After reading the excellent piece on Andy Bell in The Guardian the other day I thought I would dig out the first Erasure album I owned. I had The Two Ring Circus on tape back in 1987 and was fascinated by it.
For those unfamiliar, this album it is made up of three parts; 6 remixes from their previous album The Circus, 3 orchestral re-recordings including 1 song from their first album Wonderland and 7 live tracks recorded in Hamburg called ‘The Touring Circus’ which was a mix of all the above plus a cover of ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ by ABBA.
I always thought that as the album was in three parts it should have been called The Three Ring Circus, but what do I know? Anyway this version definitely only has a pair of rings; the remixes and the orchestral…no space for the live goodness.
Remastered on two 45rpm yellow discs, this version of the album was released for Record Store Day 2018 and sounds absolutely cracking. Just a pity the live performance never made the cut.
Tracks To Try: ‘Sometimes - Erasure/Flood Mix’, ‘Leave Me To Bleed - Vince Clarke/Eric Radcliffe Mix’, ‘Don’t Dance - Daniel Miller/Flood Mix’, ‘My Heart…So Blue - Orchestral Arrangement’