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Strange Cruise album reissued

By Paul Sinclair

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18

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The one and only album by short-lived Steve Strange outfit Strange Cruise is reissued by Cherry Red Records on 27 January 2014.

The eponymous album was produced by Mike Hedges and released by EMI in 1986. It featured two singles (Rebel Blue Rocker, The Beat Goes On), neither of which enjoyed much commercial success. The group disbanded shortly afterwards.

Strange Cruise has never been issued on CD. It has been remastered and features two bonus tracks – a remix of Rebel Blue Rocker and a B-side (Silver Screen Queen).

Track listing:

  • 1. Hit and Run
  • 2. The Beat Goes On
  • 3. Rebel Blue Rocker
  • 4. Communication (Breaking Down the Walls)
  • 5. This Old Time
  • 6. Animal Call
  • 7. Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  • 8. Love Addiction
  • 9. 12 Miles High
  • 10. Where Were Their Hands
  • 11. Rebel Blue Rocker (Rebel Mix)
  • 12. Silver Screen Queen

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18 Comments

18 thoughts on “Strange Cruise album reissued”

  1. Pingback: Out This Week / 27 January 2014 | superdeluxeedition

  2. I have a vinyl transfer of this somehwere on a hard drive but so far I have never gettin round to listening to it. On the Visage side the for 2 albums could do with a real remaster and additional tracks added, the gem of all would be a remaster of the single collection dance mix album. I have tried to remaster this myself years ago but sadly I just had a vinyl issue although it is available on tape so its possible for a tape to mp3 and a clean up. With Polydor now part of UMG I dont see why they cant issue the first 2 albums remastered or even cherry red getting teh master and putting out the dance mix album

  3. Cherry Red do release some interesting stuff for sure – such as the Blue Ox Babes CD a while back. It generally sounded very good – the vinyl transferring only reared it’s head once I got to the bonus tracks, which I haven’t played a huge amount (although Russia in Winter is really nice) but one of the two b-sides I had clearly sounded worse than the vinyl I have it on. I am cautious of Cherry Red – it’s one thing to source from vinyl – and another to do it so badly!

    1. I saw the video clip in France “the lady is a tramp” in the 80’s.
      I do not understand why there is censorship on this video although this video exists.

  5. A curious release – I remember getting the 12″ of Rebel Blue Rocker in the “dumper” for 20p! I might be tempted to get this but I really hope it’s not an awful vinyl transfer with no real treatment.
    One massive omission from 80’s expanded editions is the 1st Visage album – plenty of scope for a fantastic re-issue. Surely on the radar?

    1. “One massive omission from 80′s expanded editions is the 1st Visage album – plenty of scope for a fantastic re-issue. Surely on the radar?”

      Have to agree on that. I would love a remaster of the first album with an extra CD containing:
      – the 7″ versions of the singles including the original Tar, We Move and Frequency 7 – for some reason the 12″ versions of these last two tracks are the only versions on CD (included on the Anvil reissue for some strange reason)

      – the 12″ (Dance Mix) versions of Mind of a Toy, Fade to Grey, Frequency 7 and We Move

      – Second Steps which was a b-side I believe (can’t remember which single)

      – they could also include some of the remixes from the special limited edition dance mix album

      – sleeve notes (I’m sure Strange could be coaxed into making some comments on the tracks :-)

      oh and please don’t include any of the more recent remixes (i.e the Bassheads remix of Fade to Grey :-)

    1. I think there is a Dance Mix of Damned Don’t Cry which has also not appeared on cd anywhere. It was still considered worthy enough six years after its original release to be included on an Old Gold 12″ single.

  7. I think this reissue is being purely pushed by the recent Visage activity especially since Hearts & Knives has received favorable reviews and has done better than expected. Strange Cruise’s album may be weaker than anything Visage has done, but still deserves a listen.

  8. Pardon my envy, but one can’t help but wonder how an album that 15 people will buy can get a reissue; meanwhile there are thousands of other albums with much higher potential for sales that fans are clamoring for and yet we get nothing.

  12. This came up in my ‘Amazon recommended to you’ list and I decided to pre-order it based on the fact that I am quite enjoying the new Visage album.
    I’m sure it’s not going to be great but as ‘Anfunny’ says for me its worth it for the curio value.

    As an aside I continue to be amazed and impressed by the stuff that Cherry Red puts out on CD. Most of it is of no interest to me but there is the occasional gem (from my point of view) and it is good to see a label reissuing stuff that would not normally see the light of day.

    My favourite obscure reissue has to be by Voiceprint who saw fit to release Random Hold’s complete early works on CD. Lord knows why but I’m very glad they did. A great band…
    Voiceprint were also due to release Zaine Griff’s Figures album but for some reason that got cancelled. Maybe Cherry Red would consider that… I’d also like to see Zeke Manyika’s first album (Call and Response) get a CD release (but that really would be a stretch :-).

  13. Not a great album by any stretch of the imagination, but of obvious interest to Visage fans, and to a lesser extent, fans of The Photos (vocalist/guitarist Wendy Wu is featured). I’ll pick this up as a curio more than anything… I just hope it’s from master tapes and not a vinyl transfer. And it does give hope to other similarly obscure, commercial failures lurking in the vaults never previously available on CD!

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