It had to happen eventually. So the the most ubiquitous of all Charity Shop albums, the one you can find on Vinyl in pretty much every Chazzer, every Car Boot, every 2nd hand shop and pretty much anywhere now gets the Super Deluxe treatment. There must have been warehouses full of unsold copies released into the wild, maybe they breed in captivity, for some reason they are everywhere. Yep, No Parlez, on purple vinyl and signed by the man himself for 23 quid – for that you could probably get 50 copies of the original vinyl at current Charity Shop prices.
Super Deluxe Eats Itself
Mock ye not, ye naysayers. I’m not afraid to say that I played this a lot back in the day, and enjoyed it greatly. I won’t be investing in the limited edition – the copy I have is enough for me thanks – but we ought not to forget, in a flurry of chazza-chuckles, that the bloke has a really good blue-eyed soul voice.
Yep, and the Q-Tips were excellent live. I recorded a Radio 1 PY gig onto cassette ‘cos he could properly sing when many others in 1983, well, could not.
His fall from grace was fast, though. Someone booked him for my Student Union in ’88/89 and sold a grand total of 4 tickets.
It must have been 91/92 ish that Q-Tips got back together (a big VAT bill to sort out I believe!) and the gig I went to in Cambridge was very well attended.
At least one R1 gig made it to proper vinyl and latterly CD. They really were a great night out. Good songs, very very good musicians and almost no pretension (even in the shiny suits!)
I saw Q-Tips once, in Manchester, in about … 1981-82-ish? I can remember a couple of things about the gig:
1. I was rather well refreshed.
2. Q-Tips were suprisingly good.
I was at Salford Uni in 81/82 and recall seeing Q-Tips but not sure if this was in Manchester or Salford Uni? Any ideas…
I too was at Salford Uni from 81 – 83. Dont remember the Q tips but saw U2 and the Comsat Angels during freshers week.
Ooh, you’ll know my mates then! They were there and remember seeing the Comsats and being impressed. Maybe less so with Bono’s lot.
Yeah, I think that’s the gig I saw. The timing and location fit.
I wish I had kept my ticket stubs now, as there are so many gigs where the details are sketchy.
Did I mention I’m nearly 50?
The one I was at was at the Corn Exchange if that helps. I’ve just looked at my stubs and I didn’t keep mine either… actually there are no Corn Exchange stubs at all… did they keep the whole ticket?
I saw them at Oxford Poly in (I think) 1979 just after the first album came out and they were great. I stood next to Paul Young in the queue at the bar – he is very tall. I saw Los Pacaminos at The Horn in St. Albans too – again, really good. I first heard them when they played “SYSLJFM” on the radio. Still sounds fun.
Super. I have just reserved my copy from our local music emporium, Help The Aged.
It has actually had a deluxe (25th anniversary) edition on double CD back in 2008.
Due to different mixes being used between cassette, CD and vinyl, you’d need to buy multiple CDs to recreate the vinyl tracklisting. Or go to a chazza and spend 50p.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Parlez#How_the_different_editions_compare
Actually, it’s quite easy to “recreate” the vinyl track listing – it’s disc 1 of the 2-CD reissue from Sony!
It was Paul Young’s wish to go for the LP versions as he found the cassette and CD with all those extended versions “wearying”.
That was the intention, but they actially used some edits for the 2CD.
See the link above and compare the ‘vinyl’ and ’25th CD’ columns.
I think I might be responsible for this. The whole concept is buried in this thread from 2 years ago. They didn’t seem to like the title “Mo Parlez” though.
I made a similar Mo’ Parlez joke on Twitter last year and Paul Young himself ‘liked’ it! Perhaps I subconsciously nicked it from this, in which case you can share some of the glory.
No worries – I can’t be sure that I didn’t pick it up from someone else myself. Having said that, Macca reckons that Yesterday’s melody was something he’d heard before – so maybe this joke is exactly the same phenomenon.
Along with the learned fox, I feel I should remind of how good this was at its time and place. Yes, we snicker now, but the boy could sing, all were impressed by Pino’ s fretless boings and the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts, well, just that. The reason it is in every chazza in the land is because it was bought by every house in the land. I loved it. (I will admit going to the Birmingham Odeon to see him play was a miscalculation, having failed to appreciate my enjoyment might translate equivalently to a zillion squealing schoolgirls.)
I still love the de(con)structive review above, mind.
Wot ‘e said.
No “warehouses full of unsold copies” for this album. Every chazza-shop copy was (albeit briefly) pre-loved by someone or other.
I have this album nestling in my dusty box of cassettes, on top of the bookcase.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….
Boo-DOWWWW!
A fine album. Just last night I was listening to the cassette version, with all the groovy extended mixes and bonus tracks. A shame this new release isn’t really super deluxe in that there are no extras at all. A second disc would be more of a draw.
Introducing The Hard line According To Terence Trent D’arby is another common album set for a reissue soon, but only on black vinyl. Not sure how much demand there’ll be; it’s not as ubiquitous as NP, but still pretty easy to find.
And an even better album with a more ‘timeless’ production.
Black vinyl? Whatever will they think of next!
Did anyone see Paul on Cats Does Countdown last week? He did a few skits between questions and was a great sport.
I did. And I saw him fo shizzle with Los Pacominos a few months ago. It wasn’t my choice* but a great night.
(*Y’ know, leaving the house…)
Good to hear your annual trip out is over and done with. Now you can relax.
Well, I’ve undone me belt already.
Where are you going?
The thing about Los Pacaminos is that they do not play any Paul Young solo material and he’s by no means the leader. They do trade on his name a bit, so it might be a rather disappointing experience for ’80s PY fans. He doesn’t sing lead much, mostly just harmonises. All the band are singers.
A good-time band playing Tex-Mex-flavoured R&B because that’s what they like playing. Very entertaining.
He is doing a solo No Parlez tour in arenas during October, which is brave, given his voice was shot years ago.
Also REM are releasing a 6 disc version of “Monster”, at least in North America a shop cannot be considered to have charity status unless multiple copies are available in the used CD racks …
In Britain, with regards to REM, it’s “any REM album,” even the less popular early and late ones are charriddee CD regulars.
There are certain acts where I think you could confidently get everything, or near as damn it, for a maximum of £1 apiece …
Madonna
Oasis
REM
U2
Prince
Manic Street Preachers
Simply Red
Lighthouse Family
Blur
Michael Jackson
Might have missed a few obvious ones.
For reference, rather than any points scoring, the only 60s act for whom this is true is probably Nick Drake, whose three records are all likely to turn up.
I should imagine there’s been a spike in the availability of Jacko product lately.
All bought in the 90s like the others in your list.
Lost Prophets … never heard of them until 6/7 years ago … are another one.
Keane, Travis, Coldplay, The Libertines.
It really is mainly 1990s indie-type stuff.
I shouldn’t think you’ll find many Lost Prophets albums in chazzas, because they never sold that many in the first place.
I have never knowingly heard a Lost Prophets track and I had only vaguely heard of their existence (with not a scooby of what sort of music they played) prior to That Arrest and the associated court case.
I sometimes get the Lost Prophets muddled up with the Last Poets …
You’ve got me confused now. I’ve got an album by one of them anyway, the Arctic Monkeys bloke side project.
Er… that’ll be The Last Shadow Puppets..
Confusion reigns.
I seen loads of Lost Prophets’ CDs in Oxfam etc.
Probably enough to have bought their entire back catalogue (CD singles as well) five times over.
I’m in the minority as I have never seen this album in a chazza.
It was ok, wasn’t it? A decent pop album if memory serves
Had you scrolled down the SDE website just a little further, you would have chanced upon this
https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/transvision-vamp-i-want-your-love-6cddvd-deluxe-set-with-signed-print/
If you’re looking for proof that the reissue machine has finally gone too far, look no further.
I guess if they still have 500 fans left then it is worthwhile. Can’t imagine they are making many more than that.
Listen very carefully and you can hear the barrels being scraped