Talks are underway regarding a US release for the Peel Sessions album.

Meanwhile, the Peel Sessions continue to gather reviews: Q Magazine comment that "the simple pop appeal of their early stuff is undeniable and Messages, Enola Gay and Genetic Engineering just about make up for the absence of Joan Of Arc, Maid Of Orleans and Telegraph". Singles? Mmm, perhaps Q have misinterpreted the actual purpose of the Peel Sessions (and why Electricity was never used in the sessions). Reviewer John Harris also points out Joy Division's influence, although OMD "never had their gravitas". Someone send that man a copy of Organisation now! ;-)

One thing you'll notice when you get hold of a copy of the OMD Peel Sessions CD is a bizarre spelling mistake. Pretending To See The Future has been retitled Pretending To See The Light not just once, but twice on the CD. Perhaps it was some ironic prank carried out by the designers - at least they spelt Red Frame/White Light correctly ;-). Thanks to Colin Caulfield who pointed this out.

The May issue of Record Collector magazine features a review of the Peel Sessions album. Reviewer Martin O'Gorman makes some interesting points: "There early versions are in some ways more appealing than the polished album recordings - you can almost hear those monstrous old synths overheating as they struggle with the melodies". He also notes that Red Frame/White Light could easily have fitted onto side 2 of Kraftwerk's Radioactivity album. Unfortunately, the review falls down with the obligatory critical comments on Dazzle Ships. Disregard the comment that Genetic Engineering sounds identical to its LP counterpart. In fact Genetic Engineering sounds awesome with, as I pointed out in the sleeve notes, "a more robust and percussive version of Dazzle Ships' debut single".

Record Collector also lists the promo release of the Peel Sessions at No. 7 in their promo charts and the magazine also features a full page ad for the album.

The OMD Peel Sessions album has been reviewed on the BBC's Ceefax pages (Page 564). The review's verdict on the songs is that "they still sound fantastic" and "Old favourites like Enola Gay have stood the test of time well". Encouraging comments.

Many thanks for the continuing Peel Sessions orders. We'll do our best to get them processed as quickly as possible. We've had a few other queries which, for the benefit of others, we'll answer here:

I'd like a signed copy of the album. Can I just wait until your e-commerce system comes on-line before ordering ?

You may be waiting a long time(!). We weren't happy with the proposed system we were looking at. Online trading is a very expensive, very complicated business and we want to examine more options before committing ourselves.I've ordered the Peel Sessions via the website but I'm worried that I won't get a signed copy.

All those people who have ordered the album so far will be receiving signed copies. We can't guarantee that, in the future, every copy of the album ordered via the website will be signed, but we can appreciate that people would prefer signed copies and we're going to do our best to accomodate as many as possible. Can I send you an order for the album by post with my credit card details?

Sorry, but we cannot process *any* credit cards at this point in time.

The Peel Sessions is being released simultaneously in Belgium as well as the UK on April 24th. Although nothing is confirmed, Andy may well be popping over to do some publicity for the album in Belgium.

Update on the Peel Sessions album: It now looks likely that the Factory version of Electricity (as featured on the band's debut single) will be added as the extra track, edging out The Id's version of Electricity due to the latter's poor recording quality.

Anyone who feels they'll be missing out on the unheard Id version shouldn't be too disheartened though: We're looking into featuring the track on the website as a downloadable MP3 file.

Virgin are also worried about various legal aspects of using the Factory version of Electricity and their legal team have to look into this as a matter of course (despite the fact that Factory's policy at the time was no contracts and the rights reverted to the artist).

These late changes have, however, pushed back the release date for the Peel Sessions to 24th April.

Following the news that the Peel Sessions would now not have any enhanced features in the form of video footage, interesting things have been developing. ..

One thing that was odd about the Peel Sessions was the fact that OMD never recorded a version of Electricity. This was due to the fact that the band wanted to showcase new material, rather than just perform what was, at the time, an available single.

Andy has dug out a copy of a recording session by The Id. This includes an early version of Electricity featuring Andy sharing the vocals with John Floyd. The tape also features Julia's Song with Julia Kneale on lead vocals as well as some other compositions by The Id including Berlin, Yugoslavia and some songs that have never been previously mentioned. Both Electricity and Julia's Song are somewhat different from the later OMD versions as they feature different intros and some changes to the song arrangements.

The plan, at this point, is to assess if the sound quality of the recording is good enough to include the version of Electricty on the Peel Sessions CD as a bonus track. If the recording isn't up to scratch then Andy and Virgin are looking at including the Factory version of Electricity.

The Peel Sessions have been rescheduled for a March 27th release date, although it looks more likely that an early April release will be the case.

The album will also be retailed as mid-price.

More on the Peel Sessions: Virgin have now decided against an enhanced CD. The reason for this rethink is unclear but it now means there won't be any extra video features included with the album. The CD will feature a 4-page colour booklet with session recording/broadcast details (as featured on this very page earlier) and contact details for the OMD Website. No actual images of the artwork as yet but Virgin say the sleeve design will be mirrored on the inner tray with "text running vertically down left hand side" while the back will feature the track listing against a red or black background.

Following on from our item on the forthcomingPeel Sessions, and as posted up previously, here's the track listing for the album. We've also included details on when the sessions were recorded and first broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

1. Session 1: (Recorded 20.08.79. First broadcast 03.09.79)
   1. Bunker Soldiers
   2. Julia's Song
   3. Messages
   4. Red Frame/White Light

2. Session 2: (Recorded 14.04.80. First broadcast 21.04.80)
   5. Motion & Heart
   6. Dancing
   7. Pretending To See The Future
   8. Enola Gay

3. Session 3: (Recorded 29.09.80. First broadcast 06.10.80)
   9. The More I See You
   10. The Misunderstanding
   11. Annex

4. Session 4: (Recorded 29.01.83. First broadcast 21.02.83)
   12. ABC Auto Industry
   13. Genetic Engineering
   14. Of All The Things We've Made

The only track not to be included is a second version of Bunker Soldiers taken from the 1983 session.