Tag: Stephen Hague

April 30, 2020

Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (UK 10″ Limited Edition)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1985

“West End Girls” is a song by the English pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The song’s lyrics are concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land. It was generally well-received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo’s career.

The first version of the song was produced by Bobby Orlando and was released on Columbia Records’ Bobcat Records imprint in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States and some European countries. After the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague for their first studio album, Please. In October 1985, the new version was released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986.

In December 1985, Parlophone Records in the UK released a limited edition 10″ with an untitled remix of West End Girls, commonly referred to as the 10″ mix. Packaged in a circular fold-out picture sleeve, sealed with a circular yellow picture sticker that identifies it as a “collectors edition”.

This version of “West End Girls” is the basis of the shorter version found on Razormaid Records Class X #3 CD. However, Razormaid was not responsible for the original version found on this 10″.

The version of “A Man Could Get Arrested” is Bobby Orlando’s production from the regular 12″ B-side.

SIDE A:
West End Girls (10″ Mix) 7:00
Engineer – David Jacob
Producer – Stephen Hague

SIDE B:
A Man Could Get Arrested 4:19
Producer – Bobby Orlando, Pet Shop Boys
Remix [Uncredited] – Frank Roszak, Pet Shop Boys

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Parlophone ‎– 10R 6115
Format: Vinyl, 10″, Single, Limited Edition
Country: UK
Released: Dec 1985
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Artwork [Uncredited] – Chris Lowe, XL Design
Photography By – Eric Watson (3)
Written-By – Tennant/Lowe*

NOTES:
Manufactured in the UK by EMI Records Ltd

Find the 10″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
DAC/Phono Pre-amp: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

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February 4, 2020

Hilary – Kinetic (US 12″ Mini LP)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1983

“Kinetic” is the debut and only release by Hilary Blake, known professionally as Hilary, a singer-songwriter/performer from Los Angeles. She was born in 1950 and died in July 2007.

Blake sang with madrigal groups at Shakespeare festivals in England and studied acting with Agnes Moorehead at age 11.

In 1978 she matched free verse poetry with synthesizers and drum machines to produce her signature sound.

In 1982 she met up with producer Steve Hague and pressed 1000 copies of 12″ vinyl “Kinetic b/w “I Live” for Sirus Records. Kinetic was voted “Screamer of Week” by listeners of Long Island radio station WLIR on January 2, 1983. and received modest airplay on her hometown station KROQ-FM. Kinectic was also played in New York dance clubs. I Live was played on college radio stations.

Later in the year, Blake released a 4-song EP entitled Kinetic for Backstreet Records which was also produced by Hague. The song Kinetic was about her hopes that awareness of changing cellular structure would help the human species to survive. Drop Your Pants was Blake’s attempt to show how “ridiculous” the fear of sex in the United States was. On August 4 it became her second song to be named “Screamer of the Week” by WLIR listeners. This song was also mentioned in an edition of The Guide to Getting it On by Paul Joannides.

I Live was a song about “the ordinary – living in the house of your own making” which Blake found to be profound. Goose Step reflected Blake’s fear that the Nazi Party would reemerge. She was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

SIDE A:
Kinetic (Extended Remix Version) 5:14
Drop Your Pants 3:31

SIDE B:
I Live 4:27
Goose Step Two Step 3:41

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Backstreet Records ‎– BSR-36004
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Mini-Album, Pinckneyville Pressing
Country: US
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Cover [Detail From “Woodpecker Blues” By] – Michael McCall (2)
Design – Tommy Steele (2)
Engineer – Stephen Hague
Lyrics By – Hilary (3), Stephen Hague (tracks: A1)
Photography By [Photo] – Eugene Pinkowski
Producer – Hilary (3), Stephen Hague
Written-By – Hilary (3), Stephen Hague (tracks: A1 to B1)

NOTES:
Mini LP 4 Songs Special price

Find the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

October 16, 2019

New Order – True Faith (Australia 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1987

Originally posted November 21, 2011

“True Faith” is a song by New Order, co-written and co-produced by the band and Stephen Hague. It was the first New Order single since their debut “Ceremony” to be issued in the UK as two separate 12″ singles. The second 12″ single features two remixes of “True Faith” by Shep Pettibone. The single peaked at number four in the United Kingdom on its original release in 1987. The single also became the first New Order single to chart on the Hot 100 in the United States that same year and their first ever Top 40 hit, peaking at number 32.

As is the case for many New Order songs, the words in the title do not appear anywhere in the lyrics. The original lyrics included a verse that read “Now that we’ve grown up together/They’re taking drugs with me”. Hague convinced Sumner to change the latter line to “They’re afraid of what they see” because he was worried that otherwise it would not get played on the radio. When performing the song live, the band have always used the original line.

“True Faith” was used in the opening nightclub scene in Mary Harron’s film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho and in James Bridges’s 1988 film adaptation of Jay McInerney’s novel Bright Lights, Big City. It also appears at the end of the 14th episode of the third season of the American TV series Queer as Folk and in the season finale of the first season of the series The Vampire Diaries.

The US and UK 7″ and 12″ singles contain the song “1963” as the b-side, however the Australian 12″ contains a remix of “Paradise” from the album Brotherhood.

SIDE A:
True Faith (Remix) 9:02
Remix – Shep Pettibone

SIDE B:
Paradise (Remix) 6:41
Remix [Assisted By] – Nick Mainsbridge
Remix, Edited By – Robert Racic

True Dub 10:44
Remix – Shep Pettibone

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

CHARTS:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1987	True Faith	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#32
1987	True Faith	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	#3

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Factory Records Australasia ‎– Fac 183R
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: Australia
Released: Sep 1987
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Design [Sleeve Design] – Peter Saville Associates, Trevor Key
Mastered By – Å (3)
Written By, Producer – New Order, Stephen Hague (tracks: A, B2)

NOTES:
Released by Factory Records Australasia under license from Factory Records Manchester England.

Find the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2, ocenaudio
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

August 26, 2019

New Order – Round & Round (US 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1989

“Round & Round” is a song by the English band New Order from their fifth studio album Technique (1989). The song was written by band members Gillian Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner, and the album version was produced entirely by New Order. “Round & Round” was re-recorded for a single release, with Stephen Hague as co-producer.

Musically, it is one of the band’s most dance-centred songs, with few guitar or bass lines. Like the majority of New Order songs, the song’s title is not mentioned in its lyrics. “Round & Round” was selected as the second single from the album by Factory Records’ Tony Wilson over the wishes of the band, who wanted to issue “Vanishing Point” instead.

The song is about New Order’s then-souring relationship with Tony Wilson, the owner of Factory Records, which was the band’s label at the time. On the documentary “New Order Story”, Bernard Sumner discusses that he did not originally intend the song to be about Tony Wilson and the tension between Wilson and the group, but Sumner admits that growing tension between the two men ultimately was channelled into the song when it was being written.

The single’s main B-side was an instrumental, “Best & Marsh”, which was written as the theme for a Granada TV series of the same name, featuring footballers George Best and Rodney Marsh.

The single reached #21 on the UK singles chart. In the United States “Round & Round” became a #1 hit on the Billboard Dance Chart while peaking at #64 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

SIDE A:
Round & Round (12” Version) 6:46
Producer – Stephen Hague

Round & Round (Club Mix) 7:06
Mixed By – Kevin Saunderson
Mixed By [Assistant] – Mark Childress, Matt King (2)

SIDE B:
Round & Round (12” Remix) 6:48
Mixed By – Ben Grosse
Mixed By [Assistant] – Mark Childress, Matt King (2)

Best & Marsh 4:30
Mixed By – Stuart James

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1989	Round & Round	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#64
1989	Round & Round	U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs	#6
1989	Round & Round	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	#1
1989	Round & Round	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales	#5

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Qwest Records ‎– 0-21062, Qwest Records ‎– 9 21062-0
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Maxi-Single, SRC Pressing
Country: US
Released: 1989
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Cover – Peter Saville Associates, Trevor Key
Mixed By – Alan Meyerson
Producer, Written-By – New Order
Recorded By – Michael Johnson

NOTES:
Tracks A2 & B1 mixed at Pearl Sound Studios, Canton, MI.
Original version of “Round & round” from the Qwest album TECHNIQUE

Made in U.S.A.

Find the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Schiit Mani
Soundcard: ESI Juli@ XTe Audio Interface
Monitiring: Novation Audiohub 2×4 Audio Interface
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2, ocenaudio
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.