This release is a 2 LP set with the extra track "Strain, Crack, Break" (never previously available on vinyl and appearing for the first time in any format in its intended unedited form) on side three and an etching on side four. There is a special edition and a regular edition of this release.
The special box set is limited to 500 numbered copies only. Advance subscribers via the Dirter Promotions website had the chance to order one of the first 250 copes. Unsold copies were later sold through the NWW webstore.
This box set consists of:
• The double LP.
• A T-Shirt with the legendary "NWW list" in luminous ink on a black shirt.
• A die cut pin badge of the front image
• A fine art print of the front sleeve on the high quality art paper. The prints are made using the original artwork, from David Tibet from his personal collection. Each print is signed by Steven Stapleton in pencil. It is a faithful reproduction of the original art down to the finest detail. This is the closest to get to owning the original artwork.
The collection is housed in a printed matt laminated box, each individually numbered on the back.
Recorded at B.M.S. studio, Wardour St, W1
September 1978
Extra Material recorded at I.C.R. studio and mixed at aranos studio September 2001
I would like to dedicate this record to John and Heman, wherever you are now; it was a great time and I think we made a beautiful album - Steven
A Little History
I was a frustrated signwriter with a passion for unusual and obscure music.
Heman was Indian and against his family wishes became obsessed by European rock music. Heman was also the only other person I'd ever met who was a fan of Floh De Cologne!
John was a genuinely eccentric intellectual; an aesthete of the avantgarde.
I met Heman at school in North London. He had a similar taste in music and we soon became great friends. Together we started our investigation into the musical unknown with nothing to guide us but a few simple rules:
1. There had to be long tracks.
2. We did't like songs - no vocals.
3. Inspired or drug related cover art.
With this in mind we started visiting all the second hand record shops in greater London and buying on spec any strange looking record that fitted the bill.
It was on one of these trips in the old Record And Tape Exchange in Goldbourne Road where I first came across John. He and his mother were fishing out interesting looking records that I would have liked to buy, he too was into the musical unknown. I asked if I could check out the album under his arm, we got talking and soon became friends. John taught me so much; he became my mentor.
We, as a trio, for the next 5 or 6 passionate years would visit all the second hand stores every week buying hundreds of albums between us. Occasionally we would take in Paris, Hamburg, Milan and other places just for the music, just for the records.
As a signwriter I became employed at B.M.S studio to paint their window. I met Nicky Rogers and we got on well - he was the resident engineer, it was my first time in a studio, it was a big 48 track and it looked amazing - all those buttons and lights. He said if you ever feel like making some noise come in over a weekend when the studio is officially closed. I have a band, I lied.
That evening my head was buzzin' - I rang John and Heman: I've got some studio time, go buy an instrument and let's see what happens. John got an electric guitar with a tremble booster and a ring modulator, which was very disappointing - ring modulators always sounded so great on album credits. Heman brought along an old keyboard and I found a cheap Bontempi organ and as many little noise making items as I could carry.
We arrived at B.M.S. on the Saturday morning. Poor Nicky Rogers, I think he was expecting something a little more professional: I put my junk in one corner, John laid his guitar on the floor, tipped a box of nus and bolts all over it and started stroking the thing with a toilet brush.
Only Heman looked like he knew what he was doing. So after a 30 second warm up for levels we launched into what eventually would become known as 'Blank capsules...'
Steven Stapleton, Cooloorta, September 2001.
Reino Unido·Ano Original: 1979