NIK: ICU on CD? (was: ICU on CDR)

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, Feb 15, 2002 at 11:41:13AM +0000, Chris Gibbs typed out:

> All  of ICU's back catalogue (except the album without Nik) is availabe
> abosoutly free from http://doremi.co.uk/icu  !!!

        I'm sure Steve Pond would have that up if Trev would let him,
there's plenty of non-Nik stuff there, but it's OOP unlike _Now You Know
the Score_ which Trev is still flogging.

> Its all mp3 format, Where the mp3's are of records it does sound to me
> as if they are recordings from vynal.  But they are all good no
> scratches
>
> I'll do everything ICU did on 8 cdr's (includes Calvert and Imperial
> Pompadors)  These are mostly recordings from my vynal, but not all
> (Maximum Effect is now fixed so no 2 second gaps), for swaps or similar.
>
> Anyone selling ICU cdr's for big money is having a laugth, and loosing
> friends.

        Even if, and this is quite important I think, it's Trev
Thoms? Only I believe he is the source of these CDRs. It's a pity he can't
get them out on a decent label but he must be closer to breaking even this
way.

        Something that occurred to me a little while back, actually,
though I haven't yet done anything about it, was some kind of effort to
get the ICU back catalogue back into print. My summation of the situation
is probably off here but it seems to me:

_Pass Out_ was on Riddle, wich I assume is defunct as a company
now, but its CD version came out on Oldhitz, who still exist as a shop but
no longer seem to have a label; I don't know who would own the masters, if
they still exist, but from what I can tell from <http://www.oldhitz.com>
if it's them they might be talkable into repressing it as CD-R on a demand
basis, and maybe kicking back to the royalties holders? It is crying out
for a re-edition with at least `So Try As Id' on it and if possible
`Paradise Beach'--though in an ideal world that should probably be on a
reissue of _Ersatz_... and gods only know who could be persuaded to take
that on!

_Maximum Effect_ is available, though heaven only knows what the legality
of it is :-) Again, a real CD with bonus tracks would be nice, and Trev
doesn't seem to have the masters as the CDR is made from vinyl unless I'm
mistaken. But we can get it, so it's not as urgent as the others.

Let me leave _Punkadelic_ for a minute...

_New Anatomy_ was on Demi Monde, and lots of Demi Monde stuff *has* gone
to CD on recent years; but given the payment problems with this one, I
guess we won't be seeing this joining them unless Dave Anderson feels
there's some money in doing to ICU what he does so well to HW.... still,
if other stuff came out it could happen. On the other hand it's probably
the one you need least...

Let me also leave _Presidents Tapes_ for a minute...

`Blood and Bone' was on Jettisoundz, which was a video label primarily and
as best as I can discover was merged in 1992 with a company called
Visionary Communications
(source: <http://screenedge.com/archive/jettisoundz/jetstory.htm>). These
are the people who were behind the _Night of the Hawks_ Hawkwind vinyl,
and are as far as I can tell still functional but I guess they might not
be too anxious to do audio. Besides, if ICU still own the masters they can
probably squeeze the tracks onto another release if they can achieve one.

        So, _Punkadelia_ and _Presidents Tapes_, both on Flickknife.
Flickknife is a dead duck but most of its holdings seem to be available on
Anagram, which is part of Cherry Red which is still going as far as I
know. They have inserts in the CDs they issue saying if you want a classic
punk title on CD you should tell them and they'll look into it. Why they
haven't done this with records they presumably own I don't quite
understand, but if they don't think ICU's worth the investment, it seems
to me quite possible that they haven't heard that ICU is up and running
again, and indeed has a new album in the process of recording (any news on
that Mr Pond?) Perhaps someone from the band should tell them as
much... Failing that at least we could suggest it to them, in numbers
:-) The contact address, which I glean from <http://www.cherryred.co.uk>,
seems to be <tim.madgwick at btconnect.com>. They look to me to be far the
most likely for a reissue, and by happy coincidence the albums are both
rather good too.

        But, the man from the band, Steve Pond: does *any* of this make
sense or have the situation right? Would applying gentle suggestion to
Cherry Red be in any way a helpful thing to do? I'm only throwing out an
idea here, and if there's some project on the boil or there's difficult
background I wouldn't want to tread on people's toes. Just thinking in
text, yours,
             Jon

ObCD: Blue Oyster Cult - _Secret Treaties_ remaster
--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
        --------------------------------------------------------
  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)