesting to me than the original topic, I'll chime in...

I liked the first single 7 Reasons, probably because it sounded like a rewrite of Run. And as mentioned above, we weren't expecting a Technique followup anytime soon. The b-sides set the stage for my opinion of Revenge. The instrumental Bleach Boy (an updated version of compilation track Wende) was far better than the vocal version, Bleachman that was on the LP. I also prefered the dub Love You Too over the standard version of Jesus...I Love You as Hooky's vocals are stilted and awkward.

I also prefer the instrumental Pineapple Face Calls it a Day (unlisted on the cover but track 6 on the US CD single) to all other versions. The US version also contains a totally different version of Pineapple Face's Big Day that is more of an extended remix in the LP style as opposed to the housey mix of the same name on the Factory CD single. The b-side, 14k is a good track, though. Probably better that much of the LP.

Speaking of One True Passion, the LP starts promisingly enough with Pineapple Face, and Big Bang is even better. It might be my favourite Revenge track so I was disappointed to find that the remix (renamed The Trouble with Girls) was totally redone with cheesy female backing vocals. Kiss the Chrome is musically aimless and generic and exists as merely a vehicle for Hooky's lyrics and vocals. Not to my taste. I can see why Slave was chosen to be a single but it would have benefitted from being more funky in an electro style (like Confusion '87). It just sounds stiff to me. The hip-hop mixes are embarrasing. I remember liking the Die Warsaw Alternative Mix at the time but again, it would be better as an instrumental. The Joe Smooth Extended Mix is probably the definitive version of the song for me. After Bleachman, with it's stupid lyrics comes Surf Nazi, a duet between Hooky and Dave. Dreadful and embarrasing. Things improve for Fag Hag, one of the LP's better tracks. It actually has a decent chorus and melody (though the pirate intro is lame)! Vying for favourite with Big Bang is closer It's Quiet. It shows the depth and range Revenge were capable of it only Hooky hadn't been rushing to get an LP in the shops before Bernard.

Gun World Porn was a strange release as it was heavily altered and edited, as if they couldn't decide which versions of the songs would work. The original mix of Deadbeat is a nice blend of guitary New Order and chunky Pineapple Face synths. But the trendy Gary Clail Remix was the version that was pushed. Cloud Nine shows that they were putting more thought and effort into these tracks than before. There are more elements to this song than their early works yet the arrangements sound more natural. State of Shock reminds me of Kiss the Chrome in that it's a bit dopey but is musically better. In fact, GWP overall has a better, less clunky feel musically than OTP. The closer (opener on the US release) Little Pig is one of their best and again is a mix of New Order's guitar styled songs and Pineapple Face, yet it's different and catchy enough to set it apart from the darker Deadbeat.

But I prefer Monaco...

Yeah, 'I Admit I Used To Be An Arsehole But I'm Not Now'.

Hmm, I'm not sure I knew it was a cover version.
If I ever did know, I've since forgotten.

Side-tracking a bit (which is what this thread seems to be doing a lot of ; not that that's a problem, of course!), I never really liked 'It's Alright'.
It always seemed to be a bit 'normal'.

Thinking back, I think this is the point where my interest in the PSBs started to wane, never to be fully reignited.

Apart from 'So Hard', 'This Must Be The Place' and one or two others on 'Behaviour', I thought the LP was a bit 'meh'.

'Very' was pretty poor, IMO, with the lads just reusing the 'Go West' formula repeatedly. 'Can You Forgive Her' was the only bright spot for me.

By 'Bilingual', I really couldn't care less about the band.

It's a shame really, as their early stuff was just so DAMN good! 'Actually' is in my Top 10 LPs of all time, and 'Please' was 70% excellent.

'14K' is a great track and 'Big Bang' is probably my favourite on the actual LP.
I agree with your comments about 'Kiss The Chrome'. Not very good really, and I understand why it got relegated to the bonus disc on Version 2.0 of the LP. I'm not sure why they decided to relegate 'Fag Hag' rather than 'Surf Nazi' though. I agree that the former is a much better track.

Talking of V2.0, although I think it's a pretty great compilation, I was always annoyed with the shuffling of tracks. I can see why they re-edited / remixed some of the tracks, but shifting the running order just seemed bit superfluous to me. As someone who knows the LP pretty well, it grates on me a bit to suddenly shift from, say, 'Slave' to '14K'. I just wish they'd kept the album in the same order and added the bonus tracks on the end.

As regards the mixes, the Pineapple Face one was particularly confusing. It was difficult enough to keep track of the stuff with all the PF's Big Day/Big Day Out/Last Lunge/Revenge/Calls It A Day naming method without all the confusion with having two completely different versions of Big Day (by different remixers, IIRC).

The 'Slave' ones are just as confusing, as there's a load more edits, single mixes etc., with different naming methods used also.

As for the remixes themselves, I think they were generally pretty decent.
I also quite like that daft ansaphone rap thing on the main UK remix of 'Slave'. I'm sure I'm alone in that though.

The 'Gun World Porn' EP was great, but I always felt the UK got shafted with that release.
Although, probably a more streamlined version, I felt we missed having those extra mixes, including the non-Clail version of 'Deadbeat'. We did get the full-length 'State Of Shock' on the UK CD single though.

Talking of which, 'State Of Shock' is wonderful, IMHO.

Funny thing... I regard the EP as being vastly superior to the album. And the album being superior do the Bad Losetennant album by a country mile. Bernard's worst effort so far IMHO.

Big Bang (and the remix) remains my favourite Revenge track to the day.

my anti hooky stance applies to his music. i have a ton of stuff from revenge.
but now i can't stand to listen to any of it.

i might have liked it back then, and even now the EP is ok.

but i don't see the point of listening to any of his side projects at all.

the new order stuff will always overshadow it.

later
-1

I heard that too.
I was convinced that I'd heard there were white label promos of it, but there's nothing on Discogs. Weird.

I think 'Big Bang' would've made a far better single.

Hook has always said that he never liked releasing singles from LPs.
Seems doubtful that they would've released three.

Also, I doubt Wilson would've promoted a third, considering how Hook describes in his book that 'Revenge' almost bankrupted Factory.
I guess that the dual hits of World In Motion/Step On helped to mitigate the financially disastrous OTP.

The Pets are one of those bands I just kinda lost interest in. I had the same thing with New Order circa 1996. It was a combination of getting too old for teenage obsessions, difficulty tracking down info and releases, and London's policy of accompanying every new album with six billion rerererereleases, especially when the newbies were as bland as The Other Spew or Erase The Pressure.
I'm surprised a fan hasn't even heard Gun World Porn, given that we're hardly talking Beatle productivity. Macca alone has been involved in around 1500 tracks so I'll forgive myself for not knowing them all inside out. Hooky's been retreading the same shit for 15 years and New Order have managed a grand total of one song in the last six years. I counted. Three times.
All those total and utter pricks who think Tony Wilson was a genius should be forced to listen to OTP on replay in a cold, dark room. What a dick head.

Edited by user 17 September 2021 23:43:33(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

It has a bit, but it’s all good.
It’s nice to have a thread get a fair few responses to it,




The Gun World Porn EP did get a full UK release, such as these were on Factory.

As I mentioned earlier, the UK release only had four tracks, one for each song. The version of ‘Deadbeat’ was a remix too.
The US release had seven tracks, with both the original and remix of ‘Deadbeat’, two bonus remixes of ‘State Of Shock’ and the version of ‘Little Pig’ was a different mix to the UK.

So it did kind of feel like our version was nerfed a bit.

You should give GWP a listen, Fotz.
Most people I’ve spoken to seem to find it the best stuff the band did.
It’s pretty good.

Edited by user 18 September 2021 02:10:58(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Just remembered I used to have the US 12" of State of Shock, just the disc, no sleeve (cant remember what happened). Got rid of it when I've purchased the CD, assuming it would feature all versions. Later on, I hoped the LTM release of One True Passion V2.0 would bring back the extended mix of Little Pig, but it remains exclusive to the 12" I guess?

https://www.discogs.com/...ittle-Pig/release/884283

Nice find!

Although I don't have the bootleg you mentioned, I believe 'Sister Ray' is from Malvern Winter Gardens, 03/10/86.

I have that gig on my hard-drive, and it matches up with what you've said above.



Hmmm. Not sure about this one.
If I can find the CD, I'll try and match it what I have Should be easy. The only problem might be locating the CD.