Catherine Wheel - She's My Friend [12"]

Another fine EP by the amazing CATHERINE WHEEL. Besides the title track and the song Salt, which both ended up on the Ferment album the year after, this SHE'S MY FRIEND EP contains a song called Wish (of which a demo version was featured on the I Want To Touch You 12") and an otherwise unavailable song Upside Down. That one is actually now my favourite of the four tracks on this EP, and in general one of the best Catherine Wheel songs that i know. In fact that song alone was well worth the purchase.

Label: Wilde Club Records

Cat.nr.: WILDE 4

Year of release: 1991

SIDE A:

01. She's My Friend

02. Upside Down

SIDE B:

01. Wish

02. Salt

Catherine Wheel - Balloon [12"]

This BALLOON 12" by CATHERINE WHEEL from 1992 is one of the many EP's they released at the time with that distinctive artwork: a white sleeve with a b/w picture in the centre. Two decent studio songs on the A-side, and two live tracks on the B-side that come from the same show (Bathmoles, Nov. 6, 1991) as the bonus live EP that came with the limited edition of the Ferment album. Not really groundbreaking stuff on this release, but still a very solid EP.

Label: Fontana

Cat.nr.: CW 212

Year of release: 1992

SIDE A:

01. Balloon

02. Intravenous

SIDE B:

01. Let Me Down Again (live)

02. Painful Thing (live)

Catherine Wheel - Crank [12", Picture Disc]

Earlier this year at the April edition of the Utrecht record fair i bumped into the promo version of CRANK by CATHERINE WHEEL, and at last month's edition i found the picture disc version. The B-side contains Peel Session recordings of Black Metallic and Painful Thing (from April 1991) and they are great lengthy versions. Especially Black Metallic sounds really awesome, and it's my favourite version of this Catherine Wheel classic.

Label: Fontana

Cat.nr.: CW 512

Year of release: 1993

SIDE A:

01. Crank

SIDE B:

01. Black Metallic (Recorded for John Peel BBC Radio 1 April 1991)

02. Painful Thing (Recorded for John Peel BBC Radio 1 April 1991)

Catherine Wheel - Ferment [12", LP, Limited Edition, Bonus EP]

Been looking for this album on vinyl for quite a while already. It's become pretty rare (and expensive, for that matter), but recently i finally got my hands on a copy of FERMENT by CATHERINE WHEEL. It's even the limited edition with a bonus Live EP. This is such a magnificent debut album. It features quite a few re-recorded versions of songs that had already been out on various EP's during the years before this was released, like I Want To Touch You, Black Metallic, She's My Friend and Shallow. All of them absolutely great songs. But my favourite song on the album is definitely Flower To Hide. It's also the one that comes closest to shoegaze; the band never liked to be labeled as a shoegaze band, and i must say i never really considered them as such either. But they sure knew how to use the pedals and create some proper feedback noise. Funny trivia that i only found out recently: singer Rob Dickinson is a cousin of Bruce Dickinson, the frontman of Iron Maiden. That was documented on both Wikipedia and Discogs when i did some research, but what it didn't say is that both bands' names derive from torture devices. Coincidence? I think not.

Label: Fontana
Cat.nr.: 510903-1
Year of release: 1992

SIDE A:
01. Texture
02. I Want To Touch You
03. Black Metallic
04. Indigo Is Blue
05. She's My Friend

SIDE B:
01. Shallow
02. Ferment
03. Flower To Hide
04. Tumbledown
05. Bill And Ben
06. Salt

I already mentioned the Live EP: it features live recordings of 3 songs that also appear on the album, recorded at Bath Moles, November 6th 1991. Pretty cool versions as well.

Label: Fontana
Cat.nr.: 866535-1
Year of release: 1992

SIDE A:
01. Shallow
02. I Want To Touch You

SIDE B:
01. Salt

Catherine Wheel - Crank [12", Promo]

There's still a pile of stuff that i bought at the Utrecht record fair recently, that needs some attention on this blog. This CRANK promo 12" by CATHERINE WHEEL for example is part of that. On vinyl, the only regular release was a picture disc with different B-sides: Black Metallic and Painful Thing. Something Strange and Pleasure were otherwise only available on two different CD-maxi formats. Especially Pleasure is a cool song, and well worth the purchase. It wasn't very pricy anyway.

Label: Fontana
Cat.nr.: CWDJX5
Year of release: 1993

SIDE A:
01. Crank

SIDE B:
01. Something Strange
02. Pleasure

Catherine Wheel - I Want To Touch You [12"]

This was a pretty good find at the record fair in Utrecht last month. A 12" by CATHERINE WHEEL, still originally sealed and therefore in completely mint condition . It's a limited edition (part one of a two record set, it says) which comes in a screen printed gatefold pvc sleeve. The cardboard sleeve itself is plain white; all the info plus the cover photo of the dog is printed on the pvc. It was sealed with a sticker. The 12" contains 3 demo songs. Two of them ended up on their Ferment album while Wish's final version appeared on the She's My Friend EP. For demo recordings they sound very good, by the way. The other 12" that fits in the sleeve and was available separately, has a remix of the title song I WANT TO TOUCH YOU and some other songs on it. Would be cool if i'd bump into that one some day.

Label: Fontana
Cat.nr.: CWB 312
Year of release: 1992

SIDE A:
01. I Want To Touch You [Original Demo]

SIDE B:
01. Black Metallic [Original Demo]
02. Wish [Original Demo]

Catherine Wheel - Painful Thing EP [12", Promo]

The first thing i ever heard by CATHERINE WHEEL was the song Shallow. It was on an "Indie Top 20" compilation CD that i had, and i liked the song a lot. Until recently i didn't have any vinyl by this band, but i came across this pretty rare white label promo edition of the PAINFUL THING EP a few weeks ago and i decided to buy it for old times' sake. Shallow is still my favourite track of this 12", but the other 3 songs are also pretty good. Maybe it's time to check out some more stuff they released...

Label: Wilde Club Records
Cat.nr.: WILDE 5
Year of release: 1991

SIDE A:
01. Shallow
02. Spin

SIDE B:
01. Painful Thing
02. I Want To Touch You