The Single File

[Dave Armstrong <8548222@wwu.EDU>]

I am reprinting a letter I received from IED the other day after I
asked for information on the _The Single File_ video and box set.
Like everything IED writes I found it very informative and thought
others would be interested.

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 To: Dave Armstrong <8548222@WWU.EDU>
 Subject: Re: The Single File
 From: Andy Marvick (IED)

     It sounds like a legitimate release to me. Cello Video must
be a small independent U.S. company that saw a gap in the market
and had a good sense of timing, bought a limited-time rights
deal for distribution of the _TSF_ programme in the U.S. from
Picture Music International (which wasnt' even thinking of
releasing it here itself), and put it out when the iron was
still hot (or lukewarm, anyway) from _TSW_. It makes sense.
And they do give full credit to Novercia, Ltd., etc. on the
box. Also, the programme is identical to the original, and
the picture quality is, you say, excellent. So why not legitimate?
     The fact that the title is incorrect is proof only that
this is a typically shoddy piece of American product! I can't
begin to count the number of times reviewers and fans alike have
mistitled _The_Single_File_ as "_The_Singles_File_" (showing that
most people completely overlooked the intended play on the expression
"to march in single file", which IED thought was pretty clever of
Kate in the first place), so it's not surprising to me that Cello
would make the same error when re-packaging the collection.
     You ask about the boxed set of thirteen singles which came out at
about the same time as the original video collection, and which was
called _The_Single_File:_1978-1983_. It came in a seven-inch-single-
size cardboard box with a green-tinted black-and-white photo all
over the outside showing the ivy close-up from the back of _The_Dreaming_
LP cover. The title was embossed in gold letters. Very nice outside.
There was a small color photo-booklet included, which had the lyrics to
all the songs. The selection of songs in the boxed set were not the
same as the video collection, because not all the singles' a-sides
_had_ official videos to go with them. The singles all used virtual
reproductions of the original singles' UK picture-sleeves, but the
paper they were packaged in was flimsier than the card-paper
sleeves of the original releases, and the mixes on the singles
themselves were (where there was a difference) the LP mixes, rather
than the original single mixes. The singles were:

Wuthering Heights/Kite
The Man With the Child in His Eyes/Moving
Hammer Horror/Coffee Homeground
Wow/Full House
On Stage (the four-track EP, in the gatefold sleeve, featuring:
     Them Heavy People, Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake,
     James and the Cold Gun, and L'Amour Looks Something Like You)
Breathing/The Empty Bullring
Babooshka/Ran Tan Waltz
Army Dreamers/Delius/Passing Through Air
December Will Be Magic Again/Warm and Soothing
Sat In Your Lap/Lord of the Reedy River
The Dreaming/Dreamtime (instrumental of The Dreaming)
There Goes a Tenner/Ne T'enfuis pas (original mix)
Ne T'enfuis Pas/Un Baiser d'enfant (France--only release)

     The last four singles were original editions, because original
production runs on these had not yet ended, so it wasn't necessary
to re-do them in new pressings.

-- Andy
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I recently saw a sealed British copy of the _The Single File_ for sale
in Goldmine.  The price?  Only $175.

-- David