THE BELLE STARS - The Belle Stars - 3CD THE BELLE STARS
3CD - Includes their debut album in full, singles and B-sides, plus 12” versions, remixes and unreleased tracks. Also features a 1983 live concert from Birmingham Odeon
Formed in 1980 from the ashes of 2 Tone’s The Bodysnatchers, seven-piece, all singing, all playing, all female combo, The Belle Stars, signed to the legendary Stiff Records label in 1981. Between 1982 and 1984, they enjoyed seven UK singles chart entries with the label, and their sole studio album also reached the UK Top 20.
Off to a roaring start with the monster hit, ‘Sign Of The Times’ – a UK No. 3 smash in early 1983 – The Belle Stars is a heady mix of percussive, post-punk shiny new pop.
The album brings together radically updated covers of classic R&B standards – ‘Iko Iko’, (a huge US hit after it was included in the film ‘Rain Main’) ‘The Snake’, ‘Harlem Shuffle’, ‘Mockingbird’, ‘Needle In A Haystack’ – with strong self-penned material, including the aforementioned ‘Sign Of The Times’ and breezy later single ‘Indian Summer’.
The 3CD edition includes their debut album in full, singles and B-sides, plus 12” versions, remixes and unreleased tracks. Also features a 1983 live concert from Birmingham Odeon
Track List
DISC ONE
THE BELLE STARS – THE ALBUM
1. Sign Of The Times
2. Ci Ya Ya
3. The Clapping Song
4. Indian Summer
5. Harlem Shuffle
6. The Reason
7. Iko Iko
8. Baby I’m Yours
9. Mockingbird
10. The Snake
11. Burning
12. Needle In A Haystack
THE NON-ALBUM SINGLES A- AND B-SIDES
13. Hiawatha
14. Big Blonde
15. Slick Trick
16. Take Another Look
17. Another Latin Love Song
18. Miss World
19. Stop Now
20. Having A Good Time
21. Blame
22. Turn Back The Clock
23. Madness
24. Sweet Memory
25. April Fool
DISC TWO
THE NON-ALBUM SINGLES A- AND B-SIDES (CONTINUED)
1. Sun Sun Sun
2. The Entertainer
3. The Spider
4. 80’s Romance
5. It’s Me
THE 12” SINGLES
6. Slick Trick [extended 12” mix]
7. Iko Iko [12” mix]
8. The Clapping Song [extended 12” mix]
9. Mockingbird [extended 12” mix]
10. Sign Of The Times [extended 12” remix]
11. Sweet Memory [extended 12” remix]
12. Indian Summer [extended 12” remix]
13. Sun Sun Sun [extended 12” remix]
14. The Entertainer [extended 12” version]
15. 80’s Romance [extended 12” version]
16. Iko Iko [Bonus Beats]
DISC THREE
LIVE SIGNS, LIVE TIMES: BIRMINGHAM ODEON, 29th APRIL 1983
1. Sweet Memory
2. That’s Life
3. The Snake
4. Mockingbird
5. Sun Sun Sun
6. Blame
7. April Fool
8. The Entertainer
9. Sign Of The Times
10. Baby I’m Yours
11. Madness
12. Slick Trick
13. Crime Of Passion
14. Ci Ya Ya
15. Indian Summer
16. The Reason
17. Burning
18. The Clapping Song
BONUS TRACKS
Previously unreleased tracks produced by Anne Dudley
19. Crime Of Passion
20. Is This The Night?
21. Cool Disguise