oooh!

so i have been talking about hoping for this for.... years now, and now it's official:

(from the B&S myspace page)

BBC Sessions release ..We are pleased to announce the release of the long awaited compilation of BBC recordings spanning the years 1996 – 2001. The BBC Sessions is released on Jeepster Records, week commencing 17th November in Europe and on Matador Records in the USA. It is initially available in three formats: as a limited edition double CD which includes a live recording of the Christmas show in Belfast from 2001 as bonus content, and with all the tracks as a download. In addition, the session tracks are also available as a double vinyl edition. As well as different versions of songs from the first three albums and associated EPs, the album contains four much bootlegged songs recorded for John Peel in 2001, none of which have previously appeared on CD or vinyl. Among the highlights of the fourteen session tracks are five songs from the two 1996 sessions for The Graveyard Shift (presented by Mark Radcliffe), an alternative version of the single, Lazy Line Painter Jane and a definitive version of Slow Graffiti recorded for The Evening Session, presented by Steve Lamacq. The next appearance on the show yielded an early version of The Wrong Girl when it was still known as Wrong Love. Despite featuring in John Peel's Festive Fifty every year during the period and being played regularly on his show, the first Maida Vale Peel session did not take place until 2001 – the first of four subsequent Peel appearances which included a visit to Peel Acres and a legendary, sixteen song Christmas gig at Maida Vale, both in 2002. The four songs from 2001 – The Magic of a Kind Word, Nothing In The Silence, Shoot The Sexual Athlete and (My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique – never made it on to subsequent albums, and are the last recordings to feature Isobel Campbell. They capture the band at the end of one part of their history and at the start of another. By the time of the recording of the Christmas show some six months later on 21st December 2001 in Belfast, Bob Kildea had joined on bass and guitar, and playing live had moved much further up the agenda. The gig is full of relaxed seasonal cheer, with requests, guest vocalists from the crowd, old favourites and three cover versions – Here Comes The Sun (The Beatles), Boys Are Back In Town (Thin Lizzy) and Waiting For The Man (Velvet Underground). The full track listing is as follows: Disc 1 – Radio Sessions: The State I Am In, Like Dylan In The Movies, Judy and the Dream of Horses, The Stars of Track and Field, I Could Be Dreaming, Seymour Stein, Lazy Jane, Sleep The Clock Around, Slow Graffiti, Wrong Love, Shoot The Sexual Athlete, The Magic of a Kind Word, (My Girls Got) Miraculous Technique Disc 2 – Live in Belfast: Here Comes The Sun, Theres Too Much Love, The Magic of a Kind Word, Me and the Major, Wandering Alone, The Model, Im Waiting For The Man, The Boy With the Arab Strap, The Wrong Girl, Dirty Dream 2, Boys Are Back in Town, Legal Man

needless to say, i will be getting this sucker... the amazon.com entries for it are very confusing, as it seems to be listed several times for the same thing (2 entries for the deluxe, one with bbc spelled bcc. a listing for the regular edition and one for the vinyl... the "bcc" one actually seems to be the right thing...)

!!

i have a lot of the tracks as bootlegs either on cd or in mp3 form, but it will be nice to get some of them on quality sounding recordings, instead of the more or less spotty ones i have accumulated. the live in belfast gig looks to be a similar setlist to what they played when i saw them on the tour for "fold your hands child..." at the 9:30 club.

unfortuntely despite having songs from that particular date, it seems to lack the actual christmas songs from the christmas show, meaning those will have to live for me as bootlegs... which is kind of sad. since half of them were traditional, i don't think copyright issues kept them all from release (though i can see "Santa Bring my Baby Back to Me" and "Santa Claus go Straight to the Ghetto" being a problem).

overall, it's a pretty complete collection of their various sessions for the BBC, at least as complete as any bbc session cd could be or has been, in lieu of an actual NEW album from them (which, seriously, i guess we were spoiled when it felt like we were getting an album or ep a year from them, but it kind of seems that since the move to rough trade and acting like a band of their talent and stature, they've really become less productive). when they do come out with another studio album, it had better be the best thing since the boy with the arab strap (which sounds like im dissing the last few albums, but i'm not, i just don't think they've topped BWtAS - yes i think i might be the first person to refer to it that way - yet).