IN ORDER TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING  WE ADVISE YOU TO ENQUIRE 

ABOUT POSTAGE COST BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY BID/PURCHASE THE ITEM

  PLEASE ASK FOR ANY INFORMATION

THE GO-BETWEENS

ROBERT FORSTER, GRANT McLENNAN, ROBERT VICKERS, LINDY MORRISON

Critically acclaimed Australian indie band whose literate pop songs and sparkling guitars evoked influences from Bob Dylan to the Velvet Underground. The Go-Betweens were perhaps the quintessential cult band of the '80s: they came from an exotic locale (Brisbane, Australia), moved to a major recording center (in their case, London) in a sustained bid to make a career out of music, released album after album of music seemingly tailor-made for the radio in spite of their having little use for contemporary Top 40 musical/lyrical formulas, and earned considerable critical praise and a small but fervent international fan base.

1986     LP     BEGGARS BANQUET RECORDS      BEGA 72 

MADE IN ENGLAND    ORIGINAL PRESSING

SINGLE COVER

NOTES: Recorded at Berry St., London, WC1 and mixed at Sinclair Rd, London W14 

during October and November 1985. Bow Down mixed at the Power Plant, London.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Barcode: 5 012093 007212

LABEL: BEGGARS BANQUET - BLACK LABEL - SILVER/RED TEXT

Catalog on cover: BEGA 72

Catalog on labels: BEGA 72   BEGA 72 A* / BEGA 72   BEGA 72 B*

Matrix / Runout (Side A, Etched): BEGA - 72 - A1 1 MT JONZ DAMONT

Matrix / Runout (Side B, Etched): BEGA - 72 - B1 1 MT SOUND CLINIC DAMONT

On labels: top rim text "All Rights...........Prohibited"

bottom rim text "Distributed by WEA Records...........Company"

Manufactured in the UK

℗ & © 1986 Beggars Banquet

All songs.............

Produced by............

Com-pleté Mu' sic Ltd.

On Back Sleeve: Tracklist + Lyrics & Credits

tracklisting

Side A: SPRING RAIN - THE GHOST AND THE BLACK HAT - THE WRONG ROAD

TO REACH ME - TWIN LAYERS OF LIGHTNING

Side B: IN THE CORE OF A FLAME - HEAD FULL OF STEAM - BOW DOWN

PALM SUNDAY (ON BOARD THE S.S. WITHIN) - APOLOGY ACCEPTED

grading

RECORD NEAR MINT but (please, read above description)

SLEEVE VG+ but (please, see pictures and read above description)

Robert Forster's endearingly fey persona, equal parts Bryan Ferry and gangly bookstore clerk, reaches full flower on the Go-Betweens' fourth album, which tempers the angularity and occasional claustrophobia of the band's previous work with a new airiness and nervous romanticism. The lighter sound can be partly attributed to the growing influence of co-leader Grant McLennan, whose wistful "Cattle and Cane" and "Bachelor Kisses" lent grace to the Go-Betweens' sometimes stilted early records. McLennan's touch is all over Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express -- his "In the Core of a Flame," a love song that manages to be at once tenderhearted and impatient, is a highlight -- but this is still mostly Forster's show, and as such is a revelation. The merry, pastoral opener "Spring Rain" serves as notice that this will be a less dour affair than usual, yet, rather than negating Forster's pained, self-doubting lyrics, the comparatively gentle songs set them off beautifully. "You opened my mail apart at the seams/and now you know I live beyond my means," he sings at the outset of the swaying "Bow Down," and the prettiness of the melody makes him sound all the more uneasy. Other highlights include the sublime "Head Full of Steam," a tale of infatuation so strong that Forster breathlessly reports what his beloved's parents do for a living before realizing that such trivia is probably "of no importance at all" to anyone but him (which doesn't stop him from blurting out just a few lines later the earth-shattering news that neither he nor his object of desire have ever had a nickname). Protestations aside, the urgency in his voice makes it clear that the minutiae of love matter very much indeed, and anyone who's been there will sympathize. Liberty Belle is by no means free of the old Go-Betweens edge (the brooding "Twin Layers of Lightning" is proof of that), but it is the pervading warmth and rueful humor of this release that make it so accessible and such a delight...(AllMusic)