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An oft-discussed Nik Kershaw box set has been added to Cherry Red’s summer release schedule. The MCA Years, available July 26, offers the most complete look at the British pop/rocker’s career in the ’80s, offering four remastered studio albums, four discs of B-sides and remixes, two discs of mostly unreleased live material and a DVD of music videos and concert material.

The MCA Years comes 40 years on from the release of Kershaw’s earliest work for the label. Born into a musical family in Bristol, England, Kershaw was a self-taught guitarist who rose to prominence with the debut album Human Racing and its breakthrough single “Wouldn’t It Be Good,” a No. 4 hit in England that just missed the Top 40 in America. A reissue of Kershaw’s first single, “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” fared even better at No. 2; perhaps inspired by its lyrical nods, Kershaw became close friends and occasional collaborators with Elton John as the years went on. (You can hear his guitar on the singles “Nikita” and “Act of War.”)

Kershaw followed up Human Racing less than a year later with The Riddle and another string of chart smashes at home: the hypnotic title track (No. 3), “Wide Boy” (No. 9) and “Don Quixote” (No. 10). He was one of many acts who played Wembley Stadium at Live Aid in 1985. Perplexingly, Kershaw rather quickly fell out of favor with chart-watchers. Neither his self-produced Radio Musicola (1986) nor The Works (1989) – an uneasy collaboration with Starship/Wang Chung producer Peter Wolf that was largely reworked with Julian Mendelsohn at the boards – produced any Top 40 hits, and Kershaw largely fell out of the public eye afterward, re-emerging with new material in 1999. (He was active in the intervening decade as a songwriter, penning “The One and Only,” a British chart-topper for Chesney Hawkes.)

Both Human Racing and The Riddle were expanded in the early 2010s by UMC with remixes and live material. The MCA Years includes all of that and more: a dedicated disc of eight non-LP B-sides, a collection of 18 extended 12″ mixes, plus a further nine special single mixes and edits. (A healthy amount of this material is being released on CD for the first time.) The package closes out with the first complete release of a live show recorded by Kershaw at the end of 1984 at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. A dozen of those 20 tracks were included on a video release in 1985, which will be included on the box set’s accompanying DVD along with a baker’s dozen of original music videos. Kershaw has been involved in every step of the project, overseeing Tony Dixon’s new remasters of the material and offering insight into the material in new interviews conducted for the set’s liner notes.

The MCA Years is out July 26 and can be pre-ordered below; as Amazon affiliates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Nik Kershaw, The MCA Years (Cherry Pop CRPOPBOXX268 (U.K.), 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Human Racing (released as MCA Records MCF 3197 (U.K.), 1984)

1. Dancing Girls
2. Wouldn’t It Be Good
3. Drum Talk
4. Bogart
5. Gone to Pieces
6. Shame on You
7. Cloak and Dagger
8. Faces
9. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
10. Human Racing

CD 2: The Riddle (released as MCA Records MCF 3245 (U.K.), 1984)

1. Don Quixote
2. Know How
3. You Might
4. Wild Horses
5. Easy
6. The Riddle
7. City of Angels
8. Roses
9. Wide Boy
10. Save the Whale

CD 3: Radio Musicola (released as MCA Records MCG 6016 (U.K.), 1986)

1. Radio Musicola
2. Nobody Knows
3. L.A.B.A.T.Y.D.
4. What the Papers Say
5. Life Goes On
6. Running Scared
7. James Cagney
8. Don’t Let Me Out of My Cage
9. When a Heart Beats
10. Violet to Blue

CD 4: The Works (released as MCA Records MCF 3438 (U.K.), 1989)

1. One Step Ahead
2. Elisabeth’s Eyes
3. Take My Place
4. Wounded Knee
5. Cowboys and Indians
6. One World
7. Don’t Ask Me
8. Burning At Both Ends
9. Lady on the Phone
10. Walkabout

CD 5: B-Sides

1. Dark Glasses
2. She Cries
3. Monkey Business
4. So Quiet
5. Don’t Lie (feat. Sheri Kershaw)
6. One of Our Fruit Machines is Missing
7. When I Grow Up
8. My Friend John

Track 1 from “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” single – MCA Records MCA 816, 1984
Track 2 from “Dancing Girls” single – MCA Records NIK 3, 1984
Track 3 from “Wouldn’t It Be Good” single – MCA Records NIK 2, 1984
Track 4 from “Wide Boy” single – MCA Records NIK 7, 1985
Track 5 from “Don Quixote” single – MCA Records NIK 8, 1985
Track 6 from “Nobody Knows” single – MCA Records NIK 10, 1986
Track 7 from “One Step Ahead” single – MCA Records NIK 12, 1988
Track 8 from “Elisabeth’s Eyes” single – MCA Records NIK 13, 1989

CD 6-7: Extended Mixes

1. Wouldn’t It Be Good (Special Extended Mix)
2. Dancing Girls (Special Extended Version)
3. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Extended Remix by Simon Boswell)
4. Human Racing (Re-mix by Simon Boswell)
5. Drum Talk (Special Extended Version)
6. Faces (Re-mix by Simon Boswell)
7. Bogart (Extended 12″ Remix)
8. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Extended Dance Mix)
9. The Riddle (Extended 12″ Remix)

1. Wide Boy (Special Extended Mix)
2. Don Quixote (Extra Special Long Mix)
3. Wild Horses (Extended Mix)
4. When a Heart Beats (Extended Mix)
5. Radio Musicola (Extended Version)
6. Nobody Knows (Extended Mix)
7. James Cagney (Extended Mix)
8. One Step Ahead (Industrial Mix)
9. Elisabeth’s Eyes (Extended Version)

Disc 6, Track 1 from “Wouldn’t It Be Good” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 2, 1984
Disc 6, Tracks 2 and 5 released as “Dancing Girls” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 3, 1984
Disc 6, Track 3 from “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” 12″ reissue – MCA Records NIKT 4, 1984
Disc 6, Tracks 4 and 6 released as “Human Racing” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 5, 1984
Disc 6, Track 7 from Human Racing (Expanded Re-Presents Edition) – Universal/UMC REP2013 (U.K.), 2012
Disc 6, Track 8 from “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” 12″ – MCA Records MCAT 816, 1984
Disc 6, Track 9 from “The Riddle” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 6, 1984
Disc 7, Track 1 from “Wide Boy” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 7, 1985
Disc 7, Track 2 from “Don Quixote” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 8, 1985
Disc 7, Tracks 3-4 released as “When a Heart Beats” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 9, 1985
Disc 7, Tracks 5 from “Radio Musicola” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 11, 1986
Disc 7, Track 6 from “Nobody Knows” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 10, 1986
Disc 7, Track 7 from “James Cagney” German 12″ – MCA Records 258 296-0, 1987
Disc 7, Track 8 from “One Step Ahead” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 12, 1988
Disc 7, Track 9 from “Elisabeth’s Eyes” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 13, 1989

CD 8: Remixes

1. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (7″ Remix by Simon Boswell)
2. Wide Boy (7″ Remix by Gary Langan)
3. James Cagney (Edited Version)
4. Dancing Girls (Remixed Version)
5. Dancing Girls (Special Hi-Energy Remix)
6. Drum Talk (Special Hi-Energy Remix)
7. Wouldn’t It Be Good (Remix)
8. Elisabeth’s Eyes (Club Dub)
9. Shame on You (Additional Brass Mix)

Track 1 from “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” 7″ promo – MCA Records NIKDJ 4, 1984
Track 2 from “Wide Boy” 7″ included in Nik Pak – MCA Records 6 NIK 1, 1985
Track 3 from “James Cagney” German single – MCA Records 258 379-7, 1987
Track 4 from “Dancing Girls” single – MCA Records NIK 3, 1984
Tracks 5-6 from “Dancing Girls” alternate 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 3, 1984
Track 7 from “Human Racing” 12″ – MCA Records NIX5, 1984
Track 8 from “Elisabeth’s Eyes” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 13, 1989
Track 9 from “Wide Boy” 12″ – MCA Records NIKT 7, 1985

CD 9-10: Live At Hammersmith Odeon, London – 12/28-31/1984

1. Roses
2. Know How
3. Dancing Girls
4. Bogart
5. City of Angels
6. Cloak and Dagger
7. Wild Horses
8. Gone to Pieces
9. Save the Whale
10. The Riddle

1. Shame on You
2. Wide Boy
3. Human Racing
4. Drum Talk
5. Wouldn’t It Be Good
6. Faces
7. I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me
8. Don Quixote
9. You Might
10. Progress

Disc 9, Tracks 1-2, 5, 7 and 9 and Disc 10, Track 9 from The Riddle (Expanded Re-Presents Edition) – Universal/UMC REP2024 (U.K.), 2013
Disc 9, Track 6 and Disc 10, Track 4 from “Human Racing” double single – MCA Records NIKD 5, 1984
Disc 10, Track 10 from “The Riddle” single – MCA Records NIK 6, 1984

DVD

Promo videos

1. Wouldn’t It Be Good
2. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Original)
3. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
4. Dancing Girls
5. Wide Boy
6. Nobody Knows
7. Human Racing
8. The Riddle
9. Don Quixote
10. When a Heart Beats
11. Radio Musicola
12. Elizabeth’s Eyes
13. One Step Ahead

Live At The Hammersmith Odeon (released as A.M.T. Video Gems VHS R1015 (U.K.), 1985

1. Roses
2. Know How
3. Bogart
4. Cloak & Dagger
5. Wild Horses
6. Gone to Pieces
7. Save the Whale
8. The Riddle
9. Wide Boy
10. Wouldn’t It Be Good
11. Drum Talk
12. I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me