Long lost “second album” ‘Real’ is now available on streaming services. ‘Real’ includes the previously unreleased 12-inch version of ‘Berlin’, and what would have been its B-Side, ‘Rhythm Of The Real Thing’.
The cover artwork is from a 1983 photo by Paul Cox, reworked by Estuary English design house. Keen eyed fans may notice that while the original film stock included the brand name ILFORD FP4, this has been carefully tweaked for our sleeve, and now reads CROYDON CR7.
Here are the original tape boxes. The handwriting is that of engineer Phil Bodger. It actually tells us that ‘Berlin’ was going to be Polydor single POSP569, and the extended version was going to be POSPX569, so they got as far as allocating catalogue numbers.
The previously unreleased second album until USM found the original tapes for the album. All synths and stuff. Lovely.
Two other songs from the same era are in circulation – ‘Germany’ and ‘Goodnight Paris’ though they were not in the ‘Real’ plans. For years we carried this artwork, which was knocked together by freeworld from an uncredited photograph from the era. Since I’m still fond of it it can stay for now . . .
Will Kristy,s long unreeled album titled real from 1983 be released on a CD soon I hope would love to buy it on CD I own her others she is very missed a big fan from Canada much luv xo happy new year .
Hello Corinne,
Unfortunately, there are no plans for ‘Real’ as a standalone physical release, but the entire 10 track album is featured on the 8CD boxset called ‘See That Girl’ that was released in 2023.
Do you know if there is plans of a CD of her Real album .Or the best place for a down load
Many thanks
Hello Martin,
Currently, there are no plans for ‘Real’ as a standalone physical release, but the entire 10 track album is featured on the 8CD boxset called ‘See That Girl’. You can download the album, including the full length version of ‘Berlin’ and ‘Rhythm Of The Real Thing’ on sites like Amazon or 7Digital.
Pardon my ignorance but will this ever be released on vinyl? It’s fantastic.
I don’t know, but hope it will be released on vinyl one day.
I have been waiting for ‘Real’ to be released and listening to it in full for 14 years! I love it and it’s interesting to hear where Kirsty was musically 40 years ago.
Do we know the playing credits for the album at all please? The bass is very 1983 Paul Young, which makes me think Pino Palladino/Laurie Latham et al?
I would love to know myself who the Bass player is, it sounds to busy for Pino Paladino, but he was everything back in the day. If its not listed, you could probably email and ask him.
While it could be Pino, my first thought was Mick Karn, especially since the chorus of “Camel Crossing” is reminiscent of Japan. While he was busy in 1982 and 1984, it appears that he didn’t have a lot going on in between so he probably had time to play on Kirsty’s album. Also, the producer had a bit of a connection to Japan, if I’m looking at the correct Dave Jordan on Discogs. He co-produced the Immigrants album for Sandii and the Sunsetz which was released in 1982. David Sylvian contributed backing vocals for two songs and played synth on one of them. Another possible bass player is John Giblin. If someone was able to contact Jordan, maybe he could shed some light.
I suspect there are different musicians on different tracks on this album, depending on the sound KM was going for on each track. Alan Lee Shaw gives us the playing credits (in his book Damned If You Do) for the tracks “Germany” and “Goodnight Paris”, which were made in the period after “Desperate Character” and before “Real”, around the time of the promotion of “Chip Shop”. Alan Lee Shaw has told me that he was not involved in the later Real tracks (the ones on the 10 track LP), but Lu Edmonds has said that he was, and also Gavin Povey whose Oberheim OB-X can be heard on some of the tracks.
The playing credits can be gleaned by asking Lu Edmonds, Jools Holland, Pino Palladino, Dick Cuthell, Gavin Povey and other players on “Desperate Character” for their recollections.
This paragraph is taken from Alan Lee Shaw’s book “Damned If You Do”.
There was constant pressure from the record company to come up with a follow-up to Chip Shop. Kirsty decided if our project was going to work, she would have to call in some of her muso friends to record these songs proper for Frank and ultimately Polydor to hear. Kirsty did some ringing around and came up with musician friends Jools Holland and the drummer from OK Jive (whose name I’ve sadly forgotten) to go into rehearsals for our remaining 4 new songs. Jools had left Squeeze to form his band the Millionaires and had just acquired the talents of a young wiz kid bass player called Pino Palladino who had just won a jazz bass competition in his native Wales. So, Pino was brought on board for bass duties, a live rehearsal studio was booked near the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm where we took 5 days to rehearse and arranged the songs for recording, Jools driving Kirsty and me to and from rehearsals in his big old American classic car more often than not to the strains of big band sounds from the car cassette player (obviously a music and vision to come for him). Rehearsals went well and it was clear that Jools had a soft spot for Kirsty and her talent (who didn’t?) and all was on track for studio recording at Regents Park. Kirsty also brought in Lu Edmonds to add more guitar, our paths crossing again. Lu is a great and unique talent quirky and very interested in world music especially at the time Russian music. He was very interested in my interlude with the Russians and Alexi, crashing at my pad after our recording sessions. We were booked into Regents Park 24-track studios for a week and we proceeded to lay down the 4 songs co-written by Kirsty and me. The songs were entitled 1) Germany 2) Goodnight Paris 3) Don’t Ask Me 4) Shutting The Doors. Kirsty’s musical taste at this time was somewhat eclectic and moving away from the rocky Chip Shop sound of her hit, the songs we were recording had a much more world music vibe with a more rhythmic style that was to become more evident later on in her carrer with sonds like Walking Down Madison from her “Electric Landlady” album right up to her final record Tropical Brainstorm and her love for Latin America music. To add to the mix, and I think it may have been at Jools or Franks suggestion, she brought in Rico Rodriguez, the famous Reggae trombone player who had worked with Price Buster, and Trumpet player Dick Cuthell who were both working with the Members and the Specials at the time. Adding Rico and Dick gave the songs dance ability and a goodtime vibe. We all threw in ideas but it was Kirsty who was producing the finished product.
Wooohooo! Finally released! The album is fantastic.