Ordinary Man - Goodbye America (1987)

Apparently, I'm the only internet fan of late 80's pop group This Other Eden. Over the last couple of years I've managed to post all three of their singles for A&M, while the remaining tracks from the long lost Freewill album presumably remain locked in the A&M vaults (about time for an iTunes release at least, surely?)

I was intrigued last year by a brief comment I received in an email from Chris Thow, who formed the band with Mike Perry. He mentioned that they had previously released a single for EMI called "Goodbye America" and toured with Go West. I had never heard of this and began to dig around.

I discovered this single by Ordinary Man which was released in 1987 and I had to wait until I tracked down a copy before I could confirm it was the single Chris had referred to. Indeed it was!

Another couple of great tracks.

Ordinary Man - (I Can't Believe It's Come To This) Goodbye America
Ordinary Man - Under Pressure

Even More from This Other Eden

Regular readers will know I'm a big fan of the obscure British pop group This Other Eden, and last time I pondered what their unreleased album Freewill might have been like.

I've since been in contact with Chris Thow, who was in the band with Mike Perry, and he was kind enough to send me a couple of tracks and some more information.

The Freewill sessions were recorded near Taunton at a studio owned by Annabel Lamb. The following tracks would have been on the album:

Man's World / Black / Mama's In Love / Face of an Angel / Freewill / Ordinary Man / Wake Me Now / All Fools Day / Take A Leaf From My Book / Teach Me To Cry

In addition another track "The Word" would have been a bonus track on the compact disc version.

This leaves a further six tracks which were used as B-Sides. These are:

Heaven / Question of Love / Heart to Heart / Sweet Wine / Angels Tell Lies / Mama's In Love (Live Acoustic Version)

I've featured the singles Man's World and Teach Me To Cry previously. Here's the 12" Single of Face of an Angel, which I think was the second single released.



This Other Eden - Face of an Angel (1989)

Face of an Angel
Heart to Heart
The Word

[UPDATE] Well, it took a few years, but I finally got a copy of the album from Niall Power, who played drums for the group. The track list was slightly different, as follows:

Man's World / Face Of An Angel / Black / All Fools Day / Ordinary Man / Wake Me Now / Freewill / Take A Leaf (From My Book / Mama's In Love / The Good Old Boys

Chris and Mike have been performing gigs since 2014 under the name The Blue Amen and you can find clips and info via their Facebook page and Soundcloud. Great stuff!!

Niall has also sent me a bunch of photos from some of his gigs. Great bloke.

The Continuing Saga of This Other Eden

Long time readers may or may not remember that I did a post on the pop band This Other Eden last year. At the time I commented on their first single "Man's World". One of the particular motivations I had for buying a turntable was the prospect of finally being able to hear the second and third single releases by the band. In all, I believe 10 tracks have been commercially available.

This time I am featuring the third single "Teach Me To Cry". While that song is perfectly fine, I must say I enjoyed the flip side "Heaven" even more (which is why I included it on my Super Rare compilation earlier today).

The songs are written by Chris Thow and Mike Perry, with Phil Brown co-producing, engineering and mixing the tracks.

Probably the reason why I have become a little obsessed with the mystique of this band is the tantalizing prospect of the full album, Freewill, which was assigned a catalog number (AMA 9010) but which was never released. I got in touch via e-mail with Rob Levy, who played bass on the album sessions. According to the record sleeves the three singles "Man's World", "Face of An Angel" and "Teach Me To Cry" would have been on the album, and a track called "The Word" would have been a bonus track on the CD album only. Given the quality of B-Sides such as "Heaven" and "Angels Tell Lies" (which would not have been on the album), I can only imagine what musical masterpieces were left unreleased and unknown.

I'll post the other single "Face of An Angel" and its B-Sides soon.

This Other Eden - Teach Me To Cry (1989)

1. Teach Me To Cry
2. Heaven

This Other Eden - Man's World (1989)

Don't know much about This Other Eden, to be honest. The group released three singles between 1988 - 1989 and were due to release an album called Freewill on A&M records that was never released.

I'm not sure why they didn't have any hits, they had a good sound and some quality songs.

I just have one CD single - if anyone out there has any of the others please let me know, it would be great to hear them.

This Other Eden - Man's World (1989)

1. Man's World
2. Angels Tell Lies
3. Question of Love
4. Mamma's In Love (Acoustic)

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