The Heartbreakers Definitive Box Set

Wow, this is very exciting! One of my favourite albums from 1977 getting the box set treatment!

 A 4-CD clam-shell box set with a 44-page booklet and 4 badges.
Includes the original 1977 Track LP restored, with the infamous ‘mud’ removed, plus 13 early demo tracks, including previously unreleased tracks with Richard Hell, and 21 alternative mixes from the epic 1977 mixing sessions at five London studios.

The Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Billy Rath and Jerry Nolan) were at the centre of the London punk scene in 1977, having been invited by the Sex Pistols onto the infamous ‘Anarchy Tour’.  UK punks treated the US band as rock royalty because of their New York Dolls pedigree.  Malcolm McLaren had briefly managed the Dolls in NY.

Signing to The Who’s label, Track Records, they were treated to the best recording studios in London to record their only album, ‘L.A.M.F.’.  But when the LP came out, there was universal criticism of the sound quality.  Journalists who’d been championing the band such as Jon Savage, Julie Burchill, Nick Kent, Tony Parsons et al criticised the ‘muddy mix’, and drummer Jerry Nolan left the band because of it.

Both Track and the Heartbreakers ran out of money and collapsed when the album didn’t sell to expectations.  Manager Leee Black Childers broke into the bankrupt Track offices to retrieve the multitracks and mixes (though not the master), leading to efforts to remix and recompile the album in ’84 and ‘94.   

This ‘definitive edition’ 4xCD box set at last restores the original LP, uncovers three early demo sessions from 1976 and 77, and presents a wide selection of the 200 mixes made at five different studios.  A 44-page booklet with recollections from guitarist Walter Lure, a detailed Heartbreakers timeline 1975-78, and an introduction by biographer Nina Antonia accompanies it, along with four punk pin-badges.

Disc 1:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the lost ’77 mixes’  
Recompiled in ‘94, as Johnny Thunders and the
Heartbreakers
Born To Lose, Baby Talk, All By Myself, I Wanna Be Loved, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Let Go, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, Do You Love Me.
 
Disc 2:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the Track LP restored’ 
As it was intended with the ‘mud’ removed.  
Born To Lose, Baby Talk, All By Myself, I Wanna Be Loved, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Let Go.
 
Disc 3:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the demo sessions’ 
Three sessions in ‘76 and ‘77, incl. with Richard Hell.
I Wanna Be Loved (mix 2), Pirate Love, Goin' Steady, Flight, Born To Lose, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, It's Not Enough, I Love You, Take A Chance, Do You Love Me, Let Go, Chinese Rocks, Born To Lose.
 
Disc 4:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the alternative mixes’ 
21 mixes from the sessions at 5 London studios
Born To Lose, Born To Lose, Baby Talk, Baby Talk, All By Myself, All By Myself, It's Not Enough, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Goin' Steady, Let Go, Let Go, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, Do You Love Me.

Get it at Amazon for a great price!