NewsAll systems Go-Go’s for deluxe reissues
The Go-Gos’ three IRS albums from the early 1980s will be reissued as deluxe editions next month.
Originally formed in early 1978 the band released their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, in July 1981. It was a success, reaching number one on the Billboard album chart and it includes the hit singles We Got The Beat, Automatic and Our Lips are Sealed.
The reissue of Beauty and the Beat spans two CDs and like the 30th anniversary edition from 2011, it includes a full-length concert recorded in Boston in 1981, a month after the release of the album. In addition to that, this new set comes with a further 11 bonus tracks including rehearsals, demos and B-sides.
Follow-up Vacation was issued a year later, in August 1982, and is presented as an expanded one-CD edition including a B-side, demo and a few live tracks.
The last IRS album 1984’s Talk Show was produced by in England by Martin Rushent and another expanded CD offers a B-side, four live recordings, a 1990 re-recording of Cool Jerk, and three reunion recordings from 1994.
These releases are all digipaks and feature booklets with new interviews with Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin as well as lyrics and photos.
Beauty and the Beat, Vacation and Talk Show are reissued on 25 March 2016
Beauty and the Beat 2CD
Vacation Expanded CD
Talk Show Expanded CD
Beauty and the Beat (2CD Deluxe)
Disc One
1. Our Lips Are Sealed
2. How Much More
3. Tonite
4. Lust To Love
5. This Town
6. We Got The Beat
7. Fading Fast
8. Automatic
9. You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep
10. Skidmarks On My Heart
11. Can’t Stop The World
Bonus tracks
12. Surfing And Spying
13. We Got The Beat [single mix]
14. Lust To Love [demo]
15. How Much More [demo]
16. Living At The Canterbury / Party Pose [live at rehearsal]
17. Fashion Seekers [intro: live at rehearsal/live at The Mabuhay]
18. Screaming [live at The Mabuhay]
19. Johnny Are You Queer? [live at The Mabuhay]
20. Fun With Ropes [live at The Mabuhay]
21. Blades [live at rehearsal]
22. He’s So Strange [live at rehearsal]
Disc Two
Live at the Metro Club, Boston (20th August 1981)
1. Skidmarks On My Heart
2. How Much More
3. Tonite
4. Fading Fast
5. London Boys
6. Cool Jerk
7. Automatic
8. Lust To Love
9. Can’t Stop the World
10. This Town
11. You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can’t Sleep)
12. Our Lips Are Sealed
13. Let’s Have A Party
14. We Got the Beat
15. Surfing And Spying / Beatnik Beach
16. (Remember) Walking In The Sand
17. Vacation
Vacation (Expanded CD)
1. Vacation
2. He’s So Strange
3. Girl Of 100 Lists
4. I Think It’s Me
5. We Don’t Get Along
6. It’s Everything But Partytime
7. Get Up And Go
8. This Old Feeling
9. Cool Jerk
10. The Way You Dance
11. Beatnik Beach
12. Worlds Away
Bonus Tracks
13. Speeding
14. Cool Jerk [demo]
15. London Boys [live at Palos Verdes High School]
16. Let’s Have A Party [live at Palos Verdes High School]
17. Beatnik Beach [live at Palos Verdes High School]
18. (Remember) Walking In The Sand [live at Palos Verdes High School]
19. We Don’t Get Along [live at Hakano Plaza]
Talk Show
1. Head Over Heels
2. Turn To You
3. You Thought
4. Beneath The Blue Sky
5. Forget That Day
6. I’m The Only One
7. Yes Or No
8. Capture The Light
9. I’m With You
10. Mercenary
Bonus Tracks
11. Good For Gone [b-side]
12. Yes Or No [single mix]
13. I’m With You [live at The Greek]
14. Can’t Stop The World [live at The Greek]
15. I’m The Only One [live at The Greek]
16. Cool Jerk [re-recording]
17. Mercenary [acoustic] [live at Universal Amphitheater]
18. Good Girl [Reunion recording 1994]
19. Beautiful [Reunion recording 1994]
20. The Whole World Lost Its Head [Reunion recording 1994]
Beauty and the Beat 2CD
Vacation 2CD
Talk Show 2CD
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Too bad these weren’t paired with DVDs like the JAMC Edsel reissues, the benchmark for doing these things as far as I’m concerned! There’s a lot of great video material that could have been added. Promo videos, live shows (esp. from BATB era including a full concert from German TV and a concert film that was probably only ever released on VHS by IRS). Not to mention early archival bootlegs of early club shows that could be dug up. Unless it was the case that they couldn’t licence that stuff without paying big $$$. Maybe The Go-Go’s want to release that stuff themselves for all I know. They seem to need the money! They always seem to be trying to push one another out of the group to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie…
Whatever happened with these? Anybody buy these and how was the sound quality?
I’ve got mine on order and receiving it on Wednesday but, my guess, based on past Edsel behavior is that the only remastering will be for the bonus tracks o that they match the album tracks from the previous remaster.
Disappointed they didn’t do here as they did for the Pretenders releases but, if you don’t have the two Cad set with rarities, this is nice to have.
Be careful in America however because what popped IEP for me when o went to order was the IRS 30th (which had compressed remasters for the main album)
So does anyone know if they actually used the original album version of “We Got The Beat” on the Beauty re-issue? And if they didn’t then what’s the difference with the Single Version bonus track that they used?
Having that correct album version would be the only thing that would lead me to buy, since I already have most everything else from the Beauty set.
and again, very disappointed with these reissues… as a fan of the old fashioned music video, i was really hoping for each cd would be released with an accompanying dvd of the music videos from each album. grant it, they didn’t make many music videos on these albums (i believe there are only 7 altogether), but as a fan of this band – and a fan of deluxe editions of albums – i’m quite disappointed that there wasn’t these additions that would make it even more special for us fans…
Well, those GO-GO’s reissues have probably no remastering at all like the very disappointing mastered sound on the recent Edsel Pretenders 1st album i bought (the previous Rhino deluxe reissue had a great remaster in my opinion but was very incomplete…)
anyone to confirm ?
thanks
I’m disappointed that b-sides from the Palos Verdes High School concert also are not included:
– Skidmarks On My Heart
– Automatic
– Lust To Love
– Vacation
– Our Lips Are Sealed
most consumers want the best of everything for free, or as cheap as possible. Unfortunately this is not an economic business model. It would cost Edsel extra to licence the videos from various rights holders. It is unlikely one entity owns e writhing, which would simplify licensing.
Secondly, being an old radio guy, I’m quite familiar with the 70’s & 80’s “low noise – high output” tapes that sounded so good…until the synthetic tape lubricant dried out requiring the tape to be slow baked in order to get one good “last-pass” thru a tape machine for digital archiving. This tape replaced formulations that had used whale oil at one point in the 60’s, which, according to Steve Hoffman’s web site, was used for recordings like the early Beach Boys demos discovered in the 90’s and required no baking, noise reduction, or other special handling. Too bad for the later stuff that dries out in 10-15 years depending on storage temperatures. So in order to use “the original master tapes” of all sources, here’s another cost to add to the release.
When I see an artist’s well-remastered works (as opposed to the crappy brick-wall limiter “rebastered” (sic) releases tossed in a bin at WalMart, Best Buy, or K-Mart selling for only $5 US I see how their business model took a while to crumble by overcharging consumers for decades until the Napster-era took the wind out of their sails (and sales!). So to recapture the “physical market consumer” that this site caters to so well I can’t imagine how many copies of a classic release they must sell to recoup these costs and make a meager profit. The three remaining majors (UMG, WEA, and Sony-BMG) aren’t gonna bother. That’s why we need to support the Ace, Cherry Red, Bear Family, Edsel, etc. reissue labels that are actual fans of the music, not like an international conglomerate that must quickly monetize their dormant catalog masters to pay off the debt service on their mega-mergers.
Since so much rare Go-Go’s material was previously issued on “Valley”, the well appears to now be dry. So what is Edsel giving us other than heavy-handed over-compressed audio or expanded liner notes & photos? A bonus disc of the “Cool Jerk” remixes and other rarities like the Stiff releases Jonathan mentioned along with the vid clips and concert footage would be an attraction, but that comes at a price I’d be willing to pay as long as the audio doesn’t sound distorted like Imagine Dragons or the newer Metallica rebastered stuff.
I’m don’t recall those mono mixes being special “dedicated” mixes from the stereo versions by just summing the L + R, but if they are, I’d pay for those too. Generally the 80’s singles in the US didn’t have dedicated mono mixes as were done in the 60’s before good compatible stereo mixing techniques caught on. The mono radio promos were generally summed from the stereo.
Totally agree with the astute comments of dennis f. Edsel has dropped the ball big time by failing to comb through the vaults and reissue the Go Go’s classic December 4, 1981 concert filmed in an intimate setting at a Los Angeles high school. The show (entitled “Totally Go Go’s”) was only issued on VHS and was never reissued on DVD. This energetic concert captured the band at a high peak of their career as they just wrapped up their world tour to promote their debut album, ‘Beauty and the Beat’. A huge opportunity lost to showcase what this stellar band could do in a live setting. Very disappointing turn of events. [For those who are curious, you can view a VHS quality of the “Totally Go Go’s” concert via the following YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DN-Pq5QCIy4%5D
During their 2011 reunion tour, I got to meet the entire band (Kathy hadn’t walked away yet) and brought the Gina Schock drumstick she threw into the audience at Radio City Music Hall in 1984. She was floored. They reissued “Beauty and the Beat” on translucent pink vinyl and the entire band signed the cover. It’s framed and downstairs in my music room along with dozens and dozens of autographed/framed vinyl covers. According to the band, the tour was supposed to include 25 shows, and they agreed that at each show, they would meet and autograph 1 record. So as the opening act (can’t remember, they sucked) played away, I was in a tent with the band behind the merch booth and if I hadn’t had that drum stick, who knows if they would have signed the cover (oh, and it is actually the original colors of the cover). They missed a show in Seattle the night before because they had to fly to LA for the unveiling of their tiles on the walk of fame. So there are only 24 records that they signed through the entire tour. As for the reissues, there’s not enough meat on the bone for me to care about “Vacation” or “Talk Show”. I’d consider buying the debut since it has so many bonus items and I don’t own the live show recording. Shame these aren’t being issued on vinyl.
I would agree with Marcus…if I didn’t have all these already, I would have already ordered even here in US.
And if they did have the concert type DVD’s, I would have bought these yet again (so record, cassette, CD, re-issue CD).
It seems to me, and Paul can probably answer this with an insiders view, most casual fans already have these. So these re-issues are aimed at the hardcore fans, or new fans, or maybe someone who just doesn’t have them and maybe hears some songs on the radio and says “I should get this”.
Kind of like the yet-another-Thompson Twins-compilation thread.
It’s a tough balance, but again, maybe Paul can give some more insight.
I was thinking it’s probably mainly aimed at (new) Belinda fans who bought the solo re-issues
and are looking into her history? the ‘Return to 2cd is pretty expensive now (only secondary sellers now on amazon uk) so these sets are great value for anyone wanting those tracks. also someone above said Talk Show original cd was selling for quite a lot recently, so this is great for people who want that particular cd.
i’m disappointed with these re-releases.
i was hoping that for each of the albums, they’d put in a dvd of bonus music videos and concerts… the “beauty” re-release could have easily had a dvd with the “our lips are sealed” music video and the concert that they did at that los angeles high school that aired on MTV back in the day…
disappointed, disappointed, and disappointed… :(
I have to agree. When I first got wind of deluxe reissues, I nearly jumped out of my skin, then I was so very disappointed when I saw that, musically, there was absolutely nothing new that I don’t already have. Essentially, I’d be paying import prices for just new liner notes and nothing else.
We STILL don’t get their music videos on DVD and I can bet you a million dollars they will, once again, blow the opportunity to finally put the original LP version of We Got The Beat on CD. To this day, I’m convinced that when they remixed that for single release, they burned the master of the LP version, never to be heard again. It wasn’t even on the 30th anniversary edition, which was a crime. :^(
Paul, I think that price range is absolutely reasonable. Seeing the Amazon UK pre-order prices for The Go-Go’s reissues, my first impression was what a bargain they seemed to be. (I can’t recall what the Belinda Carlisle and Donna Summer reissues went for, although those did include multiple discs and/or DVD content. Still, I had no hesitation in springing for them, whatever the price, as I did for the Lisa Stansfield deluxe editions released a while back, since I’m a fan of all.)
And I’m paying more since I’m importing these across the pond, so I can’t even take advantage of any shipping savings via Amazon Prime, but even then, I’ve got no argument. It’s music I want and as gb said, I want these sorts of reissues to continue.
Talk Show is currently 8.99 to pre-order on AmazonUK, which to me is a fantastic price.
9.99 for standard 2CD reissues is reasonable, or around 12.99 if a DVD is added.
I think that Carlton is pointing out that as they already have the material that’s on these releases they don’t need to rush out and buy them on day-of-release, so likely wait for “sale” prices. But for the fan who may not have all these tracks then the price is more than reasonable.
Think you are spot on Paul about £10-£15 being good value for a 2/3 CD deluxe box set. Am sure I was paying around a tenner for new releases twenty years ago! The only gripe I would have is that record labels don’t always look at these releases from a fan’s perspective by not including b-sides and remixes from the parent album. The deluxe issue of the debut Fine Young Cannibals album comes to mind here when they got it perfectly right for the ‘The Raw And The Cooked’!
Think what you can buy today for that price…how much is a latte??
In my view £10 – £15 is great value, we may have forgotten just how far music prices have fallen/remained static.
I’ll likely get all three, but wait until they are reasonably priced. I have the 1999 remasters for Vacation and Talk Show, and the anniversary edition of BatB, plus Return to the Valley…, so no rush for the material, but I’d like the new issues with the interviews. I would have liked more unreleased material–surely there are tracks in the vault that still haven’t seen the light of day? Maybe (hopefully) this is a tester to see if there is a market (duh…of course there is) before they turn to the deeper cuts and maybe produce something in the way of a more expansive box.
No love for God Bless the Go-Go’s? I know it doesn’t really need a remaster, but surely there’s some other material to add to it. Perhaps audio of the Central Park show that made DVD?
Fair comment on the content, but do you not think £11.99 for a 2CD digi-pack with a booklet featuring new interviews etc is ‘reasonable’?!
I only mention this because I’m working on a few projects at the moment and the reality is if you want labels to go to the trouble/cost of seeking out and probably baking original master tapes for remastering, spending a bit extra on nice packaging, and commissioning new notes/interviews etc then all that comes at a price. If labels don’t think you’ll pay that price then future reissues either won’t happen or they’ll be done on the cheap, which might mean taking some shortcuts on mastering (not bothering with original sources) or doing no-frills packaging. Obviously buyers would be the first to complain.
This is a broad point, not directed at you Carlton, but if we want to support physical product and see it continue into the future then we do need to be willing to pay a ‘reasonable’ price for reissues. I happen to think £10 to £15 for a 2-disc to 3-disc package is reasonable. What do others think?
I think that is a very good price. I think there is a huge
difference between a “new” album 2cd release being £12-£15
compared to an album that has been re-issued with bonus cuts.
in that case I’d be happy to pay £20-£30 – especially when
you think not that long ago, you never thought you’d get
re-issues of certain albums (Nick Kamen for example)
I’m happy to pay for the time and effort that goes into
them. and I want the record companies to make some money,
so these kind of re-issues keep coming.
Price-wise, I think these are VERY reasonable. Even being in the US and having to pay more with both the conversion rate and shipping charge, I have no problem with the prices at all. If I didn’t already have all of the content, I would buy these in a second, even at a higher price. I have re-bought many albums for even just one “new” track.
I should have clarified what I meant: these are certainly reasonable prices in terms of the cost of the products themselves, and if there were any tracks I didn’t already have on them, I’d have a pre-order in already. The main reason I’m holding off is because I already have all the tracks on official releases with good-quality remasters, so the expense at current costs isn’t justifiable for me when there are a ton of other reissues I still haven’t picked up where i either don’t have some of the tracks included or I don’t even have a quality master in my collection. (Still picking up the Blow Monkeys deluxe reissues and the Wang Chung remasters, both of which I just ordered last week.) If there were new tracks or if I still had my original 80s-era masters of Vacation or Talk Show, I’d buy these now.
I should be clearer rather than just tossing off a comment about “more reasonable prices,” especially since I know many of these companies actually pay attention to this blog when they are planning out what to release next. (And, if any of those people are looking, any of the “missing” tracks listed above, or any tracks that are sitting in the vaults and haven’t been released before gets my pre-order regardless of “reason” associated with the pricing. Heck, I’ve had points where I paid over 500USD for a Saint Etienne fan club edition.)
Figured I’d follow up with what I was able to find re: missing Go-Go’s tracks, mixes, etc. that were officially released (many promo), which wonderful additions to these remasters. Of course that would impact disc lengths and # of discs, possibly prohibitively so. But I imagine the target for these reissues, like the Belinda sets, are completists!
We Got The Beat (original Stiff Records 7″)
How Much More (original Stiff Records 7”)
We Got The Beat (original LP mix) – IRS replaced the original “We Got The Beat” on the LP with the remix after the first pressing, so not sure if that’s been remedied with the album proper.
We Got The Beat (Mono Mix)
Our Lips Are Sealed (Mono Mix)
Get Up And Go (Mono Mix)
Vacation (Mono Mix)
This Old Feeling (Mono Mix)
Cool Jerk (7” Remix) – 3:50
Cool Jerk (7” Edit) – 2:56
Cool Jerk (12” Vocal Mix) – 6:26 (elsewhere as 6:27)
Cool Jerk (12” Dub Mix) – 5:35
Cool Jerk (7” Reggae) – 3:36 (elsewhere as 3:26)
Cool Jerk (12” Reggae Mix) – 5:30 (elsewhere as 5:31)
Cool Jerk (12” Reggae Dub Mix) – 5:04 (elsewhere as 5:05)
Good Girl (Single Remix)
The Whole World Lost Its Head (Acoustic) — B-side of “Good Girl” cassette single (performance from The Howard Stern Show)
Anybody know where I can get those mono versions? I never knew they existed.
I agree with what most people are saying about the live tracks. Do we really need more? What I really would have liked to have seen was a DVDs accompanied with each cd that had live cuts, talk show appearances, and all their related videos for a lot of the songs. It’s been 30 years, don’t you think it’s time to include that? It’s my hope that the girls get it together and release a dvd or bluray showing all of that and more!
Disappointing especially for an Edsel release….maybe the couldn’t acquire the rights to the live/music video stuff. Shame all of the Cool Jerk remixes were ignored.
Definitely wanted the music videos. Maybe there is an opportunity here with a collection similar to “The Anthology” that was done for Belinda. The music videos and live shows would definitely hook me on that.
This is a big miss.
Leave Beauty and The Beat as is, but Vacation should include DVD of “Totally Go-Go’s” where the live songs are from. Such a great show.
Talk Show should have DVD of “Wild at The Greek” where those live tracks are from. To me, if you watch the video of this show, you can really see they were not having fun and the end was near. But still a significant piece of Go-Go’s history.
I would personally like to have had all of the Cool Jerk remixes added that were released in 1990, besides just the re-recording of the track. I also agree with a lot of the other previous comments about the inclusion of a DVD with videos and live performances should have been included as well.
Will definitely pick up Talk Show (assuming there are no mishtakes with track selections or mastering!), but keep my existing copies of the first two albums. This has the whiff of low-budget about it, getting albums back into print as deluxes that rather flatter to deceive with already-issued content.
Well, I’m super-excited for these three, especially as it was only this weekend that I was (again) kicking myself for not having picked up the 1999 remaster of ‘Talk Show.’ I’d been looking at options (eBay, Amazon resellers) and then noticed these remasters up on Amazon UK.
I’m not one for live versions unless that’s the take that became the hit, so any disappointment with these reissues isn’t that there aren’t more live tracks but that I’m pretty sure there are some mono versions of The Go-Go’s early singles out there — there might be a fan out there who could provide a better list than me — and at least one edit of the reunion material (“Good Girl” was remixed for single release). I’d love to have all of those collected onto these releases.
Paul, above the UK pre-order links it says 2CD for each of the re-releases which is only true for ‘Beauty…’
An error. Now fixed. Thanks.
I agree with Glenn. It looks like the best thing out of this is Talk Show will be back in circulation.
Hmm… all the stuff from Beyond The Valley… would be worth it if all tracks are newly remastered. However, I am dubious since not all of Edsel’s reissues feature new or even recent remasters. Any word on that, Paul?
Will try to find out.
Nice to see Talk Show getting reissued. Saw a copy go for over $40 US on Ebay recently.
I bought all belindas reissues for the live stuff! Unfortunately there is not as much love going into these! They have so much unseen live shows out there!!! Why not treat us to something we haven’t got!! I’ve bought every Edsel release but as a huge gogos fan this isn’t so impressive
How about a DVD with the videos, in the CDs, and a live show, that’d be worth picking up think il give this a miss, I’m not big on live tracks, shame, a missed opportunity,
Yup, really sad that this doesn’t come as cd/dvd editions, there is plenty of pro-shot material out there + let’s not forget the concerts that were released on vhs before.
Especially as there is recording from ‘the Greek’ on ‘Talk Show’, one would have thought at least that gig would be released on dvd alongside the album.
Will probably still buy them, but had hopes for way more attractive releases, to be honest. Missed opportunity.
Are most of the bonus tracks lifted from Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go’s?? They certainly look very familiar in more than a few cases…..
Yes, they are. The concert is from the 30th Anniversary Edition of “Beauty and the Beat” and the re-recording of “Cool Jerk” is from “Greatest Hits.” Everything else is from “Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s.”
These would have been an instant purchase for me if there was ANY previously unreleased material or if they had included the videos. As it stands, this is most likely a pass although I would like to read the new interviews and liner notes.
My fingers are crossed that Edsel will do the same thing they did with Belinda’s solo stuff and issue a hits collection and include a DVD of the videos with that once the albums come out.
I love The GoGo’s but not sure about this. All of this bonus material is already available on the 1994 compilation ‘Return To The Valley Of The GoGo’s.’ Essentially there is nothing new / unreleased here. Bummer.
agreed.
This is a total waste of a release. A cashgrab.
This is just Return to the Valley split up amongst the 3 albums.
i wish they would just record their unreleased songs in the same manner of blades and hes so strange.
In reality, they could release an entire album of stuff like that… and reworked versions of songs like the piano fading fast.
fun with ropes,screaming etc.
but i get the feeling they don’t want to put in the work .
i feel they owe it to the fans.