Band of Georges: halfway done

Halfway! Yes, half of the Band of Georges songs have now been released to SoundCloud. There are ten cassettes, and the first five are all fully released, for your entertainment, amusement and listening pleasure. So we are therefore at the halfway point of this project.

The Band of Georges recordings were made in 1986 and 1987 using a Tascam 244. This device was a 4-track cassette portastudio, and the best such thing available in 1986.

George had written around 250 or so songs and wanted to try to bring them to actualisation, by recording them so that they could be heard. It was quite the project at the time, due to there being so many songs. He felt that the songs were no good sitting on bits of paper in a folder. After organising them and choosing not to record the ones he liked the least, he set about the business with determination.

It has been fascinating to hear these songs. George had always said that these songs were all dreadful and the sound was horrible, but we think that is utter nonsense. A lot of the songs are really good and the overall production is pretty decent as well, especially considering the limitations of the technology some forty years ago.

For reasons of authenticity, we have simply digitised the recordings from their original cassette masters and then normalised the sound to 0dB. There is no enhancement of any sort. The cassettes have stood the test of time extraordinarily well.

Each master cassette has been uploaded as two separate albums – an A side and a B side. So far there are ten such albums – five cassettes, each with two sides. Songs were compiled chronologically, and we have kept them in the same order.

Once all of the Band of Georges songs have been released, we will have some completely new material to bring you. We are hoping that during this period of releasing Band of Georges material, a number of other songs will be finished and ready to go. At the halfway stage, we can safely say that it’s looking promising.

Something that has surprised all of us here at Wud Records is how popular some of the songs have become, especially those that were never previously heard, and never performed by any band. We are looking forward to further such surprises.

It will take a couple more months to release the rest of the Band of Georges material at the current rate.

There are two additional compilations also released. The Flashback EP has the three parts of Flashback all together in one place, something George says has never happened before. The other is Песня За, which has been separated into its four parts for the EP and the full-length version left whole for the album version. More compilations are planned to be added as more songs are released.

The halfway point also marks the 100th song of George to be released, At One. As from a little later today, we shall start to release the songs from Volume VI Side A.

The first five cassettes of the Band of Georges cover the period from December 1981 to July 1985. You can listen to each here at the Wud Records website by clicking on the album below:

Volume I Side A – December 1981 to July 1982.
Volume I Side B – July 1982 to December 1982.
Volume II Side A – November 1982 to December 1982.
Volume II Side B – January 1983.
Volume III Side A – January 1983 to April 1983.
Volume III Side B – April 1983 to December 1983.
Volume IV Side A – January 1984 to October 1984.
Volume IV Side B – November 1984 to April 1985.
Volume V Side A – April 1985 to May 1985.
Volume V Side B – May 1985 to July 1985.

Please remember that George’s comments, memories and descriptions of each song are exclusive to the Band of Georges page at Wud Records. Each song’s page at SoundCloud also has notes, but these are written by Sam and are different.

Please feel free to read both! The SoundCloud pages are given in the links below:

Volume I Side A – December 1981 to July 1982.
Volume I Side B – July 1982 to December 1982.
Volume II Side A – November 1982 to December 1982.
Volume II Side B – January 1983.
Volume III Side A – January 1983 to April 1983.
Volume III Side B – April 1983 to December 1983.
Volume IV Side A – January 1984 to October 1984.
Volume IV Side B – November 1984 to April 1985.
Volume V Side A – April 1985 to May 1985.
Volume V Side B – May 1985 to July 1985.