NewsIt Bites / Whole New World: The Virgin Albums 1986-1991
Next month sees the releases of Whole New World, a four-CD set featuring the work of It Bites from 1986-1991.
The collection features all three studio albums from that era (The Big Lad In The Windmill (1986), Once Around The World (1988) and Eat Me in St. Louis (1989)) as well as the Thank You And Goodnight live set.
The studio albums all come with bonus tracks including seven-inch edits, B-sides, original CD/Cassette bonus tracks and more. This set features sleeve notes by Malcolm Dome and new artwork.
At less than £14 Whole New World is a bit of a steal and comes recommended. However, if you *must* spend more money on It Bites reissues and/or you are a packaging freak (guilty as charged), the albums are available individually as Japanese SHM-CDs in mini-LP vinyl replica packaging. These also have a different selection of bonus tracks, although there’s only a couple (Woman Is An Addict and a seven inch version of Old Man And The Angel) that aren’t on the European Whole New World set. Even so this does mean that Whole New World it’s not the complete Virgin output as is claimed on Amazon. Full track listings for everything is below.
Whole New World is out on 3 November with the individual Japanese reissues available just before that date.
Whole New World 4CD Compilation
Japanese SHM-CD mini-LP CD reissues
The Big Lad In the Windmill (Japanese SHM-CD)
Once Around The World (Japanese SHM-CD)
Eat Me In St. Louis (Japanese SHM-CD)
Thank You And Goodnight (Live) – Japanese SHM-CD
WHOLE NEW WORLD Track listing
DISC 1:
THE BIG LAD IN THE WINDMILL
- 1. I Got You Eating Out Of My Hand
- 2. All In Red
- 3. Whole New World
- 4. Screaming On The Beaches
- 5. Wanna Shout
- 6. Turn Me Loose
- 7. Cold Tired And Hungry
- 8. Calling All The Heroes
- 9. You’ll Never Get To Heaven
- 10.The Big Lad In The Windmill
- 11.Heartbreaker
- 12.Calling All The Heroes (7″ Version)
- 13.Strange But True (Full Length Version)
- 14.Black December
- 15.Calling All The Heroes (Live At The Marquee 1986)
- 16.Screaming On The Beaches (Live At The Marquee 1986)
DISC 2:
ONCE AROUND THE WORLD
- 1. Midnight
- 2. Kiss Like Judas
- 3. Yellow Christian
- 4. Rose Marie
- 5. Black December
- 6. The Old Man And The Angel
- 7. Hunting The Whale
- 8. Plastic Dreamer
- 9. Once Around The World
- 10.Castles (12″ Full Length Version)
- 11.Staring At The Whitewash
- 12.Kiss Like Judas (12” Extended Mix)
- 13.Midnight (Extended Version)
DISC 3:
EAT ME IN ST. LOUIS
- 1. Positively Animal
- 2. Underneath Your Pillow
- 3. Let Us All Go
- 4. Still Too Young To Remember
- 5. Murder Of The Planet Earth
- 6. People Of America
- 7. Sister Sarah
- 8. Leaving Without You
- 9. Till The End Of Time
- 10.The Ice Melts Into Water
- 11.Charlie
- 12.Having A Good Day
- 13.Reprise
- 14.Bullet In The Barrel
- 15.Vampires
DISC 4
THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT
- 1. Kiss Like Judas
- 2. All In Red
- 3. Underneath Your Pillow
- 4. Murder Of The Planet Earth
- 5. The Ice Melts (Into Water)
- 6. Yellow Christian
- 7. You’ll Never Go To Heaven
- 8. Calling All The Heroes
- 9. Screaming On The Beaches
- 10.Still Too Young To Remember
Japanese SHM-CD mini-LP track listings
The Big Lad In The Windmill (Japan SHM-CD)
1 I Got You Eating Out Of My Hand
2 All In Red
3 Whole New World
4 Screaming On The Beaches
5 Wanna Shout
6 Turn Me Loose
7 Cold, Tired And Hungry
8 Calling All The Heroes
9 You’ll Never Go To Heaven
10 The Big Lad In The Windmill
11 [Bonus Track] Calling All The Heroes (7″ Version)
12 [Bonus Track] Strange But True
13 [Bonus Track] Heartbreaker
Once Around The World (Japan SHM-CD)
1 Midnight
2 Kiss Like Judas
3 Yellow Christian
4 Rose Marie
5 Black December
6 Old Man And The Angel (Full Length Version)
7 Hunting The Whale
8 Plastic Dreamer
9 Once Around The World
10 [Bonus Track] Old Man And The Angel (7″ Single Version)
11 [Bonus Track] Castles (12″ Full Length Version)
12 [Bonus Track] Staring At The Whitewash
13 [Bonus Track] Kiss Like Judas (12″ Extended Mix)
Eat Me In St. Louis (Japan SHM-CD)
1 Positively Animal
2 Underneath Your Pillow
3 Let Us All Go
4 Still Too Young To Remember
5 Murder Of The Planet Earth
6 People Of America
7 Sister Sarah
8 Leaving Without You
9 ‘Til The End Of Time
10 The Ice Melts Into Water
11 Charlie
12 [Bonus Track] Vampires
13 [Bonus Track] Having A Good Day
14 [Bonus Track] Reprise
15 [Bonus Track] Bring In The Barrel
16 [Bonus Track] The Woman Is An Addict
Thank You And Goodnight (Japan SHM-CD)
1 Kiss Like Judas
2 All In Red
3 Underneath Your Pillow
4 Murder Of The Planet Earth
5 The Ice Melts (Into Water)
6 Yellow Christian
7 You’ll Never Go To Heaven
8 Calling All The Heroes
9 Screaming On The Beaches
10 Still Too Young To Remember
11 [Bonus Track] Screaming On The Beaches
Whole New World 4CD Compilation
Japanese SHM-CD mini-LP CD reissues
The Big Lad In the Windmill (Japanese SHM-CD)
Once Around The World (Japanese SHM-CD)
Eat Me In St. Louis (Japanese SHM-CD)
Thank You And Goodnight (Live) – Japanese SHM-CD
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Thanks for the info.
What is the packaging like? Are the lyrics included?
I’m not a fan of reissues that omit the original booklets, but it is cheap and it’s great to have what bonus tracks are being offered.
The packaging is not too bad. The discs come in a thick jewel case and there is a booklet with a write-up of the band’s history including quotes (recent?) from Francis Dunnery. Then there are two pages devoted to each album – Tracklisting, credits and album cover. There are no lyrics. To me, the studio albums sound quiet so they are not remastered much, but the live album is louder and at a much more reasonable volume to listen to. Anyway, it’s good to have some digital versions of some of the early b-sides. I’ll be keeping my Japanese reissues from a few years as they sound much fuller for the main albums.
Yes those Japanese remasters do sound a lot better but the downside with them was on Big Lad In The Windmill where they somehow managed to cut out half of Calling All The Heroes where the instrumental part was supposed to kick in. I have read that these new Japanese SHM-CDs have rectified that mistake.
Got this today and you will pleased to hear there is no loudness issues present. According to the booklet it was mastered at abbey road studios the same as the Level 42 recent remasters but it doesn’t mention by who though.
What would be the full version of Whole New World? The album version is a little longer than the single version…
Hey Gary – having seen that there was a 12″ in 1986 of Whole New World featuring the Full Length Version (and remembered owning it briefly) it would have been this version. However – perhaps it actually is just the album version after all? Had we been able to compile this box set the masters would have come from Universal and all available tracks would be on there…as it is someone got there first!
I was really interested to see this box set advertised, as I had recently submitted a track listing to do the same project to Universal! This would have appeared on another imprint, and would have been more complete. The additional tracks I had included over & above the final set being released were:
Disc 1:
All In Red (Full Length)
Strange But True (7″ b-side)
Whole New World (Full Length)
Disc 2:
Castles (7″ b-side)
Old Man And The Angel (7″ version)
You’ll Never Go To Heaven (Live)
Disc 3:
I’ll Meet You In The Spring (Original Version)
The Woman Is An Addict
Still Too Young To Remember (Live)
Underneath Your Pillow (Live)
Murder Of The Planet Earth (Live)
Still Too Young To Remember (7″ Remix 1990)
I’ll Meet You In The Spring (Remix)
Underneath Your Pillow (7″ Remix 1990)
Still Too Young To Remember (Full Length Remix)
Underneath Your Pillow (Full Length Remix)
Shame that we haven’t had a chance to do this as planned, but very pleased to see the box set coming out and hopefully remastered.
Steve
This is cheaper at base.com in fact most things are compared to Amazon.
Black December is a great track, however the live version from their 1988 OATW tour was by far the best version I’ve heard.
I too am thrilled Black December original version is finally seeing the light of day, miles better than the over produced version on OATW!
Yet another in the long line of ‘not quite complete’ box sets, it seems.
Interesting that Virgin also have a box set for Brand X out around the same time, and that similarly misses a non-LP B-side (Pool Room Blues) – are they seriously expecting me to believe they couldn’t find space over 4 discs to squeeze on one extra track? Or couldn’t they be bothered to look for it?
It s really incredible why the labels don t take seriously the reissue matter. All those extendeds and remixes lost. And we pay high prices
I certainly wouldn’t say paying £13.99 for a 4 CD boxset is paying a high price would you ? I didn’t think the sound quality on the original CDs was that bad and i would much rather have that than these being brickwalled to hell if they are not remastered.
I understand your frustration…. But 15 GBP for a four-CD box with four original albums plus at least a few extras seems like a steal….especially when compared to so many of the reissues being put out these days, which soak folks for a whole lot more. I’ve got this on order a,one with the four-CE Brand X box and the amount of material being provided for £30? Seems like a steal to me!
I’ve got mine on order as well. After Francis Dunnery left i stopped listening to them. They were definitely good at the prog. rock genre. I always thought of them as a cross between Genesis and Marillion (Fish era).
Yes, Dunnery left the Band and wasted all their potential. As a solo artist he could never repeat such masterpieces as he crafted with It Bites. He frequently releases albums and turned into astrology. It Bites resurrected in 2006 and let forget the gap with the phenomenal “The Tall Ships” in 2008 and “Map of the past” 2012.
Ah nuts!
I’ve got the first two albums on order from Japan, so I’m gonna wait and see what they sound like, and what others make of this UK release.
I was up in Glasgow at the weekend talking to two friends who were big fans of these guys back in the day incidentally. They’ll snap this UK release up no doubt. It is good to see some these B-sides get a CD release but I can do without the edits and remixes off Eat Me In St Louis.
It Bites fans were long waiting for some kind of a b-sides collection, so this set is highly anticipated. But the missing tracks (also “I’ll meet you in the spring” and the two 1990 Nick Davis remixes of “Still too young to remember” and “Underneath your pillow” are a bit letting down at the same time. I doubt that there will be remastered sound at this budget price, but it’s a must have anyway. Maybe the chance for new listeners to acknoledge some really great albums.
On the premium japanese side there isn’t also everything shiny. Regarding the sound I have high expectations – the 2005 It Bites japanese remasters were a quantum leap to the originals, a shame those didn’t include any bonus tracks.
The Whole New World box set looks good. I already have it on order at Amazon. It will be good to have the original b-side version of Black December and the full length Strange But True finally on CD. Just a shame it’s not complete as a few later b-sides and single remixes are missing. I’m sure they could have squeezed some of them onto the live disc. It will be interesting to see if the albums are remastered and which version of Big Lad In The Windmill is used as a Japanese cardsleeve edition I have has some different versions of some tracks (not counting the shortened by mistake Calling All The Heroes).
Hi Neil, which tracks are different on the 2005 japanese editions ? I’ve not heard any differences…. The only different pressings I’ve heard of an it bites album is on Eta me in st Louis, some track are different on cd and on Lp. Please let me know. Regards, Phil
Hi Phil,
The differences I’m aware of are on “The Big Lad In The Windmill” Japanese CD from a few years ago, and the good news is that this new box set uses the same versions namely: “I Got You Eating Out Of My Hand” is 30 seconds longer (6:08 compared to 5:38 on the original UK CD) and “Wanna Shout” is shorter at 3:13 (3:30 on original UK CD). Also, the Japanese CD messed up “Calling All The Heroes” as it cut the track short after the silent break in the track. So it’s worth holding on to the original UK CD as well as this new box set.