Smalltown Boy: Bronski Beat’s Debut Goes Deluxe for 40th Anniversary

One of the most striking (and oft-reissued) albums in U.K. ’80s pop gets its biggest look this fall, with a new box set edition of Bronski Beat’s The Age of Consent. The new 4CD/1DVD edition, available October 18, packages the original 1984 album with 1985 remix album Hundreds and Thousands, plus 19 remixes, edits and B-sides as well as three unreleased remixes and a disc of 19 never-before-released studio outtakes and radio sessions. The DVD features both restored music videos and Top of the Pops performances for the four singles: “Smalltown Boy,” “Why,” “It Ain’t…

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They’re Red Hot: AIDS-Combating Compilations Get Digital Reissues for 30th Anniversary

Since 1989, the Red Hot Organization (RHO) has been combatting the scourge of HIV/AIDS.  Red Hot has primarily raised money through the creation of music compilations beginning with the 1990 release Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter.  Now, that star-studded release and numerous others have come to digital and streaming services to continue raising money for the charity. RHO co-founder John Carlin, an entertainment lawyer spurred into action by the devastating losses suffered by the New York cultural community, envisioned an album of Cole Porter songs performed by world-class…

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Moving On: Cherry Red, SFE Expand Jimmy Somerville’s “Manage the Damage” to 3 CDs

An expanded reissue of Jimmy Somerville’s 1999 solo album Manage the Damage recently arrived as a 3-CD set from Cherry Red’s Strike Force Entertainment imprint.  The former Bronski Beat and Communards vocalist’s third solo album, it was his first after leaving his longtime home of London Records.  The parting hadn’t been entirely amicable; Somerville is quoted in the new reissue’s liner notes as having observed at the time of its release, “It was once easier to market me, but times have changed.  Now I am an older gay man, I am more…

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