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CAROLINE TRUE RECORDS is thrilled to announce the long-awaited reissue of Henry Badowski’s 1981 debut album ‘Life Is a Grand’.

Regarded as one of the great ‘lost’ albums of that era, and out of print for over 40 years, ‘Life Is a Grand’ has become a word-of-mouth cult classic – a new-wave pop gem adored by those who’ve fallen for its charms and which has so far eluded the algorithm.

Once described as “Syd Barrett produced by Brian Eno”, the album casts Henry Badowski as a singular songwriter with a very English sensibility, whose effervescent songs are full of dreamy wonder and droll humour. That this album has remained untouched since 1981, almost forgotten, has somehow preserved its innocence, and it sparkles with freshness and vitality today.

Always one step removed from the London punk scene where he cut his teeth as a teenage bassist for Chelsea in 1977 before brief stints in The Damned and The Good Missionaries, Henry drew on his love of Roxy Music, Ian Dury and Jethro Tull for his own music. He emerged as a solo artist in 1979 with the double A-side ‘Making Love With My Wife’ and ‘Baby, Sign Here With Me’ for Miles Copeland’s Deptford Fun City label.

Radio 1 got behind ‘Baby, Sign Here With Me’ and so Copeland, enjoying huge success managing The Police, arranged a transfer for Henry to A&M where, try as they might, his run of brilliant singles – ‘Henry’s In Love’, ‘My Face’, ‘This Was Meant to Be’ – fell flat.

Recorded with Wally Brill at Matrix Studios in Bloomsbury, ‘Life Is a Grand’ includes four of the five singles as well as the gentle Lewis Carroll psychedelia of ‘Swimming With the Fish in the Sea’ and ‘Silver Trees’, both laced with swirls of synthesiser. The instrumentals ‘Life Is a Grand’ and ‘Rampant’ close each side with a swagger. Henry wrote all the songs and played most of the instruments, including drum machine and saxophone. His friend and former Chelsea bandmate James Stevenson played guitar, Dave Berk joined on drums and Aleksander Kolkowski added violin.

Released in June 1981 on A&M in the UK and Europe and IRS in the US, the album sank without trace – as did Henry, who gradually moved away from music into a series of other jobs. Some 30 years later, a zip file of the album began to circulate on blogs and forums where fans sang Henry’s praises and wondered how such a gifted musician could just disappear.

And the meaning behind the title? Well, a grand will always make your life easier, says Henry. At the time, in 1980, a thousand quid would go a long way – you could buy a second-hand E-Type Jaguar or a trip to New York on Concorde. Even today, if you’ve got a grand in your pocket, you’re feeling good – life’s alright.

TRACK LISTING

1 My Face
2 Henry’s In Love
3 Swimming With The Fish In The Sea
4 The Inside Out
5 Life Is A Grand
6 Silver Trees
7 This Was Meant To Be
8 Anywhere Else
9 Baby, Sign Here With Me
10 Rampant
11 Making Love With My Wife (CD Bonus Track)