Colin Newman – A – Z
Colin Newman’s 3 classic early 80’s solo albums A-Z, provisionally entitled the singing fish & Not To originally released on Beggars Banquet / 4AD re-released on his own new imprint Sentient Sonics.
VINYL – unavailable for many years—remastered original albums on single vinyls.
The Original 3 albums
These albums were recorded and released between 1980 & 1982 in a “post 154” rush of activity. While all the albums bear the name Colin Newman they differ in that A-Z & Not To were recorded as “band” albums with Colin being joined by Wire’s Robert Grey, Mike Thorne (who also produced, as he had the first 3 Wire albums) & Desmond Simmons on A-Z and Robert, Desmond & Simon Gillham on Not To. provisionally entitled the singing fish was more an “actual” solo album in that everything was played by himself. Colin produced the latter 2 albums with Steve Parker engineering.
The 2nd discs (included only with the CD versions)
A–Z (disc 2), tracks 1–9 were recorded at Riverside Recordings, Chiswick, by Robert, Desmond and Colin on the same sessions as Robert and Colin’s contributions to the additional 7” given away with Wire’s 154. Track 10 is Mike and Colin playing the studio piano at the studio where A–Z was mixed, and 11 was recorded on the A–Z sessions. Both were on the flip side of the single “B”. Tracks 12–17 were recorded solo in Colin’s flat in West Norwood.