China Crisis emerged from the post-Eric's Club scene in Liverpool.
Originally signed to the Inevitable label they established themselves as capable
songwriters, crafting intelligent yet accessible pop tunes. This later led to
chart success when the signed to the Virgin label with top twenty hits such as
Black Man Ray and Christian. Their biggest success was with Wishful Thinking which
reached No. 9 in the UK charts in 1984.
This album was recorded live at the Neptune Theatre in Liverpool and features live versions of many of their well-known songs.
The idea of the performance was to recreate many of the band's classic songs
acoustically and, as the sleeve notes state gave the band the "opportunity
to dispel all the 'electronic 80's pop duo shit'".
The performance was also filmed and a video was commercially released capturing
the live show.
The songs were mixed by Paul Humphreys at a North Wales studio and Paul also
co-edited the tracks at a studio in California.
This live version of Black Man Ray was also released on the Telegraph label
as a single backed with Here Come A Raincloud (on which Peter Coyle appears as
guest singer, although that track doesn't appear on this album). The original
version of Black Man Ray was released in 1985 and reached No. 14 in the UK charts.
China Crisis were in the midst of recording a studio album for the Telegraph
label scheduled for release in 1996, by which time the label had folded.
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