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Help Erasure select tracks for their forthcoming box set

By Paul Sinclair

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67

Graham Tucker/Redferns

Erasure have confirmed that as part of the #Erasure30 anniversary celebrations they will be releasing an anthology box set later this year, and they want fans to help select B-sides for inclusion…

Two CDs have been allocated for B-sides within this box (no other details have been revealed) but of course not all the recorded B-sides will fit on two discs, so Andy Bell and Vince Clarke are asking their fans to vote for their favourites to decide the final selection.

If you’d like to vote, simply head over to the Erasure website where you’ll find a list of 58 B-sides (album tracks, live songs and remixes not included). You have the opportunity to vote for your favourite 20 from those 58.

SDE will publish more information about this Erasure box set when we have it.

Vote for your favourite Erasure B-sides.

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67 Comments

67 thoughts on “Help Erasure select tracks for their forthcoming box set”

  2. Thanks Paul for that info. I’ve been looking around for a release date on this again (U.S.) and can’t find anything. Do you know when this release date is? For U.S.? Or is it still on hold?

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  9. Enough with the compilations!!!!! I want the remastered cd’s of the entire catalog beginning where it left off. I am baffled by the preferential treatment that is being given to vinyl. I would love the 1995 self titled cd to be remastered in surround sound. Make every release a multi disc set with all b-sides etc.

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  11. i hope that some of more rare stuff, i don`t want anything that have been out like 5 or 6 times already

    A 10 cd-box (2cd of b-sides,1cd for Andy,1cd for Vince)

    that leaves 6cd free of space to the “fun part” of boxset

    i hope digital remixes only,promo mixes,live recordings,radio performances

    something like the little list below

    OH L AMOUR (GERMAN VOCAL)
    OH L AMOUR (US FUNKY SISTERS REMIX EDIT)
    SOMETIMES (US SHIVER MIX EXTENDED)
    RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIIGH (AUSSIE 7″ VERSION)
    CHAINS OF LOVE (THE UNFETTERED MIX)
    CHAINS OF LOVE (FETTER DUB)
    CHAINS OF LOVE (RADIO REMIX EDIT)
    A LITTLE RESPECT (12″ VOVAL)
    A LITTLE RESPECT (12″ DUB)
    ALITTLE RESPECT (12″ HOUSE MIX)
    ALITTLE REPPECT (12″ HOUSE DUB)
    BLUE SAVANNAH (OUT OF THE BLUE DUB)
    CHORUS (SINGLE LOW END MIX)
    LOVE TO HATE YOU (ITALIAN VERSION)
    LOVE TO HATE YOU (SPANISH VERSION)
    LOVE TO HATE YOU (LOVE VS HATE MIX)
    TAKE A CHANCE ON ME (INTRO EDIT)
    RAGE (VITAMITAVEGE MIX) FEAT.LENE LOVICH
    LOOKING GLASS SEA
    TOO DARN HOT HOT
    COLD SUMMER`S DAY(WIGSTOCK SOUNDTRACK VERSION)
    BECAUSE YOU ARE SO SWEET (MARK GOODIER VERSION)
    ROCK ME GENTLY (RADIO EDIT)
    DON`T SAY YOUR LOVE IS KILLING ME (RH Factor Vocal Club Mix)
    MOON AND THE SKY (MURK MONSTER MIX)
    PERCHANCE TO DREAM (JASON JINX REMIX)
    CHORUS (FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE DOME)
    BREATHE (SWISS AMERICAN FEDERATION MIX)
    MAGIC MOMENTS
    OH L`AMOUR (MARKYMIX)
    Breathe (Pete Heller’s Phela Club Mix)
    I Could Fall In Love With You (James Aparicio Mix)
    SUCKER FOR LOVE (EDIT)
    A Little Respect (HMI Redux)
    TAKE A CHANCE ON ME (WITHOUT THE RAP)

    i know there are more out there

  12. The fans have been asking for a b sides collection for years,don’t faff around give us all the b sides remastered.
    The two curated discs would be fine as just a list in the booklet,as that’s mostly going to be the usual tracks we know & love.
    Always the very best of was a commercial release aimed at selling copies to the general public,this project is aimed solely at the fan,so we want unusual content rarities unreleased and demos etc,we don’t mind paying for 10 discs but give us 10 discs of quality we all need,not what we’ve got already.
    http://www.erasure4rum.com

  13. From Richard at the Erasure Information Service:

    One thing I do want to clear up though is that although you are only allowed to vote for up to twenty of your own favourite b-sides, across the two CDs (and depending on the length of the most popular tracks) we are likely to be able to fit on around forty tracks in total which is around 80% of all the b-sides available. I know that some of you were concerned that the box would only feature twenty b-sides, so I hope that clears things up!

  14. Just stick out everything. All the b-sides, in order. There’s 58 of them. No need for hits, they’re on their sixth best of, and each of them sells piddling amounts. If you want to make up extra discs, there’s DVD’s from 1989, 1992, 1996, and so on waiting to be issued. Just stop faffing and stick out the stuff that’s hard to get now.

  15. Why not insert the b-sides as a result of the album (there is place because they’re albums are very short) and on a second cd, put the remixes …. like Bananarama !

  17. When I first read about the boxset to be released this year, I mistakingly thought they meant a 30th anniversary Wonderland boxset. Unfortunately that’s not the case, but I’d be way more excited about a box set for each album that includes everything – all b-sides and all remixes for each album. Incomplete career “overview” box sets that include some rarities but not everything really bug me, but I’ll probably still buy this one when it is released.

    1. I agree Mark. Alas, another missed marketing opportunity. There really should be an extensive Super-deluxe boxset of the Wonderland album released this year, followed by Super-deluxe boxsets of each subsequent album. I have given the EIS and Mute examples of other boxsets – such as A-ha’s Hunting High & Low.

      I was told by the record company only a couple of years ago how there was little interest in vinyl! How wrong were they?!? I still find it very strange that the first three albums have been re-released in vinyl as ‘limited editions’ and can’t be purchased in the likes of HMV! Another missed marketing opportunity!

      I would like to see the following released:
      1) An extensive/comprehensive remastered (properly) boxset of each album. To include: all album tracks, all associated b-sides, all associated remixes, unreleased remixes, all remixes not released on CD, demos, outtakes, instrumentals, alternative mixes, single videos, TV appearances, etc.
      2) A COMPLETE singles boxset – a CD for each single. Each CD to have the single, the associated b-sides, every remix (released and unreleased), demo, instrumentals. The Bananarama Singles Boxset is brilliantly compiled. Mute should do the same for Erasure.
      3) A Box to put all the vinyl re-issues in.
      4) A half-baked Anthology Boxset seems such a wasted opportunity and poor replacement for Super-deluxe album boxsets and a Singles Boxset.

  18. So, I’m going through the list to vote, and it’s catching me as kind of strange. What are they considering a “bside”? They have tracks listed from the Cracker’s International EP, for example, but they don’t have tracks from some of the other, longer singles that were sometimes referred to as maxi-singles and sometimes referred to as EPs. Right off the top of my head (because it’s the very first one I noticed) is the collaboration they did with Cyndi Lauper (“Early Bird”) on the Storm Chaser EP, yet they DO include tracks that were bonus tracks on deluxe versions of albums (like When I Needed You, In The Halls of the Mountain King, and Rapture).

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  20. What I find even stranger is the fact that they now continue with vinyl of the next set of albums but there is no talk of further deluxe editions of Wild, Chorus, I say I say I say on cd with additional material. And if that Show from 1989 will be included on a dvd that comes along this anthology boxset, it is save to assume that the deluxe cd editions won’t be continued.

  21. Asking fans of what they want (of course: all/everything) is something different than picking a handful of B-side songs.
    To be honest B-side songs don’t do me much. But if you all vote all the 58 songs equally maybe they’ll put them all on (more) CD’s!

  22. I don’t own a single Erasure album which is something I’d like to remedy. Are they releasing an album box set or box sets of the album. I would love a set that has five or six albums like the recent Banshee’s and Bowie Box sets.

  23. I have suggested several times to the EIS and Mute that there should be a fully comprehensive CD singles boxset. Each single should have all released and unreleased mixes, b-sides, a-side instrumental and demo. This is what the hardcore fans would buy in an instant.

    I have also given the examples of the Belinda Carlisle/Donna Summer/Bananarama singles boxsets. In particular, the Bananarama boxset has an extremely comprehensive and impressive
    track-listing.

    I fear this Anthology Box Set is going to be a complete mess and yet another wasted opportunity. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the guys, but x1 CD of Andy’s favourite tracks and x1 CD of Vince’s is just totally pointless. Equally pointless is a ‘selection’ of b-sides.

    Imo, the boxset should consist of the following: each single, each b-side, each remix/extended version, unreleased remixes, remixes released but not on CD, alternate versions, instrumentals, and demos/outtakes. That is what fans want to purchase.

    The Pet Shop Boys will be releasing a boxset of Please this year and I’m sure that really will be worthwhile. Their record company seems to listen and respond to what fans want.

    Erasure should also release comprehensive remastered CD boxsets of each album. We’ve only had the first three albums remastered (and remastered badly). I also gave the EIS and Mute the example of the brilliant remastered and expanded A-ha albums, especially Hunting High & Low. Come on Mute! :)

    1. The Expanded Edition of “The Innocents” ( for example ) has some bad “vinyl noises” on
      the remixes of “Chains Of Love” ( The Unfettered Mix ) and “A Little Respect” ( House Mix ).
      This is absolute inexcusable!

  24. I don’t want a vote !!! I want all the b-sides with their best remixes on deluxe 2 cd !!!
    Why it’s so complicated ? They put a quarter of material to show a integrale in what years?
    I will not buy it !

    1. I don’t think 58 b0sides would fit on two CDs, let alone adding in “the best remixes” as well. That’s part of the problem with attempting to assemble a career retrospective of this calibre after a 30+ year career–unless you’re one of those acts (cough…..Kate Bush….cough) who’s only put out a limited amount of material in that time, there’s far too much to include to create an affordable option. I imagine they are pitching this to the “fans,” but trying not to limit it to only the fans that can afford to buy a $500 box set with 50 discs in it that gathers up ever single scrap, which seems to be the only thing that would make some of the people on here happy (and then, there would probably still be some rare fifth-take of “Sometimes” that got ruined when Vince’s dog barked while Andy was doing the bridge vocal missing from it that people would start complaining about, until the group agreed to offer it as a free download, and then there would be complaints that there wasn’t a physical disc, so they could release a re-pressed disc, and then there would be complaints that it didn’t match the other discs, or the box needed to be bigger to include the single-track disc with the out take, or why doesn’t the box come with a member’s card that includes all the material yet-to-come from them and an expandable, accordion type package that can be stretched to ofit each of those as-yet-unknownable number of discs into it).

  25. Wow…we all bemoan the fact that artists never ask the fans what they want on this site, and here we are with just that (which I thought was pretty cool) and people are STILL moaning…seems some people are never satisfied!

      1. We don’t know the format of this anthology box, but it’s not being promoted as a B-sides collection. The band want to include two-discs of B-sides to form part of this set, so asking fans to choose seems reasonable enough.

        I can understand people wanting a complete B-sides collection, but for better or for worse, this anthology isn’t going to be *that* compilation.

      2. We also don’t know that the final box will only have 20 b-sides on it. Just because they are asking people to vote for 20 doesn’t mean only 20 will be on it. They’ll pick the top however-many they plan to use, based on what comes in from the fan votes, but you get a pretty good idea of what is “sought after” by limiting the vote to 20 so people need to be selective rather than saying, “just vote for whatever ones you want on it” and 90% of the fan base votes for all 58.

  27. …and the Cure with Join The Dots were able to throw pretty much all of their b-sides up to that point on a 4-disc set too. Just throwing that out there.

  28. Not going near this. If Pet Shop Boys can release most of their b-sides on Alternative and Format, I don’t see why Erasure can’t do it too. Dumb idea. Make this a 4 disc set and be done with it.

  31. Do a singles boxset or boxsets with most or all singles including all the remixes/versions/b-sides for a good price like Bananarama/Belinda Carlisle/SAW singles boxes! So we can have all the remixes/versions/b-sides with their original covers!

    1. They have already released 4 box sets of singles which are going for silly money now but considering those Bananarama/Belinda Carlisle/SAW singles boxes you mentioned were round about the £100 mark you can pick up those Erasure singles box sets for less than £60 each.

      1. @Neil, I got those! But they weren’t with original single covers & I believe not all versions/remixes/b-sides/unreleased in the vault stuff were there! Love to hate you was one of the last single I liked! So if the can do singles boxes like Bananarama/SAW/Belinda Carlisle it would be great! Especially
        When the price is reasonable! ;)

  32. Luckily I managed to buy 26 12″ records by Erasure from eBay , so have most of the b sides. They should release all the b sides on a cd box set, like the pet shop boys have done.

    It would be good if all bands re-released complete editions of the albums with all the tracks and remixes and b sides, greatest hits album, b sides cd and a complete singles box set. Then we could buy all, some or none of them!!!

  33. They should ask the fans from which song they will have an alternate version / unreleased 12” mix or a demo version on that box set. This would be a better idea.
    Paul, you should speak with them to put finally out what the fans really want ! ;)

  34. Daft idea, echo the above. Do it properly boys, the hardcore deserve better. The umpteenth hits lp too, what is it with them and a-ha issuing multiple compilations.

  35. I think that they should just release a separate complete B-sides 4 CD set and have the Andy & Vince CD’s part of the boxset, as well as remixes and a DVD.

  36. The quality of Erasure’s b-sides has always been truly spectacular. A full collection of every b-side is something I’ve always hoped for. Asking us to make a “Sophie’s Choice” as to which ones we let go just so the remaining tracks can be appended to yet another greatest hits (albeit handpicked by the band) is kind of insulting. This is as frustrating as the deluxe versions of their first 3 albums from a few years ago that had many but not all period remixes. When are record executives going to understand that anyone who is a fan and collector is a completist. We want everything!

  37. There’s some kind of irony in saying this release will be for the hardcore fans and then filling multiple discs with stuff they already have. Hardcore doesn’t mean gullible, chaps.

  40. Reminds me of the stupid idea of letting people vote for this OMD album full of b-sides. Half of the stuff was already out on CD, while lots of vinyl-only tracks were left out (like the brilliant “Maria Gallante”). This is rubbish. Give the fans the whole range of b-tracks, they buy this anyway

  41. From the 58 listed tracks 31 B-sides weren’t released on Singles Box 1-4 so it would be nice if they all could be included or even better why not release Singles Boxes 5, 6 etc… I mean, cd singles boxes seem to be quite hip lately (e.g. SAW, Donna Summer, Bananarama). Those box sets could be pledgemusic exclusives so they know upfront how many to produce etc.

    As for the Anthology Boxset… I hope they’ll add some rare tracks like”Love To Hate You” in Spanish and Italian and perhaps there are some more foreign language Erasure tracks out there which aren’t easy to get / available on cd?

    Also it would be nice if there’ll be a decent mastering instead of messing up the dynamics just to make it sound “better” (read: louder). The 2009-2012 Deluxe Edtions are nice to have for the collection but sound too loud to play them regularly.

    1. I agree. It would be much better to put the missing parts after singles 1-4 and some rare tracks like “Love to hate you” in spanish o italian. or the songs on Buried treasure 2″.
      By the way, I would do a box set with ALL the b-sides, as the Pet Shop Boys did in the past “Alternative” and “Format”I looked like it worked a lot…. Even though i had all the singles I bought it to have everything on a proper cd.

  42. My understanding is that you can vote for up to 20 tracks that you’d like to see on there, but I assume there will be more than 20 actually chosen to go across the 2 discs. We also know that 1 CD is Andy’s favourite picks from across their catalogue and another CD for Vince’s. Also, Andy said in an interview in the last week or so that one disc might be the not-previously-on-DVD Wild! tour show from London Arena, a VHS release back in the day. They’ve also suggested there’ll be some remixes, classic ‘extended versions’ and maybe one or two unreleased treasures – we’ll see. Their Info Service described this (when unveiled last Autumn) as aimed more at the hardcore, so I’m hoping it doesn’t just serve up the singles again.

  44. It would be cute if everyone just voted for Erasure’s first 20 b-sides. Then there might be some impetus to release a second collection with the next 20 b-sides, instead of the sloppy half-measures we can probably expect from any Erasure releases of backcatalog material for the next few years. That said, aren’t all of the b-sides already digitally available? Why not continue the Singles box-set campaign instead? I guess Always: The Very Best of Erasure did well, since at the time they indicated they thought b-side collections were only for bands which had broken up.

    I guess we’ll have to see what they put on the other discs. Surely not more greatest hits! Maybe this will be Sometimes: All the Rest of Erasure with the singles that weren’t big hits!

    1. I did exactly that. Really though the only one I care about is ‘The Good The Bad and the Ugly’, which somehow I don’t have on Cd, and I figured just picking the first 20 (leaving off some songs I don’t like) was the way to go.

    2. simple idea / answer. ask the fans what they want. the first 20 non labums would be great, the next twenty still good but then a third would be indulgent.
      can we get a triple cd / 50 song box including abba ep and crackers international ep.

    1. I really loved the Wonderland and The Circus packages that came out a few years ago and I’ve been waiting patiently for Wild! and Chorus to get the same treatment. Hope they get them together soon!

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