London Records are to reissue Flowered Up’s debut album ‘A Life With Brian’ for the first time since its original release in 1991, newly remastered and available on double LP & CD, extended digital and limited coloured double LP on April 19th.
We have copies available to pre-order via our Heavenly Recordings Bandcamp store.
• LIMITED DOUBLE ORANGE & PURPLE LP • DOUBLE BLACK VINYL LP • DOUBLE CD •
All pre-orders include an instant download of Everyone We Know’s contemporary take on ‘Crackerjack.’ Although not available separately all of the album and bonus tracks will appear in your Bandcamp purchases library on the morning of release.
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Including new sleeve notes by Heavenly’s Robin Turner, the reissue adds their seminal 1992 single ‘Weekender’ to the album package plus a host of previously unreleased tracks and remixes, including newly commissioned remixes by Everyone You Know and Beyond The Wizards Sleeve.
Emerging out of the Capital’s now legendary Acid House scene, Flowered Up, one of the very first signings to the nascent Heavenly Recordings, were heralded as London’s answer to the Happy Mondays and were so hot that they made the cover of both NME and Melody Maker before they’d even released a record. The ten tracks on ‘A Life With Brian’ represent a snapshot of a band who perfectly reflected their environment – the London streets they grew up on and the clubs they came of age in.
Released, on Heavenly, the following Summer, Flowered Up’s Clive Langer-produced thirteen minute masterpiece ‘Weekender’ is included on the album package for the very first time. The single was accompanied by a ground-breaking short film directed by Wiz, whose raw depiction of a weekend of clubbing is perhaps the single greatest document of early 90s rave culture and was the subject of the acclaimed 2022 Heavenly Films documentary ‘I Am Weekender’.
The album remastering was overseen by Flowered Up keyboard player Tim Dorney, and ‘A Life With Brian’ now sounds the way the band always wanted it to sound. “Modern mastering techniques have made it sound so much better,” explains Tim. “We went through the original 1/2-inch tape track by track and using a mix of modern software and some classic analogue pieces, we made it louder, wider and punchier all round.”
Sounding better than ever, this comprehensive reissue of ‘A Life With Brian’ offers a fresh perspective into the frenziedly exciting, all too brief musical career of Flowered Up. Although they started out playing at acid house clubs, they were very much a rock’n’roll band. A gang who embodied the spirit of their times, stepping from the darker corners of the dance floor onto the stage in a seamless transition from working the cash economy to soundtracking the very highest points of the night. Sing it loud: “let me touch the world / I’ll make it good, I’ll make it fine.”