Earl Brutus have announced details of reissues of their two albums, 1996’s Your Majesty…We Are Here and 1998’s Tonight You Are The Special One. Above, you can check out a B-side from the Tonight You Are The Special One-era in the form of ‘Superstar’ which features on disc two of that album’s reissue.
Both albums will be available on vinyl and in double CD packages with extra rarities and previously unreleased tracks. Both have also been updated with extensive liner notes and this release marks the first time Tonight You Are The Special One has been available on vinyl.
Of the track above, Jim Fry says: "’Superstar’ is a lost Brutus classic. We knew it was special at the time and would regret never playing it live. Recorded in the space of a couple of hours and very much a team effort, it marries Rob’s dub echo loops with Nick’s storming drums (and even some Timpani).
"The song is loosely based on the vile chocolate brown Austin Allegro that Gordon King was driving at the time, second hand, low mileage and it smelt of old man. The words were cut up from the manual he left lying around in the studio. Nick sings the hook and named it ‘Superstar’ (perhaps after his beloved Carpenters song)."
Establishing themselves as cult favourite through the 1990s, the band played live sporadically into the 21st century with their last show taking place in 2004 at a fundraiser for Ken Livingstone at Hammersmith Working Men’s Club. A third album, entitled Victorian Wanking Machine, had been in the early stages of planning before the death of lead singer Nick Sanderson to cancer in June of 2008.
"“I’m so proud to have been part of that group,” says Jim Fry. “I don’t think it ever would have died. We were taking time off when Nick got ill… I think with Nick, we would have been in a group together by now. I think we would have been more riotous. I think it would have been called Earl Brutus.” The reissued albums will be available through 3 Loop Music on January 15.
