Love Crime (re-release)
Format: 7" Released: 1992 (East
West / North South YZ667)
Track listing: Love Crime
/ 18 Daze
Format: 12" Released: 1992 (East West / North
South YZ667T)
Track listing: Love Crime 12" remix / Love
Crime / 18 Daze
Format: CD Released: 1992 (East West / North South
YZ667CD)
Track listing: Love Crime
/ 18 Daze / Tell
Me What Your Girlfriend Said (acoustic) / The
Birds (acoustic)
There I was listening to the radio on the way in to work, and all of a sudden, the familiar intro and "whooooa whooooooa whoah" bit came to life, spiced up by a catchy little beat. As soon as the immortal first line came into play, it was The Cygnet Ring, although at first I admit someone had had the tenacity to steal Love Crime until I heard Rus singing away. Phew! Anyway, there it was, Love Crime had been remixed by Peter Lorimer and re-released. And not only that, BBC Radio One were playing it at regular intervals during the day, saying it was a really good pop song and that it should be bought on release. Well, I bought it even if not that many else did - to everyone's surprise, it didn't make the top 40. What an absolute disgrace. Even though I still prefer the origjnal version, the remix was at least not one of those really awful over the top ones and at least gave the tune a bit of dimension in a different way. And it was intelligently written and performed - what more did they want? Sigh. Great single, crap sleeve though, the designer Gian Grainger should have been sacked after this poor effort. No wonder it didn't sell that many copies!
The video to the single is now in the video section - thanks to Steve Broomhead for uploading it originally.
Anyway, the CD had a cleaned up lovely version of "18 Daze" as well as two acoustic versions of what were already live favourites: "Tell Me What Your Girlfriend Said" and "The Birds". I loved "The Birds" and found it to be one of Rus' best compositions, not least the pause near the end where the crap indie kids would cheer not realising it wasn't the end. Hehe. "The birds woke up before me, and I woke up before three.." he would sing. Acoustically, it sounded perfect, not least the start of the last verse: "I've been thinking lately about drinking some beer, it's the only stuff I know that makes you head clear..." and that's when the pause would come in. Majestic stuff.
The 12" remix was initially engineered and remixed by Guy Fixen and Nik Reid at First Protocol Studio, and eventually completed by Thomas Uzhan at Falconer Studios. It also had this note on the back of the sleeve: "This recording was mde by taking a sharp digital object to recording tape and using it with intent to cause rhythmic bodily movement. I hope you find it useful in your pursuit of losing weight, aural excitement or just something loud to dance to". And it wasn't half bad, although I still prefer the 7" remix version of the two.
And here's a signed copy of the Love Crime CD single - many thanks to Andrew Lord for sending it to me:
Below is the back of the 7" single sleeve, which like the CD showed that the forthcoming album was at that time called "Banjos In Bengal" which we now know was not to be the case.
And here's the A and B-side labels of the 7" single for your enjoyment:
The inner sleeve of the CD single is below. This also shows the same information as the 7" with regards to the "Banjos In Bengal" album title, as well as the track listing for the CD itself.
Estimated Value: All three formats are relatively easy to get hold of, no more than around £2-3 for each.