Retrospective
Tim Glasswell
August 2005
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Europeans' album Recurring Dreams is, at long last available
on CD. To celebrate this re-release I have created this page, collecting
together all the relevant RD references from the whole of this site,
including a Track by Track analysis, Reviews, Video
information, Relevant Discography entries and 1984 RD Tour dates.
I have also added some further background about the recording of the Album,
Comments from the guys in the band, a history of how this re-release
came about and also info on the new CD itself. Thanks must go to
all the Europeans for finally
making this thing happen, but especially Colin Woore who has
seemed to have motored the whole thing along, and Steve & the
staff at Marillion's Racket Records for providing the pressing. |
The
Album
By the
summer of 1984, Europeans
had recorded two albums, 'Vocabulary' (an overproduced studio effort)
and 'Europeans Live', which contained a mix of Vocabulary tracks and
non-album live favourites. By May, the band had written a handful of new
songs including 'Writing for Survival', 'Love has Let me Down', 'Burning
Inside You' and 'Don't Give Your Heart to Anybody' and a track
called 'Listen'. The latter was released as a single in June 1984,
and the remainder would later appear on the band's third album, 'Recurring
Dreams'.
The sessions
didn't get off to a great start. The week before the band was due to record, Ferg
Harper was rushed to hospital after a gig at The Venue, in London. He
explains: "I had lost my voice and managed to restore it by using every
throat sweet and mixture known to man. Amongst the cures I had been gargling
with an aspirin solution and drinking neat whiskey during and after the gig. As
a result of that I somehow managed to burn right through part of my stomach
causing massive internal bleeding. This led to me collapsing in Baker Street
station a day later. As I crawled home, little did I know I was actually
bleeding to death inside. This didn't become apparent until a day or so later,
by which time I was nearly dead ! The local doctor was called in, and I was
rushed to Central Middlesex Hospital with only one-fourth of my body blood
remaining. I was extremely ill. I think my heart was ready to stop. They were
hanging me upside down, because there wasn't enough blood floating round my
veins to keep me alive. I was transfused with about eleven pints of blood as
the hole gradually sealed itself several days later. It was all a bit of a
blur, but I remember I had a strange out-of-body experience."
In the
meantime, on Monday 18th June 1984 Geoff, Colin and Steve
started work on the album at 'Rockfield Studios' in Wales with producer David
Lord (XTC, Peter Gabriel) and engineer Warne Livesey.. A bass player
friend called Steve Greetham was called in at short notice to lay down
bass parts for two of the tracks, 'Hometown' & 'Burning Inside You.' Ferg
had a week convalescing at Wally Brill's house, being nursed back to
health by Annabel Lamb! Ferg's hospital visit and Steve G
'coming to the rescue' is noted in the album credits, and if you look closely
at the 'run-off' groove on the original vinyl version of 'Recurring Dreams',
you can see the words "FERGIE GOES TO HOSPITAL" !
The band
moved to David Lord's own ' Crescent Studios' in the heart of Bath for
vocal and guitar overdubs in July, and then to 'Sarm East Studios' in London in
August to mix the album. It was then mastered for vinyl by Tim Young.
A free promo
single `Acid Rain' (A&M FREE1) was released to promote the
forthcoming album. The sleeve claimed "There are very few opportunities to
hear album tracks these days. This record is not a single, but a trailer for
our new album We hope the music speaks for itself but you'll make up your own
minds." The b-side contained edits of a further 3 album tracks, all about
a minute long.
There is a
long story about the album cover too. I have made it quite clear on elsewhere
on this site that I think that the cover is dreadful. The original concept was
built around a set of very imaginative shots taken by photographer Nick Knight.
The shoot took place by the River Thames, in Kingston, and was going to
comprise a collage of surreal 'dream sequence' type photographs of the band in
amongst the ivy. However, while the band were away on tour in Holland, A&M
in their infinite wisdom had a meeting in the band's absence, because they
didn't like the chosen cover. Ferg explains " They claimed that
they were reaching a deadline, and because the band weren't around, Mike Ross,
the head of the Art Department had gone out and taken a picture of some
gravestone somewhere, and rushed a new cover together. So it was like "Hey
boys, here's your new cover." And we were like 'What?' But it was too
late, and had gone to the printers! It was a fait accompli ! I think the record
deserved a better cover than it got. It looked like it had been chucked
together in a day !" An 'Illustrated Lyrics' booklet also failed to
make the print deadline, but was made available to fans for the price of a
stamped addressed envelope to Euros HQ!
Recurring
Dreams
(AMA 5034) was released on October 30th 1984. Sadly, it was very badly promoted
despite the free promo single, extensive UK and Europeans tour and press
adverts. This was not helped by Derek Green, Managing Director of
A&M leaving the company a day after the release of the LP, and most of his
A&R staff who had originally signed the band were made redundant too. This
led to the eventual break up of the Europeans in 1985...
Discography
A selection of Recurring Dreams - related items:
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1984 |
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(7") Acid Rain b/w "Edits from Recurring Dreams" (1001 Arguments, Burning Inside
You & Home Town) |
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A&M FREE 1 |
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1984 |
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(12") You Don't Want Me (In
Your Life) (Remix) b/w Burning Inside You |
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A&M SAMP86 |
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1984 |
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(LP) Recurring Dreams 1001 Arguments / Home Town / Burning Inside You / You
Don't Want Me (In Your Life) // Writing for Survival / Love Has Let Me Down /
Don't Give Your Heart To Anybody / Acid Rain See the White Label Test Pressing Cover |
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A&M AMA 5034 |
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2005 |
(Cass) Recurring Dreams Track listing as above (Cassette version) See the Inlay / The cassette |
A&M AMC 5034 |
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1992 |
(CD) Iza - Independence A full album by Scandinavian female vocalist Iza featuring
a cover version of 'Acid Rain.'
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Continuum 0095751 920721 |
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2005 |
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(CD) Recurring Dreams 1001 Arguments / Home Town / Burning Inside You / You Don't
Want Me (In Your Life) // Writing for Survival / Love Has Let Me Down / Don't
Give Your Heart To Anybody / Acid Rain Re-issue with Illustrated Lyrics
booklet |
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Intact CD 03 |
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Track by
Track
Comments by
me (revised August 2005). Click the titles to see the illustrated lyrics.
Fading up
with a strong riff, this marks the start of the second Europeans studio
album. Immediately, the performance sounds much more mature and polished, with
a better production value than the raw Vocabulary tracks. All the
elements are here: Ferg's vocals and solid bass playing, tight drumming,
nice keyboard work and a lush guitar sound. (particularly on the last refrain).
The edited 'free single' version is simply the first verse and chorus.
I must admit
that this one has grown on me. I originally described it on this site as
"an average Europeans
effort...frustratingly slow and long." I have since revised my opinion and
rate it as one of the best tracks on the album! The choruses are a great
multi-vocal harmony affair, backed with strong piano chords, and a strong
soul-full feel. Geoff Dugmore: "In my opinion, one of the best
songs we ever wrote. Fantastic lyrics, very deeply felt."
One of my
favourite Europeans
tracks. This opens with thumping percussion from Geoff, soon layered
with keyboard effects and a noticeably stronger Hogarth lead vocal. The
first instrumental passage plays a nice off-beat rhythm, building into another
chorus and repeated vocal line "I'm holding your heart..." The
production is top class, peaking at the end, with the full band and vocal
harmonies. Hogarth has since hinted that the lyric referred to someone
who has since become "very famous" (Whatever that means!) The
edited 'free single' version splices the first chorus with the end
"Burning Inside You" chorus.
You
Don't Want Me (In Your Life)
Another Hogarth
fronted number, this is a characteristic, mature late-Europeans number. Hogarth's
vocals sound so much more controlled and confident on the Recurring Dreams
album. A remixed version was released for promotional purposes in 1984, with
extended drumming and percussion at the beginning, and the instruments
individually brought to the forefront of the mix. Dugmore "We
had a cassette mix of 'You Don't Want Me (In Your Life) with no fade. The tape
was left running and we kept playing for hours! This version just went on and
on, with all sorts of weird and wacky things going on!"
This opens
with an effect sounding like the music is being played through a mono AM radio,
making the moment when the full band sound comes in very powerful. Dugmore's
characteristic 'tribal' tom-tom drum rhythm is as solid as ever, backed with an
exciting bass line, while Hogarth and Harper's vocals play so
well off each other. The lyric deals with the music press and reviewers. Hogarth
says "the band as a whole has opened fire upon the British Pop
magazines... We make it clear that pop journalists write because they have
to..." Dugmore on the other hand was "always dubious
about the lyrical content of the song, because it was going to alienate us even
more from the music press."
"This
is a song for the heart. One about Love" says Harper. A great rocking
opening flows in to a Harper vocal reminiscent of the Vocabulary album.
The shared lead vocals are refreshing, and the uplifting choruses are well
produced. Geoff Dugmore: "That was probably the closest to what
I thought was a single from the 'Recurring Dreams' album."
Don't
Give Your Heart To Anybody
Proof of Hogarth's
developing writing style, this starts out as a piano and vocal ballad, dropping
the name of the album in passing ("I think about when I was small,
recurring dreams that scared me stiff") The band comes in half way
through, seamlessly with a rising chord structure. The lead break with pounding
drums and delayed-guitar always reminds me of the band Big Country. This sounds
a world away from "The Animal Song" or "Recognition" !
Probably the
best track on the 'Recurring Dreams' album, this is a simple and well
played ballad, addressing the destruction of the world and wider consequences
of environmental pollution. It works well, due to the atmosphere laid down by
heavy keyboards, the slow pounding percussion and the perfectly matched vocals
(Hogarth high, Harper low). The lyrics are inspiring and
beautifully sung, particularly the last wordless refrain. The title track of
the 1989 Marillion album 'Season's End' dealt with similar themes. Although the
lyric written by John Helmer, Hogarth then explained "...for my own
part, I wrote a song called 'Acid Rain' when I was still in the Europeans,
about four or five years ago. I've been a member of Greenpeace for about four
years, so this isn't me waking up to something as the wagon rolls by..."
The edited 'free single' version misses out verse three and fades early. As the
track fades out, you can Hogarth quietly sing the lines "The sun is
out, the sky is blue, There's not a cloud to spoil the view, But it's
raining..." from Buddy Holly's "Raining in My Heart." Also
occasionally played by How We Live on tour in 1986, and nearly played by
Steve's h-band project in 2001!
Band
Comments
Taken from
the exclusive interviews featured elsewhere on the site.
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Colin Woore 'Recurring Dreams' was a much smoother affair than recording 'Vocabulary'. Apart from the fact that Ferg was quite ill and so couldn't be there for the first few days. Steve and I were also suffering badly from hay fever in the middle of the Welsh countryside at 'Rockfield Studios' in the middle of June. After all our demo work with Warne Livesey, we had insisted on using him to engineer on the album, and we had a lot of respect for David Lord's musicality as producer. We all enjoyed making the album and liked the result. It's a great shame that A&M fell apart at that time, on the day of its release, stopping it from getting the promotion it deserved. This eventually led to the break-up of the band. |
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Steve Hogarth I think we
all felt more comfortable (on Recurring Dreams) apart from Ferg
who was in hospital! We started the album with bass player Steve Greetham
while Ferg convalesced. We had a great production team in David
Lord (who'd just done the Peter Gabriel 4 album) and Warne Livesey
engineering (who went on to produce The The, Midnight Oil and Mark Hollis).
It is a much better album than "Vocabulary" on the whole. My
favourite song is "Hometown". Ferg's finest moment. The sax
player (Barney Joel Rachabane) turned up again later on Paul Simon's
"Graceland". I was quite pleased with "Acid Rain" and
"Burning Inside You". "We were very affected by the fashion of the times. We were very fast anxious and industrial, if you know what I mean. But by the time of the second studio album, we'd developed. If we hadn't left A&M when we did, I think we might have done something..." |
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Ferg Harper It was really beautiful recording in Wales. David Lord did some really interesting things, and we had a much better vibe all together. We really trusted him. We all got really excited, and thought "This sounds like how we dreamt our music would be taken and turned into." I liked a lot of the tracks: '1001 Arguments' was probably one of my favourite ones. I liked 'Hometown.' 'Love Has Let Me Down' was alright, a good live track. I think if I listened to some of the more epic tracks on 'Recurring Dreams' now, I would probably still quite like them. 'Burning Inside You' and things like that, really built, and had quite a good tension. 'Acid Rain' was great. It was unfortunate that it was our last album, because I think had we gone on from there, the next album would certainly have been a cracker. We really saw where we were going. We established our style. We weren't doing so much of the quirky, off the wall stuff anymore, and had gone in to this more full production progressive rock kind of thing. I don't understand how that album didn't get more promotion than it did. |
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Geoff Dugmore By the time we got to 'Recurring Dreams' we were super confident players, and with David Lord we could really explore the full potential of our playing and songwriting at the time. We cut the basic tracks at 'Rockfield Studios'. Ferg had been really ill and I was feeling a bit of strain from that as I had been really worried about him. We started doing tracks with a bass player friend of ours called Steve Greetham. He knew how tight we were as a unit and did a fantastic job of getting the album started. When Ferg came back after a couple of weeks it was like the old family unit and felt great. He re-did his parts and made it his own again. We then went on to David's Studio in Bath where we spent time doing vocals and general overdubs. From there it was on to Sarm East to mix it. It sounded fantastic. 'Hometown' was fab - Ferg's best lyric by far, and also 'You Don't Want me in Your Life', with passionate vox from Steve. To me, that was everything that the Europeans were |
Album
Reviews
A handful of contemporary reviews. Not always kind, or even very constructive, but interesting none-the-less!
'Sounds' 17th Nov. 1984 LP Review by Andy
Hurt
Not to be
confused with the Bristol band of the same name, whose Heartbeat single
'Europeans' was one of the highlights of 1978. That was their only moment of
inspiration, but that's one more than is likely from this boresome foursome.
They really don't live up to their name, the musical alignment of 'Recurring
Dreams' being emphatically that of US/UK axis, Police meets the Fixx meets the
Thompson Twins. What they do, however, they do well, aided by the crisp
production of David Lord who extracts the maximum atmospheric effect
from inadequate raw material such as 'Burning Inside You' to manufacture the
best track on the album. In fact, the whole album consists of mediocre songs
transformed by the twiddle of a knob and the inflexion of a note into very
passable end product.
'Melody Maker' 17th Nov. 1984 LP Review by Ted
Mico
I closed my
eyes and envisaged a utopia where ghouls only exist on the telly, and George
walks back to 'Brookside' a free man. Then I sent the needle coasting around
the new Europeans' new disc, and
all such illusions cascaded in to oblivion. "Recurring Dreams"
are exactly that : Having failed to impinge their name on the collective
consciousness of the pop market with their first, and most attractive single,
"Animal Song", the Enduro-peans must feel their time for glory
slipping away. While the rest of us are content to put our clocks back an hour,
The Europeans
have decided to set their digital timepieces back a decade. "Acid
Rain" and "Burning Inside You" offer a summation of all the
nightmares born around '74. Beneath an auto-pop exterior lurk the spectres of
"Tales of Topographic Boredom" retold from Genesis to resignation. A
special commendation for valour in the face of hopeless tedium, must be awarded
to Geoff Dugmore whose strident drumming struggles to revive the likes
of "You Don't Want Me (in Your Life)", but eventually succumbs to the
soporific irritation of Harper and Hogarth's vocals. In fact
"Recurring Dreams" has only one saving grace - it isn't a double.
BEST Magazine, February 1985 LP Review by Georges
Daublon (loosely translated from French by unknown)
1983 and
1984 have been good years for music, with U2 in particular coming through. Some
of us have discovered Europeans' first album 'Vocabulary',
and the rare pearls of modern rock that the album contains. However we have
been disappointed by the media, which greeted it with silence rather than
acclaim. Europeans
have been able to shrug off this injustice, and now release 'Recurring
Dreams', produced by the Master, David Lord (XTC, Peter Gabriel,
Echo & the Bunnymen). On their first album, one found many strong passages
- some very powerful songs which could be danced to and which really grabbed
the listener, but they were also somewhat abstract. On the new album, one
discovers a music with more depth, rich in subtlety sensitivity and finesse.
Some tracks take love as a theme (a topic not touched on in the first album),
and on the whole these are of a moderate or slow tempo, which gives the
limelight to Steve Hogarth (Who sings five of the eight tracks; Fergus
Harper was seriously ill in hospital at the commencement of the recording
of the album). Steve displays much powerful emotion in singing songs
such as 'Don't Give Your Heart to Anybody', 'I'm Burning Inside You' and 'I
Don't Want You in My Life', three sufficiently strong reasons for buying this
haunting album. Fergus Harper expresses himself more strongly on the
up-tempo numbers such as '1001 Arguments' which reminds us of the best moments
of the first album. There is definitely a strong direction and style present in
Europeans,
and now is the time for good things to happen to the band!
Source Unknown LP Review (Taken
from 1985 Europeans Press
Pack)
EUROPEANS:
Recurring Dreams
(A&M): Guess who was in charge of producing this album? None other than our
local hero David Lord. Well done chap, because it's a sharp, thorough
and impressive album, more cohesive and powerful than their previous work, and
should give them access to a far larger market.
Source Unknown LP Review ("")
EUROPEANS:
Recurring Dreams
(A&M): As the Europeans
had promised, gone are the rough edges of their previous releases, instead, and
album full of feeling and energy. The Europeans obviously determined not to be
distracted by pressure of commercialism, have been able to evolve their own
distinctive style. Producing such songs as 'Hometown' which grows from humble
beginnings and then flourishes into a full bodied chorus that leaves you
searching for more. With other songs such as Acid Rain and '1001 Arguments',
(they) add up to an album that will not wear thin after a couple of plays.
Source Unknown LP Review ("")
EUROPEANS:
Recurring Dreams (A&M):
Simply stated, if you like the idea of The Thompson Twins vocals set against a
Big Country backdrop then the chances are you'll enjoy this offering from the Europeans. The
question is, 'Is there room for yet another guitar and drums orientated band in
this already overcrowded genre?' In this case the answer is a definite maybe.
This album follows closely enough along the line lines of others to let them
off any charges of rip-off which might be leveled against them. In the
tradition of the new big sound there are only eight tracks, averaging about
five minutes each - something which makes me slightly uneasy. Whatever happened
to the three minute masterpiece anyway? If you get this one home and hear
snatches of Peter Gabriel or Icicle Works in it, that's because producer David
Lord has worked with both bands.
Source Unknown LP Review ("")
EUROPEANS:
Recurring Dreams
(A&M): With 300 gigs behind them in eighteen months, this third album could
be the one to lift this undeniably powerful band another notch up the ladder.
Whilst the guitar led, string vocals movement of which this outfit was a part
seems to have subsided, a little help from XTC producer David Lord and a
marketing strategy which is giving away a seven inch sampler of the record on
request won't exactly damage their career prospects. Hugh Masakele's sax player
Barney Rachabane adds depth to slower numbers such as 'Acid Rain' and
'Hometown'. Elsewhere there is more than enough to open up the nation's
eardrums.
The 1984
Tour
UK & European Recurring Dreams Tour dates
05/10/84 Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone
16/10/84 Swansea University
17/10/84 Rayleigh Pink Toothbrush
18/10/84 Town Hall, Fulham, London
19/10/84 Colchester Woods Leisure Centre
20/10/84 City of London Polytechnic
21/10/84 Limit Club, Sheffield
22/10/84 Warehouse, Leeds
24/10/84 Huddersfield Polytechnic
25/10/84 Kiesas, Leicester
27/10/84 Baths Hall, Scunthorpe
29/10/84 Manchester Free Trade Hall
02/11/84 Mid Kent College, Maidstone
03/11/84 London School of Economics
07/11/84 Lorre, Delft
08/11/84 Tivoli, Utrecht
09/11/84 Arena, Rotterdam
10/11/84 Paradiso, Amsterdam
12/11/84 Mascotte, Zurich
13/11/84 New Morning, Geneva
14/11/84 Atlantis, Basle
15/11/84 Atlantis, Basle
17/11/84 Szene, Vienna
19/11/84 Palis, Munich
20/11/84 Maxims, Stutgart
21/11/84 Batschkapp, Frankfurt
22/11/84 Hunky Dory, Detmold
23/11/84 Metropole, Berlin
24/11/84 Odeon, Munster
25/11/84 Zeche, Bochum
26/11/84 Luxor, Cologne
27/11/84 Schauberg, Bremen
28/11/84 Fabrique, Hamburg
29/11/84 Outpost, Eindbeck
30/11/84 Germany (?)
01/12/84 Germany (?)
03/12/84 France (?)
04/12/84 Lyon
05/12/84 Rouen
06/12/84 Montpelier
07/12/84 El Dorado, Paris
08/12/84 Nantes
16/12/84 Marquee, London
17/12/84 Marquee, London
21/12/84 Dingwalls, Camden, London
Videography
Two clips
have surfaced from the 'Recurring Dreams' era on video. The first
is a clip from a German television show called "Dr Mambo" in 1984
(strip one below). This starts with an interview with a weary Ferg
and Steve, then includes an exciting promo video for 'You Don't Want Me
(In Your Life)' filmed at the Metropole in Berlin. The second (strip two
below) is a moody
performance of 'Acid Rain' filmed for a French TV show 'Midi Public in early
1985. Geoff and Ferg play keyboards in the background, while Colin
and Steve take centre stage for a fairly straight run-thru of this 'Recurring
Dreams' album track.
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Re-Issue
History
It has been on the cards for years... Here's a timeline of how it happened...
August
1998
Speaking on 'The Artist Shop IRC
Chat' Steve Hogarth explains that "there are no immediate plans
(to re-release the Europeans
CDs). This is something I've been pestered into investigating and I must try
harder to get on top of it. With the recent demise of A&M Records the whole
process may become more difficult. Or it may become easier because no one will
care. Who knows, it's all very political."
May
1999
Steve Hogarth tells this site that "We all got together recently
and had dinner. It was a really nice evening and we reminisced like a bunch of
old men talking about the war! Nobody looks much more than a year older! Ferg
puts it down to us being a bunch of vane bastards! We decided we'd try and
persuade Phonogram to license the catalogue back to us so that we can make the
albums available again. Watch this space!"
June
1999
Colin Woore announces that "The Europeans re-signed all the band's material
to our old publisher, with a view to getting the albums
re-released."
August
2000
Steve & Colin's How We Live album 'Dry Land' is re-released on Marillion's
own Racket Records label. At the Summer h band gigs, Colin Woore
tells me that the Europeans
re-releases ARE happening, AND there are rumours of a re-union show!
November
2000
Ferg Harper explains that "an approach had been made (by the
publishers) to the record company, but they asked for an outrageous sum of
money... so that whole idea has been on the backburner. Eventually, there will
be an approach made again to the record company. I hope that they'll be a bit
more sensible about it, and we can get it out on the Marillion website. As for the live show rumour, Ferg tells me: "I
was asked at the beginning of this summer: 'Would I like to do a one-off
re-union gig at the Mean Fiddler?' It was a curious thought. I asked if we were
going to write some new songs to settle in there, and they said 'No, no we're
just gonna do all the old stuff.' So how's this gonna work ? I haven't sung or
played for fifteen years! I don't even remember how to play the bass guitar,
far less remember how to play the songs or how to sing the backing vocals. I
(personally) would have to do a tremendous amount of rehearsing to do this. I
also said 'Do you really seriously expect me to stand up and sing 'The Animal
Song' in front of people?' It was fun in it's day, but in the year 2000 am I
gonna feel a little bit daft, singing in this deep operatic voice ? I wasn't
sure that I'd feel entirely confident doing that. They suggested we do a 'Year
2000' version. It was a good idea, but there would be nothing worse than
getting back together, do a show, and it really wasn't as good as it used to
be, and it was a bit crappy. So I kind of knocked it on the head and said 'No.'
Unfortunately I was the one person who said I wouldn't do it! I don't know if
that makes me a grouch. If we did get the masters back, and we did re-release
'Recurring Dreams' or the other albums, and there was a response, I would not
mind the idea of doing three or four new tracks as an 'add on.' Almost like
'This is what we would do had we been thinking about it nowadays" I would
be more interested in attempting something new, rather than rehashing the old
stuff. That would stimulate me. The idea of actually writing with the guys and
rehearsing, and going from there.
August
2001
Once again, I chatted with Colin
Woore and Ferg Harper in the bar after the 'h band' Dingwalls show. Colin told
me that there had been some progress on the re-issue of the Europeans albums
June
2002
On the Marillion Online Forum, Steve
Hogarth answers the following question: Q. Hi Guys, Any chance of these ever seeing the light of
day on CD ? Would be great to get them out on Racket especially 'Recurring
Dreams' as you can plainly hear the link from it to How We Live and through to
Marillion, making it pretty much essential listening for all us anoraks ! A.
"Moves are afoot to acquire these from Polygram who now own the A&M
imprint. Lucy J is working on it. More news soon hopefully. h."
October
2003
Colin Woore got in touch, bringing good news: "I've managed to
finally license 'Recurring Dreams' back from the record company, so hopefully
we can release it on CD within the next couple of months. The consensus at the
moment is to release the album (on Racket) as is, without any add-ons.
It's never been on CD and the original album sits so well as it runs. A
future release could contain extras such as demos and unreleased tracks." Colin
also got his hands on the digital master, which apparently wasn't even used for
the original release!
March
2005
Colin Woore contacts the site, with exciting news: "Recurring Dreams
is now almost ready - just finishing off the artwork. We're hoping for a
release by the end of April." It should be coming out on Marillion's own
Racket Records label.
August
2005
Recurring Dreams is released on CD
and available from http://www.marillion.com/music/solo/euros-recurring.htm
The
Re-Issue
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The CD has been released as
"Intact CD03." (Intact is a subsidiary of Racket Records, Marillion's
own label) The disc itself is black and red, with the 1984-style euros logo and
album title in silver. Four Nick Knight portrait shots are
reproduced on the back of the case, with track details and timings (not on
the original). The original LP sleeve had a 'key' to show which tracks were
sung by Steve and which by Ferg, but this has not
been included. The new version also adds a link to this website, www.theeuropeans.co.uk .
Inside the case, underneath the clear tray that holds the CD is page 8 from
the 'Illustrated Lyrics' booklet, with a great band shot (reproduced on the
'Lyrics' page on this site) plus a list of all the instruments played by each
member. There are also thanks to the 'Live Crew' and a credit for Dave
Western's drawing and calligraphy. |
The booklet
itself consists of the front cover (an exact copy of the LP sleeve, however bad
it is!), the intro page to the Illustrated Lyrics (giving recording info
and a 'cartoon' style image of the euros) and a further five pages of illustrated lyrics,
with various scribbles and photos from Dave Western. The back of
the booklet repeats the four portrait shots which look really good!
There are no
details in the new CD about the re-mastering of the CD, but I'm informed that Erik
Nielsen, one of Marillion's studio crew mastered it at
the Racket Club earlier this year. The spine uses the same text layout
as the front cover which looks very smart. The only original Recurring
Dreams piece that has not been incorporated is the title page of the
illustrated lyrics book, which contains a few more scribbles. (See it here).
Please do
email me at t.glasswell@btinternet.com with your thoughts and opinions
on Recurring Dreams, and I'll
include them on this page. Also, let me know if you'd like to see the
other Euros
albums on CD and we'll try and get some support for re-releasing them too!
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