Sinister: Relics

[Tim Hopkins]

Elle wrote:

"what are they doing differently?"

Well, here's something, and I know this is old news
but I have to say I'm so sad about the way that if you
want the full version of 'JIADS' you've to buy the 12"
of 'Legal Man', and if you want 'Winter Wooskie,
you've to buy the CD. 

Putting slightly different versions of records such
that if you want to maintain your complete collection
of a band's output is just a nasty record business
trick designed to screw money out of the most
committed fans and maybe artificially inflate chart
placings. It's a crap thing to do. 

Now, I *know* that nobody's forced to buy anything
they don't want to buy, but to use that as an excuse
is to completely misunderstand how a whole lot of
people collect records and follow bands. B&S /
Jeepster know only too well that B&S fans are very,
very committed to the band and that they *are* going
to want to own all the stuff. So they stick out two
singles with very, very slightly different content,
safe in the knowledge that they'll sell lots of
multiple copies. 

Maybe they couldn't fit the enormously extended 'Judy'
onto the 70 odd minuted offered by the CD. Or maybe
those twelve inches of vinyl couldn't accommodate all
three of those super-long songs, which between them
would, after all, have required a 4-LP boxed set.
Seriously, I suppose there is the possibility that
soem weird technical reason means that they couldn't
fit the same songs on both formats, but I can't see
what that might be. if they couldn't have fitted them
all onto the vinyl, they could have at least put the
whole lot on the CD. Maybe missing a track off the CD
makes the vinyl better value. Or something. 

I mean, if a band feels it *has* to try to cajole its
followers into buying two copies of something, at
least they could make the two singles different enough
from each other that they're worth buying in their own
right. They shouldn't just try to cash in in on their
loyalty by selling them the same thing twice. 

I've long wanted B&S to get into the charts *on their
own terms*. Not by pulling ugly, rip-off tricks. Maybe
these are their terms now, I dunno. But I have a
feeling that this is the kind of thing they wouldn't
have done a while ago. 

I know that I'm a sad relic of the days in the 1980s
when some of us used to fulminate about what a rip-off
 3-track 12" singles were. Maybe I should grow up and
live in the real world. Not so sure I want to though. 

Sorry to re-emerge with a moan. 

Cheerio

tim

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    +---+  Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list  +---+
    To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
    send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
    majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students"  +-+
 +-+  "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list"  +-+
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper        +-+
 +-+   "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000   +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+