sound of the suburbs

Today sees the UK release of 5 different Peel sessions from artists residing on the enormous Polygram empire, after the release of The Housemartins BBC sessions it looks like maybe this major has realised the potential of licensing the Beeb recordings. 'Voices in The Air' is the 19 tracks recorded for Peel by Siouxsie And The Banshees between 1977 and 1981. Then there is a double CD set of 21 songs from The House Of Love, recorded between 1988 and 1992,, which for some unexplainable reason excludes 7.45 a.m. from the 1989 session, maybe the tapes have been mislead? Maybe Guy Chadwick was not happy with recording? For me the least interesting of this batch, though I'm sure there will be people that disagree, comes from Gene. Spread over 2 CDs are the bands first 2 sessions from 1995 and 1995 along with 8 tracks recorded live at Londons Queen Elizabeth Hall, and 4 songs recorded live in the BBC studios for Peelie's birthday in 1999. From the five on offer this to me looks on paper to be the most interesting, the complete Peel Sessions as recorded by Shefield's finest outsiders made good, Pulp. With it's 29 tracks over 2 discs it contains everything they recorded for their four sessions between 1981 and 1995 with the added bonus of their first official live recording from the series of concerts recorded in London 1999, celebrating John Peels 40 years in Broadcasting. At a meager 12 tracks the PJ Harvey set is disappointing as it is far from being complete, still I guess this should keep the bootleggers in bushiness! The good new is that these are being marketed at what the industry calls mid price, so expect to pay around £9.00 in the UK for these CDs. I for one hope that they keep up with release of these often hard to find sessions.
Another well priced 2CD set is that from the Au Pairs entitled 'Stepping Out Of Line', grouping the bands two studio albums 'Playing With A Different Sex' and 'Sense And Sensuality' together on the same set along with loads of bonus tracks. This release from Castle from May this year was more than welcome as the albums, despite being considered as Post punk classics, had long been unavailable. Among the bonus material are the following three tracks as laid down by the band in the Maida Vale studio, October 1980.

1. 'Pretty Boys'
2. 'Ideal Woman'
3. 'Monogamy'