News

Yesterday’s announcement of the lineup for the three-day Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April was met with typical fanfare associated with major festival announcements. And why not? A veritable who’s who of rising stars and legends across a wide swath of genres will be performing, including Radiohead, The Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Bon Iver, Madness, Squeeze, The Shins, ex-Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, the newly-reunited At the Drive-In, James, Florence and The Machine, Girl Talk and several dozen other excellent acts.

Another major name on the bill: Pulp, beloved Britpop outfit, who recently reunited last year to perform a clutch of festival dates in Europe. Their Coachella set is their first major performance of the year, and a great sign to all who were awaiting their moves for the new year. But not only are Jarvis Cocker and company hitting the road, they’re revisiting their early catalogue next month with reissues of their first three albums on the Fire Records label.

Before Cocker and band were gathered into the burgeoning Britpop scene in the mid-’90s, alongside guitar-heavy bands like Oasis, Blur and Radiohead, they had spent a tempestuous decade signed to Fire, discouraged by the lack of solidarity with their label and absence of commercial success. (The band’s personal nadir may have been the dark and dreary Freaks, recorded in one week in 1987, after which the band nearly split.) Eventually, the single “My Legendary Girlfriend” gained some press attention in 1991, and the eventual move up to the majors with the release of His ‘n’ Hers (1994) on Island Records was their major commercial breakthrough.

Fire’s forthcoming expansions of It (1984), Freaks and Separations (1991) include a host of non-LP singles and B-sides (in the case of Freaks, the bonus material takes up an entire extra disc). In addition, It and Separations include previously unreleased material.

Each reissue will be available in the U.K. on February 13. Hit the jump to check out the track lists!

It: Expanded Edition (Fire Records 233E, 2012)

1. My Lighthouse
2. Wishful Thinking
3. Joking Aside
4. Boats and Trains
5. Blue Girls
6. Love Love
7. In Many Ways
8. My Lighthouse (Single Version)
9. Please Don’t Worry (John Peel Session – 11/7/1981)
10. Blue Girls (Alternative Mix)
11. Sink or Swim

Tracks 1-7 released as Red Fire Records REDLP 29, 1983
Track 8 released as Red Fire Records single A-side 32, 1983
Track 9 released on The Peel Sessions (Island 9841397, 2006)
Tracks 10-11 previously unreleased

Freaks: Expanded Edition (Fire Records 05E, 2012)

Disc 1: Original LP (released as Fire Records LP 5, 1987)

1. Fairground
2. I Want You
3. Being Followed Home
4. Master of the Universe
5. Life Must Be So Wonderful
6. There’s No Emotion
7. Anorexic Beauty
8. The Never Ending Story
9. Don’t You Know
10. They Suffocate at Night

 Disc 2: Non-LP singles and B-sides

1. Little Girl (with Blue Eyes)
2. Simultaneous
3. Blue Glow
4. The Will to Power
5. Dogs Are Everywhere
6. The Mark of the Devil
7. 97 Lovers
8. Aborigine
9. Goodnight
10. Tunnel
11. Manon

Disc 2, Tracks 1-4 released as Fire Records single BLAZE 5T, 1985
Disc 2, Tracks 5-9 released as Fire Records single BLAZE 10T, 1986
Disc 2, Track 10 was the B-side to “They Suffocate at Night” – Fire Records BLAZE 17T, 1986
Disc 2, Track 10 was the B-side to “Master of the Universe” – Fire Records BLAZE 21T, 1985

Separations: Expanded Edition (Fire Records 26E, 2012)

1. Love is Blind
2. Don’t You Want Me Anymore?
3. She’s Dead
4. Separations
5. Down by the River
6. Countdown
7. My Legendary Girlfriend
8. Death II
9. This House is Condemned
10. Death Goes to the Disco
11. Is This House?
12. Countdown (Extended Version)
13. Death Comes to Town

Tracks 1-9 released as Fire Records LP 11026, 1992
Tracks 10 and 12 from Fire Records 12″ BLAZE 51T, 1991
Track 11 was the B-side to “My Legendary Girlfriend” – Fire Records BLAZE 20T, 1990
Track 13 previously unreleased