The International Pop Underground is alive and well and living at Precious Recordings of London! The newest additions to the label fold are Coup Dur, a yé-yé-flavoured Belgian-French trio born after the internet.

Formed in late 2024 and based between Brussels, Strasbourg and Antwerp, the group features Avril De Broucker (Lavomatic) on guitar, Clémence D’Hulst (Fake Empire) on bass and César Laloux (Ada Oda) on drums.

With their sparkling, tender French songs tinged with acid romanticism and garage rock accents, the band invites us to do the twist amid an era of doomscrolling, bad dates with egotists, Basic-Fit centres and online masterclasses on how to become a serial entrepreneur. France Gall would be delighted by their indie take on a beloved 60s genre.

‘Mon Amie’, which focuses on the fantasy of a friendly break-up, offers an accurate representation of the group’s playful pop stylings. Expect more of the same on their fantastic eight-song EP, written between February and April 2025, then recorded and mixed in just two days by Rafael ‘Tuff Guac’ Valles Hilario in Antwerp.

A founding gesture, concise and carried out with urgency, reflecting the music it produces: direct, spontaneous, without detours or superfluity. The title of the EP echoes the band’s amusement – and astonishment – at seeing this first record released on an English label, Precious Recordings of London.

We really do want Coup Dur!

TRACK LISTING

1. Mon Amie
2. J’avais Pas Pensé À Ça
3. Bigger Fish In The Sea
4. J’attendrai
5. Ça Me Vexe
6. Tu Dis Des Choses
7. Encore Un Mythe
8. De La Lumière

Not fake news; it’s true! Cult Figures shall return to your hi-fis with their fourth album, 'Reports Of People'. It’s a melody map of the world’s collective madness transporting the listener from pop to punk and back again; visiting every station en route.

Since forming in Birmingham in 1977, Cult Figures have utilised this thing called music to plumb the depths and scale the peaks of the human condition. Over the years, they have at times walked among us here on earth and, at other times, they’ve been … somewhere else (not prison).

Anyway, here they are and they’ve made a record that’s slightly darker, a bit more eclectic; but still indubitably Cult Figures. Zip Nolan would approve. That bloke out of Pink Floyd once said that a band consists of a drummer, a bassist and a collection of novelty acts. Quite right. Alongside the Wrecked Crew of Stuart and Lee, you’re gonna groove with Jon and Steve on guitars and the dulcet tones of Fraser channelling his inner highland chieftain for dear life.

So, what’s it all about? There are eleven tracks in a cardboard sleeve with an enigmatic photograph. Shakespeare might have summed the thing up as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But it’s so much more. 'Music Of Fear' will tickle anyone who has entertained thoughts of killing their boss. 'The Abductee' is a tale of alien abduction, or perhaps it’s about losing an afternoon in a Wetherspoon’s pub. 'Death Of A Thousand Cuts' is when your partner chooses to leave you but wants to tape your albums first.

Scum charts the diverging paths of childhood friends and features a coda straight outta Mott The Hoople. Legacy Hand is that jarring feeling of being left behind by modern life. And the driving beat, cool harmonies and nutty guitar of Walking Disaster do exactly what it says on the tin.

So, raid that piggy bank and buy a copy to reveal the rest of the story. But let it be known that the penultimate punker is Lunatic Friend. Quite appropriate really; we’ve all got one

TRACK LISTING

1. Music Of Fear
2. The Abductee
3. Death Of A Thousand Cuts
4. Legacy Hand
5. Dangerous Boy
6. Walking Disaster
7. Rose Bucket
8. Space Invader
9. Badly In Love
10. Lunatic Friend
11. Scum

Post-cool or too old to care? The Lovely Basement say that they set out to mix alt-country with the Velvet Underground. They also say they failed, but quite like the result.

So, what do you find in The Lovely Basement? A beautiful slice of alt-countrystyle. Americana, infused with the sensibilities of the aforementioned Velvet Underground – and a chopping guitar that wouldn’t sound out of place on an album by the VU’s British counterpart, Fairport Convention.

Since the release in 2019 of their first album, 'Just Because You Can', The Lovely Basement have drawn admiring glances from all over the place: “the sweetness of Yo La Tengo and the raggedness of The Pastels”; “not dissimilar to Paisley Underground veterans the Dream Syndicate”; “tossing off songs with the looseness of early Faces”.

The single Cornstalk Girl was the first offering from Lowlands and was picked up by Radio 6 Music’s Gideon Coe, a long-time supporter of the band’s output. Mention was also given to the “excellent” B-side cover of Beat Happening’s 'Angel Gone'. Vocals for the album were recorded by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Howe Gelb, Eels) who stumbled across the band playing live locally and stayed!

Like all Lovely Basement records, Lowlands eloquently covers a range of subjects. From musings on sentience, inequality, globalisation, even theology, to the deep need to hunker down with good friends when the world outside gets too much, all find an often wry voice in this shimmering collection of finely crafted songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cornstalk Girl
2. Fifth Column
3. Small Fleas
4. Black Jumper On
5. Lowlands
6. Rest Now Lucy
7. Barabbas
8. Dust Patterns
9. Mostly Wrong
10. Goodbye

Sticking out like a flower-patterned thumb amid the grey and brown hues of the serious boys in the early 2000s Cardiff music scene, The Loves soon established themselves as a band who categorically didn’t listen to Radiohead.

Their debut single (Little Girl Blues b/w She’ll Break Your Heart) soon caught the ear of John Peel, who invited them in to record a session for his programme. As the feedback echoed at the end of When My Baby Comes, he commented: “I bet they’re a riot live … maybe we should get them in for a live one?”

And so it came to pass that The Loves – led by the eponymous Simon Love – did indeed perform a seven-song live session for Peel. Broadcast from the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in September 2001, this provides the bulk of the first side of this, The Loves Live at the BBC album. Track eight is a cover of Queen’s You’re My Best Friend, also broadcast live from Peel Acres a bit later on.

The Loves went on to record three more sessions for Peel in an 18-month period, as well as touring with high-profile groups such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Cribs.

Over the next decade or so, The Loves released four smash-packed albums – Love, Technicolour, Three and Love You – plus several indie-hit singles like Boom-A-Bang-Bang-Bang, Xs And Os and December Boy, named 6 Music Single of the Week by Radcliffe & Maconie. Versions of all these songs appear on The Loves Live at the BBC.

They also recorded a lot more live sessions for Marc Riley, who does the honours on side two of the new album with eight songs recorded for his show, culminating in another cover in the shape of the Velvet Underground’s Guess I’m Falling In Love.

As the seasons changed, so did the membership of the group and by 2011, it was estimated they’d gone through 37 members and had played many gigs all over the world with such contemporaries as Darren Hayman, The Lovely Eggs and Comet Gain (to name but three).In 2024, they released a career retrospective vinyl double album, True Love – The Most Of The Loves.

Now the best of their live work at the BBC is collated on this new LP, which is released as part of the ongoing sessions series on Precious Recordings of London.

TRACK LISTING

1. Depeche Mode (Peel)
2. She'll Break Your Heart (Peel)
3. Little Girl Blues (Peel)
4. Boom-A-Bang-Bang-Bang (Peel) 02:39
5. Shake Yr Bones (Peel)
6. I’m Gonna Get Fucked Up (Peel)
7. Just Like Bobby D (Peel)
8. You’re My Best Friend (Peel)
9. Xs And Os (Riley)
10. Honey (Riley)
11. The Ex-Gurlfriend (Riley)
12. Sweet Sister Delia (Riley)
13. Can You Feel My Heart Beat? (Riley)
14. Bubblegum (Riley)
15. December Boy (Riley)
16. Guess I’m Falling In Love (Riley)

From Camden Town: The first-ever solo release from the 14 Iced Bears’ frontman is an unmissable three-song outing. The gorgeous 'Sweetest Star' is plaintively melodic in the style beloved of longtime Bears’ followers, while Rob then gets cracking on old favourite 'Take It' with a brilliant mad mix. That’s the Asyd Mouse mix. Then we get to 'Consciousness…' (don’t forget the ellipsis) which he claims explains everything everywhere at anytime. Best listened to lying down.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweetest Star
2. Take It (Asyd Mouse Mix)
3. Consciousness …

The latest release on Precious Recordings of London is a new four track EP from indie-pop melody masters Silver Biplanes.

Following on from two acclaimed Silver Biplanes albums (A Moment In The Sun and Travelling By Candlelight), this ten-inch release features four prime slices of Biplanery, headed by the bittersweet pop of sparklingly catchy lead track ‘Coming Up For Air’.

The group features the husband-and-wife team of Tim and Vanessa Vass, with Tim writing the songs and playing a range of instruments, and Vanessa providing the engaging lead vocals. They are joined by drummer Rob Scott and guitarist Noel Douglas.

Tim was bassist and lyricist in cult indie band Razorcuts, co-writing all their songs. Razorcuts releases regularly featured in the higher reaches of the independent charts throughout the late 80s, and included two top five albums recorded for the iconic Creation label. Razorcuts continue to appear on numerous compilations and their influence is often cited in books and internet articles. Tim has also played in Red Chair Fadeaway, Dandelion Wine and the Forever People.

Vanessa was the singer in 90s indie band the Melons, who released six singles, recorded a couple of BBC sessions for Mark Radcliffe, and were regularly featured in the British music press.

The band’s wide range of influences – psychedelia, post-punk, krautrock and more – are fully on show across this EP, which also features a swirling cover of ‘Miss California Toothpaste 1972’, a standout song on Biff Bang Pow!’s classic 1988 album Love Is Forever. For Tim, the track represents a homage to his former label Creation, as he and fellow Razorcut Gregory Webster used to join BBP! on stage on occasion for twin tambourine duties at Alan McGee’s invitation.

From the ashes of the Shop Assistants and Meat Whiplash came the Motorcycle Boy, one of the great lost Scottish pop groups of the late 1980s.

Featuring the unmistakable voice of the late Alex Taylor, the band traded under an enigmatic name inspired by Mickey Rourke’s character in Francis Ford Coppola’s avant-garde film noir Rumble Fish.

The Edinburgh-based five-piece were feted as the ‘next big thing’ and went on to release a string of classy singles – but it was the old, old story. Dropped by a major label, the Motorcycle Boy’s debut LP was recorded and never came out – well, not until a few years ago, about 30 years after it should have done – and the band split up, their chance at world domination gone.

Fans, though, remember their bittersweet pop gems – and now their only BBC session for the legendary John Peel is released on Precious Recordings of London. This four-song outing at Maida Vale features the LP title track ‘Scarlet’ and much loved ‘Under The Bridge’, plus the previously unreleased ‘I Could Make You Happy’, perhaps as close to indiepop as they ever got.

With sleeve notes by Michael Kerr and a plethora of unseen images, this release is limited to 500 copies worldwide. Don’t miss out.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their celebrated album Unisex, Sarah Records legends Blueboy had their first full-band outing for 25 years with a sold-out show at The Water Rats in London’s Kings Cross on May 18, 2024.

With Gemma Malley taking over on vocals in place of the late Keith Girdler, Blueboy kicked off proceedings as an acoustic duo also featuring founder member Paul Stewart on guitar.

Then they were joined by Mark Cousens (bass) and Martin Rose (drums) for a blistering hour-long set featuring classics from throughout their 1990s career such as Popkiss, The Joy of Living, Air France, Meet Johnny Rave and Imipramine – plus One and Deux, the two astonishing new singles with which they announced their return.

This was a show nobody ever thought they’d see, and a joyful performance was to be a pivotal moment in the group’s extraordinary re-emergence. Fortunately the entire evening was professionally recorded for posterity – and now the majority of the songs are being released by Precious Recordings of London in a special blue vinyl package that’s limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Blueboy first got together in the early 1990s and went on to build a global following, touring Europe and Japan and featuring regularly in the UK independent charts with a series of acclaimed singles and well-regarded albums. At various times, their guitar-led sound has been described as having echoes of bands like The Smiths, Slowdive, Lush and The Cocteau Twins.

An album of new songs is planned for later in 2025. For now, though, this 13-song live LP is a must-have for any Blueboy fan. Also features sleeve notes from Sarah co-founder Matt Haynes and an array of photographs by Sasha Maese.

From Indonesia: Eagle-eyed viewers (and eagle-eared listeners) will know this already via a download but now on vinyl: two fantastic slices of indie-pop goodness. The A-side is in the realm of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Kip Berman is a big fan, naturally – and the B-side isn’t far off a lost Soup Dragons single from their Buzzcocksy phase … albeit with a female vocal. Whatever, it’s flippin’ great.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stars In Your Eyes
2. Bootleg Charm

“James [Dean Bradfield] was always banging on about Big Flame and I could never understand it. But then I played a record of theirs at a slower speed by mistake on vinyl once, and suddenly I got the jazziness of it.” Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers

Working within a pre-determined lifespan, bIG*fLAME developed their own distinctive sound and style: super-fast, two-minute, non-decadent Mach 2 beats overlain by distinctive, spiky, loud, unorthodox guitars, and politically-charged lyrics.

John Peel described the band as “one of the two or three very best bands of Planet Earth”, and also called them “the best dance band since Glenn Miller and his Orchestra”.

Find out for yourself on this album which features all four Peel sessions recorded by the agitpop trio between 1984 and 1986 – 16 tracks in total, with versions of nearly everything they ever recorded. And a few things they didn’t.

Among the highlights are the covers of the June Brides’ indie standard Every Conversation (Phil Wilson, a big fan of bIG*fLAME, loves it), plus These Boots Are Made For Working – Nancy & Lee eat your hearts out.

Plus, of course, the notorious Wham! cover … Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go it ain’t. Well it is, but it’s also Testament To The Slow Death Of Youth Culture. Once heard, never forgotten.

There never was a bIG*fLAME LP because they didn’t believe in it. So we’ve struck it lucky here. All this, plus sleeve notes from Greg O’Keeffe and printed inners with photos and flyers etc. All the stuff you love from Precious.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Finally I can bin my crackly cassette versions of these sessions! This collection is long overdue and perfectly captures the energy and intensity of the legendary biG fLAME. I think it was probably on the John Peel show that I first heard them and they left an immediate impression on me, a 17 year old Smiths fan who was used to guitars that jangled, not snarled and spat! I'd heard nothing like it before: the jagged guitars, odd time changes and rattling drums (I think it was journalist James Brown that described them as amphetamine harassed - which made me laugh at the time and always stuck in my head. It's the perfect description.) It took me a few more listens to actually catch the lyrics too which were political but not sloganeering: clever and satirical. I was hooked! I saw them live numerous times and as you can probably tell, I loved them. Over time they would open my eyes and ears to a whole new world of music - everything from Gang Of 4 and The Fire Engines to The Pop Group and On U-Sound, stuff I may never have discovered on my own it the pre-internet days.
Check this album out - they could be your new favourite band!

TRACK LISTING

Debra
Man Of Few Syllables
Sargasso
Breath Of A Nation
All The Irish Must Go To Heaven
New Way
Chanel Samba
These Boots Were Made For Working
Earsore
Let's Rewrite The American Constitution
Cat With Cholic
Every Conversation
Sink
XPQWRTZ
Three On Baffled Island
Testament To The Slow Death Of Youth Culture

From Copenhagen, the much-anticipated debut release from a cosmopolitan indie-pop four-piece fresh from a recent support slot with Shonen Knife. We don’t really like making comparisons but think Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Tiger Trap and you’ll be getting the idea. A classic sound as fresh here as a newly flowered daisy – they’ll have an album out later this year, and these songs aren’t on it. Plus you get a nice badge.

TRACK LISTING

1. Still Time
2. Shirley (Not)

Shrag’s sound had developed by the time of this session for Marc Riley, which features sparkling early versions of four songs destined to appear on ‘Canines’, their critically lauded third and final LP.

The Brighton-based indie poppers were regulars in the BBC Studios, with Marc Riley an especially fervent supporter before they called it a day in March 2013 with a triumphant and emotionally charged final show at London’s Lexington.

Limited-edition ten-inch vinyl comes with free downloads, a printed inner sleeve with hitherto unseen images and sleeve notes from Russell Warrior.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tears Of A Landlord
2. Tendons In The Night
3. Show Us Your Canines
4. You’re The Shout

Forerunners to The Thanes, The Green Telescope started out in 1981 as ardent ambassadors for 60s-style psychedelic sounds, soon becoming well known around Edinburgh for putting together exotic-sounding shows featuring freak-out style lights.

A couple of line-up changes later, they took fresh inspiration from the British beat group era plus the US/European teen garage-punk explosion – think ‘Nuggets’ and ‘Pebbles’.

There were only two singles – including the much-sought-after ‘Face In A Crowd’ seven-inch – so this, their only BBC session from 1986, is a proper one-off, capturing the spirit and sound of the times via a swirling organ, a psych heart and three totally unreleased tracks. Plus one that was recorded only 20 years later in a different version by the Thanes.

… and don’t miss their inimitable cover of the Driving Stupid’s ‘Horror Asparagus Stories’!

TRACK LISTING

Who Knows?
X+Y=13
Try To
Horror Asparagus Stories

"I love these Iced Bears – all 14 of them!” – John Peel

14 Iced Bears began as one of the most beloved bands on the C86 wave that spread through the UK in the mid-80s after the Jesus and Mary Chain brought back pop songs, albeit drenched in noise, to the alternative scene.

Having released a single on the legendary Sarah Records, the Bears went down a psychedelic path for their first album, a move which led to a ringing endorsement from the United States of America’s Dorothy Moskowitz for their cover of ‘Coming Down’, and a six-page article in Shindig magazine, the type of coverage usually reserved for psych giants like Arthur Lee or Syd Barrett.

The band recorded two sessions for John Peel in their earlier period, and these new releases on Precious cover the period from their first single ‘Inside’ (described by Pitchfork as one of the prototype Shoegaze records), of late 1986, to shortly before their acclaimed ‘Come Get Me’ EP on Sarah in 1988.
On hearing the Bears’ first session, John Peel exclaimed his new-found love for the band. “My type of band,” he said. “I love these Iced Bears, all 14 of them!”

With half the band changing between the two sessions, their second visit to the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios found them progressing subtly to a sound that would help define psych-indie. Now released on vinyl for the first time, these releases capture a band in momentum from early indie popularity to genre-shaping creations. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Balloon Song
2. Cut
3. Shy(-)Like You
4. Train Song

"I love these Iced Bears – all 14 of them!” – John Peel

14 Iced Bears began as one of the most beloved bands on the C86 wave that spread through the UK in the mid-80s after the Jesus and Mary Chain brought back pop songs, albeit drenched in noise, to the alternative scene.

Having released a single on the legendary Sarah Records, the Bears went down a psychedelic path for their first album, a move which led to a ringing endorsement from the United States of America’s Dorothy Moskowitz for their cover of ‘Coming Down’, and a six-page article in Shindig magazine, the type of coverage usually reserved for psych giants like Arthur Lee or Syd Barrett.

The band recorded two sessions for John Peel in their earlier period, and these new releases on Precious cover the period from their first single ‘Inside’ (described by Pitchfork as one of the prototype Shoegaze records), of late 1986, to shortly before their acclaimed ‘Come Get Me’ EP on Sarah in 1988.
On hearing the Bears’ first session, John Peel exclaimed his new-found love for the band. “My type of band,” he said. “I love these Iced Bears, all 14 of them!”

With half the band changing between the two sessions, their second visit to the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios found them progressing subtly to a sound that would help define psych-indie. Now released on vinyl for the first time, these releases capture a band in momentum from early indie popularity to genre-shaping creations. 

TRACK LISTING

1. If I Said
2. Spangle
3. Miles Away
4. Hay Fever

Sarah Records legends Blueboy return as a four-piece with a blistering new single ‘One’ – their first new song for 25 years, featuring founder member Paul Stewart plus Gemma Townley, Mark Cousens and Martin Rose from the band’s halcyon days in the 1990s.

With Gemma taking over lead vocals from the much-missed Keith Girdler, who died in 2007, ‘One’ is a stunning slice of indie pop with echoes of Lush, Stereolab, Dinosaur Jr (and maybe even Kylie) to rank alongside anything they’ve done before.

Backed with a magical acoustic version of ‘Air France’ featuring Paul and Gemma, the single is released in May 2024 to coincide with a full-band show in London to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the classic Blueboy album Unisex.

‘One’ is being released on the Precious Recordings of London as the label’s first-ever non-BBC session release.

“Recording at Maida Vale for the Peel Session was literally the highlight of our career as a band.”

So says Alicia from San Francisco indie legends The Aislers Set, and who are we to argue? Precious Recordings of London is excited to release this 2001 session for the one and only John Peel by the Slumberland dream-poppers, who recorded four songs for the BBC – among them a celebrated cover of Joy Division’s ‘Walked In Line’ and the band’s own classic ‘Mission Bells’.

The latter was written specifically for the session by Linton, who also supplies a sleeve essay with memories of the day of recording – and then hunkering down in a Glasgow pub with members of Belle and Sebastian to listen to the first broadcast on a tinny transistor.

10" vinyl limited edition of 500 copies featuring previously unseen photos on the inner plus download codes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mission Bells
2. Walked In Line
3. Long Division
4. The Walk

The Loft notched up an impressive list of firsts for Creation Records artists back in the mid-1980s. First Creation band on TV, first to hit the top of the indie chart, first to be invited on to a major UK tour and, not least, first Creation band to record a coveted BBC radio session – for Janice Long’s Radio One show in 1984. Then they split up.

In October 2023, the band was invited by BBC Radio 6 Music’s Riley & Coe show to record its fourth BBC session at Maida Vale’s famous Studio 4, following their heralded appearance at the Glas-Goes Pop festival.

Featuring four classic Loft tracks and played by the original members – Pete Astor, Dave Morgan, Bill Prince and Andy Strickland – the session confirmed the band’s standing as pioneering indie originals. On hearing the very first track broadcast, Nick Godfrey of Precious Recordings of London was messaging the band to bag the session for a full vinyl release.

The 10-inch vinyl EP features three band originals, ‘Beware’, ‘Worm In My Brain’ and ‘Ride’, plus their celebrated version of Richard Hell’s ‘Time’.

The band have all contributed to the sleeve notes, describing what the session, and still playing together, means to them, with exclusive photos from inside Maida Vale taken by Ken Copsey.

“…straight to ‘tape’, no overdubs, four songs in four hours, finelined by a mix that enshrines the ‘play it as it lays’ ethos” – Bill Prince

“Time has been kind to us I think; where once the world felt impossible and threatening, we seem to have learned to be more careful of each other and focus on playing together” – Pete Astor

TRACK LISTING

1. Beware (BBC Session Version)
2. Ride (BBC Session Version)
3. Worm In My Brain (BBC Session Version)
4. Time (BBC Session Version)

This limited edition 3x10" collection features the two Precious Recordings Sessions EPs along with a Radio Clyde Session EP which is exclusive to this bundle.

TRACK LISTING

John Peel Session
1. Loopholes 02:44
2. From This Day On 04:42
3. What Is There To Smile About? 02:47
4. Mirror Breaks 03:46

Janice Long Session
1. Never Seen Before 02:55
2. Pathetic Trivia 02:38
3. Heaven … Rains [Going To Heaven To See If It Rains] 03:06
4. Nothing Really Matters 03:04

Radio Clyde Session
5. Lovely Little Swan 03:48
6. Le Grande Ennui [Knee Trembler] 04:37
7. Nature Thing 03:59
8. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye 04:25

Hailing from the rather more literate side of Camden’s garage-punk scene in the mid-90s, The Flaming Stars were Peel favourites over the years, recording no fewer than EIGHT sessions for the legendary DJ.

Six of them were collected on a Vinyl Japan CD at the turn of the century – but this fantastic final session is one of two never released before (the other one is PRE 042!). And what a session it is, featuring the brilliant ‘Cash 22’ (should’ve been a single!) and the noir vision of ‘Killer In The Rain’.

TRACK LISTING

Cash 22
Over And Done
Action Crime & Vision
Killer In The Rain

“I love this session. Four great songs full of hooks. All of them under the three-minute mark. La-la-la singalongs. Shiny guitars. What more do you want?” Gideon Coe

From Perth in Scotland, This Poison! released two classic late 80s singles on the Wedding Present’s Reception Records and that was it. Apart from this stunning Peel session, featuring four songs that never saw the light of day on vinyl during the band’s lifetime. “Rip-roaring stuff!” said John Peel, and he wasn’t wrong. Package also includes download codes, sleeve notes from Derek Moir and a set of postcards – among them one from the great man himself sent to the band, a must for any Peel devotees.

TRACK LISTING

1. Question Mark (Peel Session) 02:13
2. St Johnstoun (Peel Session) 02:45
3. Driving Skills (Peel Session) 02:15
4. It'll All Work Out (Peel Session) 02:07

On vinyl for the first time, this is the only BBC session ever recorded by legendary 1980s indie pioneers Hurrah!, featuring an early version of their fabled second single ‘Hip Hip’ alongside three more bursts of immaculate guitar pop. Comes with a set of postcards – first 250 copies signed by Paul Handyside and Taffy Hughes, who have also provided sleeve notes. Postcards also feature excerpts from the Kitchenware fanzine, the first-ever group photo shoot and a Bleddyn Butcher photo; Bleddyn also did the cover. And download codes, of course.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hip Hip (Jensen Session) 02:40
2. Saturday’s Train (Jensen Session) 03:10
3. This Boy (Jensen Session) 02:59
4. Lonely Room (Jensen Session) 04:36

Third and final Hefner contribution to the Precious singles series … and what a contribution it is, a session from Steve Lamacq’s ‘Live Lounge’ with a Jonathan Richman cover in the mix. The download will also include ‘The Hymn For The Cigarettes’, which the band played live into the show from Maida Vale. Plus the package includes a set of four 'Hefner does DiY' postcards by Darren Hayman, which any self-respecting fan will surely want. And he's done his usual top job on the sleeve notes.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Weight Of The Stars (Lamacq Session) 02:57
2. The Hymn For The Things We Didn't Do (Lamacq Session) 03:38
3. Every Little Gesture (Lamacq Session) 04:04
4. To Hide A Little Thought (Lamacq Session) 03:04

Indie favourites Hefner were to become regulars at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios with both Steve Lamacq and John Peel vying for their services. This is the group’s first-ever BBC session, recorded for Lamacq soon after the release of their debut LP; among the four songs is live favourite Twisting Mary’s Arm, which was usually the closing song of their live set. According to Darren Hayman, they intended never to record it but eventually relented. Gatefold package also includes free downloads of original BBC files and a set of postcards.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Librarian (Lamacq Session) 04:17
2. Tactile (Lamacq Session) 04:53
3. May God Protect Your Home (Lamacq Session) 04:11
4. Twisting Mary's Arm (Lamacq Session) 05:04

Here's the explosive second Peel session from the masters of discord (or should that be dischord?). You'll want this for 'Deanshanger' alone but the rest's pretty good too – including two previously tracks – made up on the spot according to the group. Features a set of postcards, download codes and sleeve notes from Linda telling us how relieved she was to miss out on TOTP.

TRACK LISTING

1. Slash/Oblique (Peel Session) 04:19
2. Deanshanger (Peel Session) 04:59
3. Outside Of It (Peel Session) 06:34
4. Place Called Clock (Peel Session) 03:56

On vinyl for the fist time, this is Prolapse's spectacular debut session for John Peel, featuring divergent versions of a couple of classics and the previously unreleased 'Broken Cormorant', the subject of much debate among devotees down the years. As usual, comes with a set of postcards – among them a Joe Dilworth contact sheet – plus download codes for the BBC WAVs. And sleeve notes from Scottish Mick.

TRACK LISTING

1. Serpico (Peel Session) 05:40
2. Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc (Peel Session) 04:49
3. When Space Invaders Were Big (Peel Session) 04:25
4. Broken Cormorant (Peel Session) 05:21

“The Jasmine Minks were the first real Creation band – their single ‘Think!’ was the fourth single we put out. An amazing unknown gem of a band. Working-class heroes – to me, anyway.” Alan McGee

Formed in Aberdeen in 1983, the Jasmine Minks were one of the original artists on Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation label and regulars at the storied Living Room. They recorded several classic singles for the label – among them ‘Think!’, ‘What’s Happening?!’ and ‘Cold Heart’ – plus a number of LPs. These recordings are their only two sessions for the BBC.

This session for the legendary John Peel show, features the band’s original line-up with powerhouse songwriting duo Jim Shepherd and Adam Sanderson; among tracks included are ‘The Ballad of Johnny Eye’ and ‘Cry For A Man’, both favourites with their fans. 

TRACK LISTING

The Ballad Of Johnny Eye
Cry For A Man
You Take My Freedom
I Don't Know