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Dead Quiet 180g Vinyl Pressed At RTI!
Double 45rpm LPs For Extreme Sound Quality!
100% Analog Mastering From The Original Master Tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio!
45th Anniversary Edition! Authentic Gatefold & Book!
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Intervention Records is thrilled to announce the next LP in its (Re)Discover Series, the Artist-Approved 45th Anniversary Edition of Murray Head's 1972 classic Nigel Lived. Nigel will be released on 45rpm 180-gram vinyl.
Nigel Lived is a groundbreaking classic and one of the boldest, most inventive albums of all time. Recorded by the great recording engineer Phill Brown, Nigel Lived hearkens back to the golden era of all-analog recording, a sonic and musical masterpiece that every music lover and audiophile simply must have.
In Spring of 1972 Murray Head was just 25, coming off amazing success on the stage and screen, when he recorded his debut album, Nigel Lived. And Nigel isn't just any album, it's an ambitious, experimental album full of great songs that required stunningly diverse recording techniques and instrumentation on every track. There are beautiful acoustic works that draw a straight line to Murray's later albums like "Ruthie" and "When You Wake Up In The Morning," there are straight-up rockers and amazingly innovative tracks like "Religion" and the sprawling "Junk."
Nigel's story arc unfolds as a three-act play in which Nigel leaves a small town for the big city, finds love and success before crashing into addiction and despair. The background locations, characters and scenes change sonically throughout as Nigel was a adventurous & pioneering effort in blending studio recording with an incredible array of location recordings captured all over London's West End.
In the same way that films today operate on the "found footage" motif, Murray's ahead-of-its-time conceptual treatment for Nigel consisted of hand writing a "diary" for Nigel that was then "found" by Murray, who put Nigel's life to song. It's a brilliant narrative tool that allowed Murray to weave aspects of his own rich experiences in the whirlwind of late 60s London into the songs. Murray saw great success, making a splash on stage in Hair and on-screen in films like The Family Way and John Schlesinger's avant-garde Sunday Bloody Sunday. And he saw the depths working in a drug-addiction clinic and watching friends disappear into and eventually succumb to heroin.
Nigel Lived is driven by Murray's tremendous energy, and the songs are witty, intense, achingly beautiful and exceptionally well-recorded.
IR's 45rpm Double-LP set is packaged in a beautiful film-laminated gatefold with an amazing reproduction of the 8-page book from the original LP release that represents the fictional Nigel's diary.
Nigel Lived was mastered 100% analog by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio from recording engineer Phill Brown's original master tapes. The sound quality on these tapes is a revelation, with deep but tuneful bass, sweet highs, gorgeous vocals and VERY WIDE dynamics! Murray and the musicians put so many fascinating sounds and textures down, and the tapes are simply stunning!
Intervention early on decided that Nigel's re-release had to be a Double-LP set at 45rpm to preserve the magnificent sonics Murray, Phill and Co. put on tape and make the best-sounding Nigel possible. Nigel's original vinyl release was very challenging to cut as a single 33rpm LP with side 1 at over 22 minutes and side 2 at nearly 27 minutes of run time! There's no doubt, especially on side 2, that levels had to be dropped and the bass had to be filtered on the original LP. Our 45rpm cuts required no sonic compromises of any kind, so people can hear Nigel at its absolute best for the very first time on his 45th birthday!
Nigel's original LP art has been restored by IR's Tom Vadakan. The old-style, "tip-on" LP jacket and 8-page book are printed by Stoughton.
Features:
• 4th Anniversary Edition
• Artist-Approved Release
• Dead Quiet 180g Vinyl Pressed At RTI
• Double 45rpm LPs For Extreme Sound Quality
• 100% Analog Mastering From The Original Master Tapes!
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Exquisitely Restored Old Style "Tip On" Gatefold Jacket printed by Stoughton on Heavy Stock
• Authentic 8-Page Book glued into gatefold jacket
Selections:
LP 1 (Success):
Side 1:
1. Pacing On The Station
2. Big City
3. Bed & Breakfast
Side 2:
1. The Party
2. Ruthie
3. City Scurry
4. When You Wake Up In The Morning
LP 2 (Failure):
Side 3:
1. Why Do We Have To Hurt Our Heads?
2. Pity The Poor Consumer
3. Dole
4. Nigel, Nigel
5. Miss Illusion
Side 4:
1. Religion
2. Junk
