A pleasant surprise is coming from Universal's catalogue arm across the pond: an expanded edition of Nik Kershaw's excellent debut album Human Racing.
Released in 1984, Human Racing gave the young Bristol-born, Suffolk-raised guitarist a big break after years of jobbing in local bands. Aided by a set of teen magazine-ready good looks and an ear for intricately arranged, vaguely theatrical pop tunes, the second single from Human Racing, the excellent "Wouldn't It Be Good," became a Top 5 smash in Europe. Upon a second issue, debut single "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" became his biggest hit, peaking at No. 2 in England. His arty videography - who could forget the chroma-key suit he wore in the "Wouldn't It Be Good" clip? - helped his repertoire make a moderate dent in the American charts, though amazingly, none of his works broke the Top 40 in the States. (His success would continue in the U.K. through the '80s and '90s, though, with another smash hit with sophomore album The Riddle, a performance at London's Wembley Stadium during Live Aid in 1985 and successful collaborations with The Hollies, Chesney Hawkes and Elton John.)
As was customary for a British pop act with many singles, there were plenty of B-sides and dance mixes from the start of Kershaw's career. (Many of these were outlined in a somewhat prescient Reissue Theory post from July of 2010!) This expanded edition of the album features a bonus disc with 12 bonus tracks, including an unreleased remix of album cut "Bogart," and will feature new liner notes from Kershaw himself. (The artist took to Twitter recently to praise the quality of the new remastering as well, calling it "FAB-U-LOUS!")
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBzbdo2LjU]
This new set is out in the U.K. on February 20. Hit the jump to see the track list (courtesy of Play.com) and place your order on Amazon U.K.!
Nik Kershaw, Human Racing: Deluxe Edition (Universal U.K., 2012)
Disc 1: Original LP (released as MCA MCF 3197 (U.K.)/39020 (U.S.), 1984)
- Dancing Girls
- Wouldn't It Be Good
- Drum Talk
- Bogart
- Gone to Pieces
- Shame on You
- Cloak and Dagger
- Faces
- I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
- Human Racing
Disc 2: B-sides and 12" mixes
- Dancing Girls (Special Hi-Energy Remix) (12" A-side - MCA NIKT 3, 1984)
- Bogart (Extended 12" Remix) (previously unreleased)
- Monkey Business (B-side to "Wouldn't It Be Good" - MCA NIK 2, 1984)
- Shame on You (Remix) (12" B-side to "Wide Boy" - MCA NIKT 7, 1985)
- Drum Talk (Special Hi-Energy Remix) (12" B-side - MCA NIKT 3, 1984)
- Faces (Simon Boswell Remix) (B-side to "Human Racing" - MCA NIK 5, 1984)
- Dark Glasses (B-side to "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - MCA NIK 4, 1984)
- Wouldn't It Be Good (Special Extended Mix) (12" A-side - MCA NIKT 2, 1984)
- Human Racing (Simon Boswell Remix) (12" A-side - MCA NIKT 5, 1984)
- She Cries (B-side to "Dancing Girls" - MCA NIK 3, 1984)
- I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Simon Boswell Remix) (12" A-side - MCA NIKT 4, 1984)
- Cloak and Dagger (live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1984) (B-side to "Human Racing" - MCA NIKD 5, 1984)
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Great News.
There are gaps I would like to have seen cleared up too, some highlighted in the excellent reissue theory post you guys did.
I'm sure there are two different extended versions of the singles Wouldn't It Be Good and I Won't let the Sun Go Down On Me . I have only ever found one of each though, running at 6mins 41sec and 6mins 30sec respectively.
The Dancing Girls extended version on the album should be the 8min version. I have never come across another. The single release of Dancing Girls was a remix of the album version, at least that's what it said on the K shaped picture disc i bought as a kid.
The tracks I have managed to pull together myself from various sources, mostly in 320, are
Dancing Girls (album version)
Wouldn't It be Good
Drum Talk
Bogart
Gone To Pieces
Shame On You
Cloak & Dagger
Faces
I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (album version)
Human Racing
She Cries
Dark Glasses
So Quiet
Monkey Business
Wouldn't It be Good (6mins 41sec)
I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (6mins 30sec)
Human Racing (5mins 19sec)
Dancing Girls (8mins)
Drum Talk (4mins 59sec)
Roll on a reissue for The Riddle. If I had my say, I'd pair it with Radio Musicola as a 2 CD set.
garyc
Fantastic news! I hope that The Riddle, Radio Musicola, The Works and 15 Minutes will follow. 15 Minutes is released on cd, but it seems there are several single versions of Somebody Loves You. It would be nice if also this album should be released again with all the b-sides tracks. So far I know are that Wrong Man, Woman and some acoustic versions of Wouldn't It Be Good and The Riddle.
Do you know what? Release everything again and what isn't released yet!
- Release all the albums (Human Racing until the new album that must come out in 2012) including the four 'new' songs from Then and Now
- All the B-sides
- Extended versions (12'' singles)
- Never released songs
- Songs that are made together with someone (Kim Wilde, Tony Banks, Elthon, Mandoki Les Rhytmes Digitales, and songs like Let It Be etc)
- (All) Recordings from concerts on cd and/or dvd
- A thick book with all the music sheets and explanations of all songs (and pictures)
A lot maybe, but if this would come out in parts (and then is Human Racing 2cd part 1)...? Would somebody ask Nik or Sarah via twitter or forum (I don't have both)??
Dear Sir, Madam,
I, Vitella, wrote a response on the 14th of January. I would like to ask you to remove that response. I have some reasons for that. If you really would a response of me, change that response then in 'Fantastic news! I hope more albums will follow.'
I do it in this way because I think you will see this faster and it will be easier to find the article where the response is written.
I hope you will remove the response. Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully,
Vitella
The remixes of DANCING GIRLS & DRUM TALK on the second disc of the 2012 reissue of HUMAN RACING are obviously not the Hi-Energy Remixes.
I checked my old vinyl records.
Listened to both "Extended Remixes" and "Hi-Energy Remixes" and obviously, the remixes on the reissue album are :
Dancing Girls - Extended 12" Remix (8:05)
Drum Talk - Special Extended Remix (5:00)
The Hi-Energy Remix of Dancing Girls is 7:28 (and is quite good!)
The Hi-Energy Remix of Drum Talk is 7:27
***
The reissue was good news!!!
But like some other fans say, it's a little frustrating not to get some missing mixes...
1) I Won't Let The Sun Go Down - Extended Dance Mix - MCA816T (6:00)
2) Dancing Girls - Extended 12" Remix - NIKT3 (8:05)
3) Drum Talk - Special Extended Remix - NIKT3 (5:00)
4) I Won't Let The Sun Go Down - Simon Boswell Single Remix - Room Acetate - Nik4 (3:34)
5) Drum Talk - Live At The Hammersmith Odeon - NIK5D (4:06)
6) Wouldn't It Be Good - Simon Boswell Extended Version - NIKT5 (7:28)
Someday... Maybe...
Lou