Bringing Home The Wild Swans

 My obsession with The Wild Swans started in 1988. I remember buying the cassette version of "Bringing Home The Ashes" together with The Grapes Of Wrath's "Treehouse". Playing the Warner debut during the summer of 1989 etched into my mind the beautiful landscapes of England while I was actually lying on a beach in our hometown in the Philippines. We also played the album while enjoying the sea breeze on top of a wooden watch tower with an old cassette player. Ahhh so much memories of our youth :)   

Here are some of my CD collections from The Wild Swans:

Item #1 : The Wild Swans - Music and Talk from Liverpool

 This is a promo only CD for the Warner debut "Bringing Home The Ashes". Some talk about their hometown and the "Revolutionary Spirit". It was fun listening to the interview. I have not listened to this for a long time as I don't want to crease the CD with my fingerprints. It is quite rare now.

 Item #2 : The Wild Swans - Magnitude

 This is a 2 CD compilation of the two Warner albums. It is said to be remastered but I have not compared the sound that much from the original CD releases. I noticed the swan logo on the cover is scanned from the "Music and Talk" CD and retouched digitally. If you look closely, the edges of the swan has minor pixelation. Nevertheless, this is a great collectors item. 

 Item #3 : The Wild Swans - Bringing Home The Ashes

Very iconic album art. This is the 1996 Philippine release on a white colored disc. I was very happy when this was released for the first time on CD in the Philippines. I was not able to get hold of the USA release as I had some bad experience with Warner CD releases in the 80's. Some of them already have holes in the silver coating. A friend who has the USA version have holes on the disc. Incidentally, this album was produced by Paul Hardiman, who also produced the great debut from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, "Soul Mining" by The The and "...From Across the Kitchen Table" by The Pale Fountains.

 Item #4 : The Wild Swans - The Platinum Collection

Philippine compilation of the Sire/Warner tracks released early 2000's. The disc has better quality printing than the label. I think this photo is taken from the internet, as I also have an image of this poster saved on my computer. Notice that the swan logo is not the official logo for the Sire years. I wonder why they did not simply reissue the 1996 release. Maybe the Japan CD reissue in the 2000's already has sole distributorship for the original debut album. Still a great addition to the Wild Swans collection. 

I'll be featuring my Wild Swans vinyl and cassette collection at a later time...

Ramblings About Some New Wave CD Collection

Way back in the 90's, getting New Wave CD's was not an easy task like it is now with sites like ebay, Amazon, Gemm and Musicstack. I had to order some of these from sellers in Record Collector magazine and catalogs like the Eil record catalog. It would be no problem if I was in the USA or UK, but I am in the Philippines! There is that lingering thought that what I ordered might get lost or stolen in the postal system. Nevertheless, I had lots of fun hunting down some of my music collection. Some of these are posted below:

Item #1 : The Wild Swans - Space Flower

 

A great follow up to the Warner debut "Bringing Home The Ashes". Although Jeremy Kelly was not in this recording, it is pretty good. Tracks like "Sea Of Tranquility" and "Space Flower" seems to hint that Paul Simpson is already planning to form his ambient project - Skyray. My first copy was the one without a punch hole. The two with punch holes I got later on during the 2000's.

Item #2 : 16 Tambourines - How Green Is Your Valley

Local radio station NU107 got me curious about this album. They played "Bathed In The Afterglow" and "How Green Is Your Valley" in 1988-1989. Years later in 1995-1996, I bougth this CD from one of the sellers in Record Collector magazine.

Item #3 : The Adventures -  Broken Land (3" CD Single)

I bought this single because of the acoustic version which is seldom heard. I like the way the version faded into the background while the drums are just starting to play. A good remix would probably begin with the acoustic version and then at the chorus, the original studio version would come in.