In 1982 Visage released a 'Fade To Grey - The Best Of . . " vinyl & cassette that showcased a number of singles as well as some of their best loved songs from the previous two albums 'Visage' & 'The Anvil'.  This has been re-released at least twice, the second time with the addition of a 90's remix of Fade To Grey.

What has never been re-released is the very limited edition 'Special Dance Mix' version of the 'Best Of . . .' album (POLDS 5117).  In the UK this was a limited edition and in other territories it was a promo-only release.  It's very hard to get hold and over the last 24 years I have only physically seen 3 copies: one owned by a friend that was scratched to bits (mainly because he played it on constant repeat on his cheap Amstrad 'hi-fi' - I use the term loosely!) and two that I've managed to acquire.  However, none of the copies that I know of are in good condition and all require a lot of work to make them listenable.  In doing so, the spark of the recordings was lost.  So, being a bit of a nerd about these things I was getting a bit frustrated and eventually decided to make my own version - and here it is.

Now, a couple of the mixes on the 'Special Dance Mix' are pretty much unique to that release.  Night Train, in particular is a combination of the Extended Dance Mix version & Dub Version.  This was just too difficult to recreate!

To sum up: in lieue of a proper re-release of the album (which I can never see happening), I'm releasing this: capturing as closely as possible the feeling of the original & in some cases even copying the mistakes the original producer made.

Original Tracklisting (and my changes):

Side 1
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1. Fade To Grey (Dance Mix) - sourced from CD
2. Mind of a Toy (Dance Mix) - sourced from CD & CD-Video
3. Visage (Dance Mix) - sourced from 12" vinyl
4. We Move (1983 Remix) - sourced from CD
5. Tar (single version) - not available & sourced from CD version instead
6. Der Amboss (slightly remixed edit) - sourced from CD

Side 2
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1. In The Year 2525 (original 1978 mix) - sourced from CD
2. The Anvil (a unique remix of the original Dance Mix) - not available & sourced from 12" vinyl instead
3. Night Train (a unique remix made up of parts the Dance and Dub mixes) - defo not available & used 12" Dub version instead
4. Pleasure Boys - sourced from CD
5. Damned Don't Cry (Dance Mix) - sourced from vinyl


All interspersed with various cuts/edits & clips from the original that I was too lazy to try & replicate. All 'CD' sources are original, not CDs made from vinyl/MP3/etc.  Due to the variety of sources quality inevitably varies but I've tried to match them up as far as possible.

Should anyone have a really good vinyl copy out there & would like to share it . . . . . you know where to come!


AWS

alonewithstrangers@gmail.com