Shelleyan Organ

The Domino label is reissuing Pete Shelley's solo albums, Homosapien (1981) and XL-1 (1983), on vinyl and CD in June.  

Both are based on the expanded editions available since the mid-late 1990s, with bonus B-sides and/or dub mixes. The double vinyl formats keep the original 10-track album on the first two sides and the packaging for both looks rather lovely.

It's good to see Pete Shelley's work, especially his solo songs, getting a timely reappraisal in what will have been his 70th year. Whilst some of the songs, produced by Martin Rushent, haven't dated as well as others, the music itself has lost none of the lyrical and melodic shine forty odd years later.

Domino has posted a video from each album (though bizarrely, with links to John Cale's website and social media - cut and paste job, anyone?), neither of which I saw on TV at the time.

A swift trawl of YT has uncovered a couple more promos from 1986 album Heaven & The Sea, which I hope will also receive the reissue treatment sometime soon. I've also found a TV appearance and a live performance, both featuring the legendary Barry Adamson on bass.

1) Homosapien (1981)

2) Telephone Operator (1983)

3) Waiting For Love (1986)

4) On Your Own (1986)

5) Never Again (Music Convoy, German TV) (1984)

6) If You Ask Me (I Won't Say No) (Live) (1984)

I've also resurrected the link to a post from September 2021. Actually about the passing of Sir Clive Sinclair, it inevitably mentioned the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, and from there naturally dovetailed into Pete Shelley's XL-1 album. It included a half hour Dubhed selection of songs and mixes from the album, which you can find here.

Both Pete Shelley albums are available to pre-order from Domino now.