Virgins and Philistines

Virgins and Philistines is the debut album by British new wave band The Colourfield.

Virgins and Philistines
Studio album by
The Colourfield
ReleasedApril 1985
RecordedStrawberry Studios, Stockport, 1984-1985
GenreNew wave, rock, alternative rock
Length43:58 (North America LP version)
LabelChrysalis
ProducerHugh Jones, Jeremy Green
The Colourfield chronology
Waiting
by Fun Boy Three
(1983)		 Virgins and Philistines
(1985)		 The Colour Field
(1986)
Singles from Virgins and Philistines
  1. "Take" b/w "Pushing Up The Daisies"
    Released: July 1984
  2. "Thinking of You" b/w "My Wild Flame"
    Released: January 1985
  3. "Castles in the Air" b/w "Your Love Was Smashing"
    Released: April 1985
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Overview

Virgins and Philistines failed to gain a large audience due to difficulty in marketing an album with such a diverse sound—it mixes 1960s and early 1970s pop music with more acoustic based melodies and string arrangements. The album is often regarded as the direct musical predecessor to the later work of The Lightning Seeds in the 1990s, with whom singer Terry Hall would later collaborate in a songwriting role whilst providing occasional vocals.

Virgins and Philistines contained all original material except "The Hammond Song" (a cover of The Roches song), and "Can’t Get Enough of You Baby" (written by Linzer/Randell), which was the only track that received much airplay. The album was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport (near Manchester) and was produced by Hugh Jones and Jeremy Green, and engineered by Chris Jones.

Additional personnel featured on the album included Pete de Freitas (Echo & the Bunnymen) on drums, Paul Burgess (ex-Camel, also drums), Preston Heyman (percussion), Ian Nelson (clarinet), and Katrina Phillips (background vocals).

Release

Virgins and Philistines was released in April 1985 over a year after the group's first release. It charted at #12[2] on the UK Albums Chart and #28[3] on the New Zealand Album chart. It was preceded by three singles. The first, "Take", did not chart as highly as their début and only made #70[2] in the UK. The second single, "Thinking of You", was much better received and returned Hall to the top forty in the UK and Ireland, reaching #12[2] and #11[4] respectively. "Castles in the Air" was the final single and directly preceded the album, but it only managed #51.[2]

The album was released in the US with different track listing including the band's self-titled début single. It also added the B-sides "I Can't Get Enough of You Baby", "Pushing Up the Daisies" and "Your Love Was Smashing". "Armchair Theatre" and "Yours Sincerely" were not included, but were later released in the US on the EP; The Colour Field.

The album was released in Canada with the same track order as the US release. Faint Hearts is a shorter 3:58 minute version that excludes the 20 second slow vocal introduction. Another notable difference is the song titles: "I Can't Get Enough of You Baby" appears as "Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" and "The Colour Field" is listed as "The Colourfield".

In 1999, the album was re-released in Japan with twenty tracks, including all of the songs on the UK and US versions of the album plus all of the singles, B-Sides and remixes that were released before and immediately after the original release of Virgins And Philistines.

In 2010, the album was reissued once again, this new version was released by Cherry Red and it included most of the bonus tracks of the 1999 version.

Track listing
  • All tracks written by Terry Hall and Toby Lyons, except as indicated.
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Thinking of You"3:32
2."Faint Hearts"4:20
3."Castles In The Air"3:43
4."Take"4:09
5."Cruel Circus"4:02
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Hammond Song" (Written by Margaret Roche)4:29
7."Virgins and Philistines"3:56
8."Yours Sincerely"3:41
9."Armchair Theatre"5:02
10."Sorry"3:19
Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."The Colour Field"2:55
12."Windmills of Your Mind" (Written-By Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand)3:00
13."Pushing Up the Daisies"4:06
14."Thinking of You (Singalong Version)"3:31
15."My Wild Flame"4:20
16."Little Things" (Written by Bobby Goldsboro)2:31
17."Castles in the Air (Extended Version)"5:06
18."Your Love Was Smashing" (Written by Terry Hall, Toby Lyons and Karl Shale)3:55
19."I Can't Get Enough of You Baby" (Written By Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer)2:21
20."Things Could Be So Beautiful"3:24

US version
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."I Can't Get Enough of You Baby" (Written By Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer)2:21
2."Pushing Up the Daisies"4:06
3."Faint Hearts"4:20
4."Castles In The Air"3:43
5."Take"4:09
6."Thinking of You"3:32
Side two
No.TitleLength
7."The Colour Field"2:55
8."Cruel Circus"4:02
9."Hammond Song" (Written by Margaret Roche)4:29
10."Your Love Was Smashing" (Written by Terry Hall, Toby Lyons and Karl Shale)3:55
11."Virgins and Philistines"3:56
12."Sorry"3:19

Personnel
  • Terry Hall - all instruments and voices
  • Toby Lyons - all instruments and voices
  • Karl Shale - all instruments and voices
Additional musicians

References
  1. Sutton, Michael. Review: Virgins and Philistines. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-04-12.
  2. "The Official Charts Company - The Colour Field". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  3. "charts.nz - Discography The Colourfield". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  4. "The Irish Charts". IRMA 2006 - 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
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