The Rough Trade first 100 singles

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Consider this a public service, courtesy of my extensive discography of Rough Trade and interviews with nearly every artist below (and then some!) I didn't include slightly different mixes (Pere Ubu, Feelies and a few others). This only lists what's NOT on CD from the first 100 Rough Trade singles.

RT002 AUGUSTUS PABLO mr bassie special
The a-side is easily available on CD, not sure about the b-side . . . reggae is notorious for retitling tracks.

RT011 FILE UNDER POP heathrow / corrugate + heathrow slb
A bit of a mystery, this one! Ambient airport sounds with no personnel listed. It hasn’t been rereleased. The work of Simon Leonard, also of AK Process and AK 47 and later, I Start Counting and later still Fortran 5.

RT013 RAINCOATS adventures close to home
This version of “Adventures” is an alternate version of the track on their debut album.

RT020 CULT FIGURES zip nolan / pwt (playing with toys) / zip dub
Were they or were they not the Swell Maps in disguise? Actually some friends of the Swell Maps with the band. This single is a co-release with the Swell Maps own Gear Records imprint, and the sound is unmistakeably Maps-ish with a heavier than normal dollop of silliness. All songs unreleased on CD.

RT021 SWELL MAPS an english verse + monologues
These two b-sides unavailable on CD.

RT022 LAST WORDS animal world / no music in the world today
Reportedly an Australian band. The a-side took its time finding its way to a Rough Trade single - it had been the a-side of different singles on Remand Records and Wizard Records with different b-sides each time! Last Words later recorded for Armageddon without much success. Illustrious release history aside, this single isn’t much to write home about and hasn’t seen CD release.

RT029 ESSENTIAL LOGIC flora force
Like all Essential Logic singles save one, only one side made it to the rather poorly compiled 2xCD Essential Logic compilation.

RT039 SLITS in the beginning (there was rhythm)

RT044 SLITS man next door / version
Neither of these studio versions have made it on CD.

RT050 ESSENTIAL LOGIC tame the neighbours
Unavailable on CD.

RT057 MISSING SCIENTISTS big city bright lights / discotheque x 7”
A bit lackluster but interesting comfluence of various Swell Maps, TVPs and Normal folks.

RT058 GIST this is love / yanks
Neither song on CD.

RT064 FURIOUS PIG “i don’t like your face ep”
i don’t like your face / johnny so long + the king mother

RT074 ESSENTIAL LOGIC the captain
Another missing part of the Essential Logic story.

RTT076 TAN TAN theme from a summer place / princess
To the best of my knowledge, neither track on CD. Tan Tan is Eddie Thornton, a Jamaican expatriate trumpeter living in the UK.

RTT078 CHRIS & COSEY october love song ep
The 7” version is on CD (as is its b-side), but the extra versions on the 12” are not.

RT083 BUNNY WAILER riding
Best as I can tell, this one’s still non-CD.

RT084 EPIC SOUNDTRACKS jelly babies
The a-side unavailable on CD. Originally advertised as one of the featured tracks on the Robert Wyatt “Flotsam Jetsam” CD on Rough Trade UK, as it features his vocals, but it is not in fact present on the CD.

RT087 LORA LOGIC rather than repeat
Again, a big gap in the missing Essential Logic tracks, CD-wise.

RT088 DAVID GAMSON sugar sugar / honey honey

RT092 MARTIN PIG lovely rita meter maid / somebody loves you

RT093 RAINCOATS running away
This cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Running Away” is non-CD in what seems to be an attempt to rewrite history – two of the best tracks from “Moving” didn’t make the CD, either.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 17 April 2006 22:49 (twenty years ago)

RT039 SLITS in the beginning (there was rhythm)

i'm sure this is on a compilation of the same name

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Monday, 17 April 2006 22:52 (twenty years ago)

I forgot to mention that one of the early pressings of a Swell Maps singles features a short cover of the Television Personalities' "Part Time Punks." Can't remember which 7", but it's not on CD either.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 17 April 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

courtesy of my extensive discography of Rough Trade and interviews with nearly every artist below (and then some!)

Wait, all of a sudden I'm wondering who you are now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 April 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

You should be! And right, I forgot about the Slits song on the Soul Jazz thingy.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 17 April 2006 23:07 (twenty years ago)

OMG WTF it's Paul Morley! ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 April 2006 23:09 (twenty years ago)

whoa - i never knew about that raincoats sly cover...

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Monday, 17 April 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

It's a cool cover, I like it a lot. It came out around the same time as about seven other covers of the same tune, and failed - it was the Raincoats' big stab at the charts, kinda - and actually an a-side whose flip was the now much better remembered "No One's Little Girl."

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 17 April 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

hah. I made the same exact (almost) list a few years ago when we started planning our grand extended Wanna Buy A Bridge? CD! For what it's worth, if it all goes to plan, many of those will appear. Maybe even the Missing Scientists video!

But I don't get the Epic Soundtracks...I found that on Soulseek as listed on the Robert Wyatt CD I thought?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 00:40 (twenty years ago)

It (the Epic Soundtracks a-side"Jelly, Babies") was supposed to be on "Flotsam & Jetsam," but wasn't. It's never been on CD. Nikki Sudden once claimed to me that it would be coming out on some sort of Swell Maps-related CD compilation which would also include Swell Maps rarities and tracks from the Cult Figures and unreleased parts of the Soundtracks & Head album (which never came out on Rough Trade, though there was a 12"), as well as "Gear Records rarities." But I never heard another word, and Nikki's gone. It's a great track, reminiscent of the Raincoats' "Odyshape" in a way (Robert Wyatt, who sang on "Jelly, Babies" also played on that album, and Vicky Aspinall from the Raincoats plays on the single.)

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 00:51 (twenty years ago)

RT013 RAINCOATS adventures close to home

― naus (Robert T), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 01:42 (twenty years ago)

B-side of "Fairytale", that is.

Thanks a lot for this list. Somewhere in an old notebook is my handwritten list of early RT singles/LPs. Wish I hadn't sold that File Under Pop single now.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:00 (twenty years ago)

and actually an a-side whose flip was the now much better remembered "No One's Little Girl."

This wasn't how I remembered it, so I checked. There's nothing on the sleeve or the label to indicate which track is a-side and which is b-side. There's an insert, though, that reads
THE RAINCOATS - "No One's Little Girl"/
"Running Away". RT093.

So I'd think you'd call "Running Away" the B-side, and it does seem like a b-side--cover, non-album cut, etc. Cute version but I think "No One's Little Girl" is much more successful.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:51 (twenty years ago)

I'd sure like to hear that "Running Away". For the other tracks it don't seem like that much of a loss, right?

― strom (strom), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:38 (twenty years ago)

A pity the Gamson song is not there. Would have loved to see it available on CD.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

Is that the "No no no turn on RED!" thingy?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

.. guess not. Sugar Sugar/Honey Honey? WTF?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:47 (twenty years ago)

just be patient, people.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:50 (twenty years ago)

Mark Beer "Pretty" 7" RT #10. Great singer/songwriter whose album Dust On The Road is a bit of a lost classic....this track sounds like a hyper Belle and Sebastian - total pop, great backing vocals.

― GALKIN (GALKIN), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 14:01 (twenty years ago)

I think "No One's Little Girl" is more successful too, but it was the "Running Away" side that received radio marketing push and promotional dollars, plus if you look at the matrix, I believe it's noted as the a-side, "No One's . . ." as the b-side.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 14:01 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Galkin, I have that Mark Beer single out of my stacks right now! Has it really been on a CD?

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 14:18 (twenty years ago)

Well I'd up "Running Away," (not a great rip, did it myself) but we are in the post-ysi era here...

As for a-side/b-side, I don't know, I wasn't there, but as I said the insert suggests "Little Girl" had primacy--not sure what the matrix you're referring to is.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 14:52 (twenty years ago)

I've bought the single at the time, was it a double a-side perhaps? "Running Away" was a bit rubbish, I bought it for "No-one's Little Girl"

― TS: Mick Ralphs vs. Ariel Bender (Dada), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the Mark Beer's been on a CD, with wider release coming soon.

I think "No One's . . . is the superior tune, but it wasn't regarded as the one with potential. The band may have seen it as a double a-side, but Rough Trade spent money promoting "Running Away." I like it's vaguely Chic feel - it's interesting to note that ex-Josef K singer Paul Haig released a version around the same time that went even further into a sort of robotic funk sound.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

Paul Haig's Running Away, which was a 12" and 7" on Crepuscule, is a totally HOT song.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:32 (twenty years ago)

Oh no I have an irresistible urge to get the "Furious Pig" 12" single...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 07:16 (twenty years ago)

RT024 The Feelies - "Fa Ce La"/"Raised Eyebrows"

These are very different (earlier) versions than the ones on Crazy Rhythms. Are they on CD? If so, what disc must I track down?

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 01:40 (twenty years ago)

RT058 GIST this is love / yanks
Neither song on CD.

both are on a long-since out of print gist cd that i own, on ryko uk

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 03:03 (twenty years ago)

no wait, i'm wrong--those aren't on the cd.

carry on.

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 03:04 (twenty years ago)

also the version of no one's little girl on the cd is different from the one on the 7"

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 03:06 (twenty years ago)

Is Mofungo's "El Salvador" on CD yet?

― thousands of tiny luminous spheres (plebian), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 03:09 (twenty years ago)

amateurist0, I just played the version from "Moving" alongside my rip of the 7" on my computer, switching back and forth between the two, and couldn't hear any difference between them, apart from a lack of high end on the vinyl rip (my equipment isn't so good). There's so much random stuff going on in that track that I'd think different versions would be pretty easy to spot.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 15:28 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

i am about to rip that raincoats single, mainly for running away. A popsong for the summer! I want it in muy computor! cant find the right cable though..

― jon person, Saturday, 20 May 2006 00:03 (twenty years ago)

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The Rough Trade first 100 singles - what's not on CD?