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Pillows & Prayers | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Compilation album by Various | ||||
Released | December 1982 | |||
Recorded | various | |||
Genre | Acoustic Experimental Post-punk Rock | |||
Length | 47:35 | |||
Label | Cherry Red | |||
Various chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
The Guardian | (favorable) [2] |
Pillows & Prayers (subtitled Cherry Red 1982-1983) is a compilation album released at Christmas 1982, featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label. The record was originally sold at 99 pence (in fact, "pay no more than 99p" was printed on the original sleeve), which helped ensure that the album peaked and remained at number 1 on the UK Indie Chart for five weeks and sold over 120,000 copies. [3]
In 2007 the album was repackaged as a 3-CD plus DVD box set featuring complementary tracks from the same period and an extended essay by Alex Ogg. This revised edition won the 2008 MOJO Award for Catalogue Release of the Year, [4] with three of the key artists, Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza), Lawrence (Felt) and Bid (The Monochrome Set) appearing on stage to collect the award, alongside Cherry Red founder Iain McNay. [5]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Portrait" | Graham Cassie, David Harper, David Knight, Ashley Wales, Daniel Whittock | Five or Six | 2:52 |
2. | "Eine Symphonie des Grauens" | Bid | The Monochrome Set | 2:19 |
3. | "All About You" | Thomas Leer | Thomas Leer | 3:50 |
4. | "Plain Sailing" | Tracey Thorn | Tracey Thorn | 2:01 |
5. | "Some Things Don't Matter" | Ben Watt | Ben Watt | 4:25 |
6. | "Love in Your Heart" | Kevin Coyne | Kevin Coyne | 2:55 |
7. | "Modi 2 (Extract)" | Piero Milesi | Piero Milesi | 1:02 |
8. | "Compulsion" | Joe Crow | Joe Crow | 4:23 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
9. | "Lazy Ways" | Jane Fox | Marine Girls | 2:42 |
10. | "My Face Is on Fire" | Lawrence | Felt | 3:04 |
11. | "No Noise" | Peter Becker, Martyn Bates | Eyeless in Gaza | 2:49 |
12. | "XOYO" | Dick Witts | The Passage | 3:26 |
13. | "On My Mind" | Thorn | Everything but the Girl | 3:08 |
14. | "A Bang and a Wimpey" | John Baine | Attila the Stockbroker | 1:41 |
15. | "I Unseen" | Tony Hill | The Misunderstood | 1:58 |
16. | "Don't Blink" | Robert Lloyd, Paul Apperley, Steve Hawkins, Andy Lloyd | The Nightingales | 4:00 |
17. | "Stop the Music for a Minute" | Quentin Crisp | Quentin Crisp | 1:00 |
In 1984 a sequel, Pillows and Prayers 2, was released in Japan. This time, there was no special price. In 2000 the album was reissued on CD (CDMRED 169) together with volume 1.
"Un Homme et Une Femme" is the theme from the film of the same name, composed by Francis Lai and with lyrics by Pierre Barouh. "It's A Fine Day" was later a hit single when covered by Opus III several years later, and Red Box went on to chart success after signing to WEA.
Felt were an English jangle pop band, formed in 1979 in Water Orton, England, and led by the mononymous Lawrence. They were active for ten years through the 1980s, releasing ten singles and ten albums. The band's name was inspired by Tom Verlaine's emphasis of the word "felt" in the Television song "Venus".
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Lawrence Hayward, known mononymously as Lawrence, is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is known as the frontman in the English indie pop bands Felt, Denim, and Mozart Estate. He has never used his surname in credits or press for his work.
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Maurice Deebank is a classically trained English guitarist. He was the co-founder and lead guitarist of the British indie band Felt from its debut album until 1985, and was responsible for the ornate, atmospheric guitar work found on many of the band's early recordings. During his tenure in Felt he co-wrote most of its material with frontman Lawrence.
Marine Girls were an English post-punk group from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The group was formed in 1980, by two sixth form schoolfriends; Tracey Thorn and Gina Hartman. Originally, Thorn just played guitar and Hartman was the lead vocalist and percussionist. Thorn overcame her shyness and started singing too by the time they started making records. They were later joined by Jane Fox on bass and her younger sister, Alice, on joint vocals and percussion.
"Plain Sailing" is the debut solo single by English singer-songwriter Tracey Thorn.
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Five or Six were an English post-punk band, originally signed to Cherry Red Records by A&R head Mike Alway, who deemed them to be the act with the most potential from the scene he had helped create around the Snoopies club in south-west London. In addition to the singles they released with Cherry Red, they recorded two albums, A Thriving and Happy Land and Cántame esa canción que dice, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, neither of which was released in the UK. The line-up was fluid. One of their songs was included on the compilation album Pillows & Prayers.
...And the Native Hipsters was an English experimental group formed in London, England in 1979. Centred on the nucleus of musicians William Wilding and Blatt, they are best known for their 1980 single, "There Goes Concorde Again", which attracted the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and reached number five on the UK Independent Charts. The song was listed by New Musical Express in their "NME Writers 100 Best Indie Singles Ever" in 1992.
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Martyn Bates is an English singer, musician and songwriter.
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