More mall store memories...Remember when Camelot Music was doing their "Fresh Music" promotion? They had TONS of nu-wave related inventory, and besides a fairly strong selection of US indies, they had hundreds of exotic-looking 12" singles from the UK by bands with weird names like Kajagoogoo and Haysi Fantayzee and Simple Minds and Yazoo, most of whom had not yet or would never crack the US market. I bought a bunch of them at a reduced rate when the "Fresh Music" concept crashed and burned about a year later.

I love some things about the UK 12" singles from this era. They're always really loud, the vinyl is good, and they tend to have deluxe glossy picture sleeves. Unfortunately, most "extended" 12" mixes are simply the same song with the instrumental parts repeated over and over, so the records, despite their beauty as objects, are worthless for listening. Here's an example of the exception, this huge, majestic version of the other really good song from the Icicle Works' debut album. Another good one, one I wish I still had, was the 12" of "(In a) Big Country," which contained two versions of that song, one considerably longer than the US hit single version, and one shorter. The longer version was more interesting, and the short version more concise and powerful than what we heard on the radio here.