Tag: UK 12″

March 20, 2014

Wham! – Club Tropicana (UK 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1983

Re-Rip Newly Remastered!

Originally I posted this one on March 25, 2010. But for those who may have missed it or if you are a new reader just discovering BTG. I decided to give this one a new rip with my newer Ortofon Super 30 stylus. This 12″ is also being posted in 24 bit flac for the very first time!

“Club Tropicana” is a song by British pop duo Wham!, released in 1983 on Innervision Records. It was written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

The song was a mild departure from Wham!’s previous singles, which had all been motivated by social or political issues. “Club Tropicana”, however, was a satire of the boom for cheap package holidays for younger, single people of a hedonistic nature. It was specifically seen in the UK as a swipe at the very popular Club 18-30 scheme.

A memorable video directed by Duncan Gibbins was made at Pikes Hotel in Ibiza, with scenes of George and Andrew on the beach, making eyes at bikini-clad girls played by their backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. They were also seen relaxing by a pool and sipping cocktails, along with the famous scene of trumpet-playing taking place in the pool itself. A twist in the sexual tension between the two men and two women was revealed at the end, when it turned out that George and Andrew were airline pilots and Dee and Shirlie were stewardesses.

The song was released in July 1983 and peaked at #4 in the UK, going on to become the 39th best selling single of 1983. It was the fourth and final single to be taken from the album Fantastic. Wham! went on to dominate the UK charts, achieving four #1 singles before splitting at their height in 1986.

The B-side, “Blue (Armed With Love)”, is a semi-instrumental dub track of higher quality than is generally expected for B-side material, and would not have been out of place on Fantastic. It in fact appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese pic disc version of the album. During their “Club Fantastic” tour in late 1983 and in 1985 in China, they performed this song live, complete with sung verses, and the result was released as “Blue (Live In China)” on their 1986 LP Music from the Edge of Heaven as well as the B-side of 1985’s single release of “Last Christmas.” The studio version of the song has not appeared on CD except for a single CD in Japan. It was also overlooked for the 25th Anniversary rerelease of The Final, even though this version claimed to be accurate to the original release.

SIDE A:
Club Tropicana 4:27
Engineer – Tony Taverner
Producer – Steve Brown
Recorded By, Mixed By – George Michael , Steve Brown
Written-By – Andrew Ridgely*

SIDE B:
Blue (Armed With Love) 3:53
Engineer – Chris Porter

Club Tropicana (Instrumental) 3:30
Engineer – Tony Taverner
Producer – Steve Brown
Recorded By, Mixed By – George Michael , Steve Brown
Written-By – Andrew Ridgely*

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Inner Vision – TA 3613
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: Synth-pop
Credits: Mastered By – Arun*

NOTES:
‘Club Tropicana’ is taken from the album & cassette “FANTASTIC” which also includes
‘Bad Boys’, ‘Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)’ and ‘Young Guns (Go For It!)’.
Special thanks to Margaret Holliman.
Thanks to everybody who has helped put the album & singles together.

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Speed Control: Pro-Ject Speed Box S
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removeal: ClickRepair (DeClick Level 3)
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

March 15, 2014

Wham! – Young Guns (Go For It) (UK 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1982

“Young Guns (Go For It)” was the second single by British duo Wham! taken from their debut album “Fantastic”. The single was released in October 1982 on Innervison Records.

The song was Wham!’s first hit, although it came with some help from the BBC music programme Top of the Pops, which invited Wham! on to the show as a last-minute replacement for another act which had pulled out. It helped that the producer of Top of the Pops had seen them previously on another programme: Saturday Superstore. Wham! were just outside the Top 40 threshold of the UK Singles Chart at the time, which meant they had not climbed high enough in normal circumstances to get on the show, but they were recruited nonetheless as the highest-placed artists still climbing the charts from outside the 40.

The song entered the chart initially at Number 73, went up to Number 48, then dropped to Number 52 and the week after that, it jumped to Number 42.[ Their appearance on Top of the Pops broke the record wide open and on the following Monday the distribution centre received some thirty thousand orders. This sent the record to Number 24 before eventually peaking at Number 3 in November 1982. In the US the song reached #21 on the Billboard Dance Chart this would be Wham!’s first US charting single.

SIDE A:
Young Guns (Go For It) (12″ Version) 5:10

SIDE B:
Going For It 4:50

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1983	Young Guns (Go For It)	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play	#21

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label:Inner Vision ‎– IVL A 13 2766, Inner Vision ‎– IVL A13 2766
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: Oct 1982
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
Credits: Producer –George Michael, Steve Brown
Written-By – George Michael

NOTES:
Special thanks to Shirlie Lorraine.
Made in England.

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

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

March 7, 2014

Divine – Hard Magic (UK 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1985

RIP DIVINE (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988)

“Hard Magic” is a single from the album Maid in England by Divine.

“Hard Magic” was Divine’s last single to chart on the UK Singles Chart. It debuted and peaked at #87 before falling to #90 in its second week.

The music video for the single has a African jungle setting and features Divine in two roles. One as a female captive of a voodoo tribe and one as the male chief (whose also a witch doctor) who controls the captive with a voodoo doll. It starts out with the captive trying to resist the control of the doll (as shown with him with the doll fully bound to a pole like the one the captive’s foot it tied to). The witch doctor is then shown to put the doll in a pot with water (not boiling) and the captive is shown with the same position. Then the captive is shown being chased by tribe members around the pole from earlier and then they catch her and are tying her to the pole. After freeing herself the captive manages to upset the chief and is imprisoned in a cage that is then wrapped with cloth by the tribe. A fire is lit and there is a close up of the cage and the members of the tribe are seen eating chunks of meat (from an unknown source).

SIDE A:
Hard Magic 7:09

SIDE B:
Hard Magic (Magic Mix) 6:50
Hard Magic (Instrumental Mix) 4:16

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Proto Records ‎– ENAT 131
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1985
Genre: Electronic
Style: Hi NRG, Synth-pop
Credits: Artwork [Hair, Make-up] – Van Smith
Design, Artwork – Bouncing Ball*
Engineer – Charles Gray
Lyrics By [Additional] – N. Titchener* (tracks: A, B1), P. Ware* (tracks: A, B1)
Management – Bernard Jay Management Inc.*
Photography By – Greg Gorman
Producer – Nick Titchener, Pete Ware
Written-By – M. Flinn*, P. Morris*

NOTES:
“Divine Thanks” To Andrew Logan, Phillip Miller, and Lee Le Cuyer.

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

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

February 19, 2014

Pete Shelley – Homosapien (UK 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1981

“Homo sapien” is a song by Buzzcocks lead singer Pete Shelley. It was the first single from the album of the same title, released in 1981. The song reached #14 on the US Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Singles chart and #6 in Canada.The song was banned by the BBC for “explicit reference to gay sex”, e.g. the words “homo superior / in my interior”

SIDE A:
Homosapien (Dance Version) 4:27

SIDE B:
Homosapien (Elongated Dancepartydubmix) 8:58

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1981	Homosapien	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play	#14

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Island Records ‎– 12WIP 6720, Genetic Records (2) ‎– 12 WIP 6720
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1981
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro, Synth-pop
Credits: Producer – M Rushent*, P Shelley*
Written-By – P. Shelley*

NOTES:
Recorded at Genetic Sound.
Mastered at The Townhouse.

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

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