Spiritualized

don't feel so guilty, jason was never guilty sacking all his old band members. i'm not bothered. if they ban us we re-locate

Don't worry about a ban (at least not for discussing another band). There's probably more discussion about other bands on here than there is of Spiritualized. After all this section of the board is "For new sounds, old sounds and favourite sound discussion...". Given the work rate of Jason, if all we discussed were Spz releases it'd get pretty quiet around here!

If there's enough interest then I'd be willing to give it a go setting up a Levitation forum. I could host it from the http://www.spiritualized-discography.com site that I have - will end up with a bit of a clunky URL but it will give it a home to start with. I'm no expert and haven't set up or run a forum before but if you bear with me I'll see what I can do. My internet access is going to be disrupted from Friday until end of Jan but I should be able to do some background work on it in the meantime.

Agree - we can discuss other bands, and we do still occasionally bring SPZ up (and in a relevant context).

I started the thread - and am really pleased that I did, as have gained so much by it, and I think others have as well. However, remain to be convinced that there is a real market for another forum etc. I really just don't see any threads stretching beyond a few hardcore users.

Just googling, and this thread is one of the top hits for Levitation, and people are finding their way here. Also found a Facebook page, 'campaigning' for a proper Meanwhile Gardens release....40 odd members....

...would like to think though there must be enough of us (1000?) worldwide who could demonstrate a market to buy it.

sm-iom

just for the record, I would definitely join you all in a dedicated Levitation forum.
And also more than happy to fork out for any kind of official release of missing MG songs.
Though I have to say that the former seems more realistic than the latter...

I have just remembered some more Meanwhile Gardens "gossip".

Someone somewhere, probably a journalist, said that the band were hoping to base the album on live recordings. Anyone else remember reading this?

not read that myself....anything would be nice

Danicus wrote:I have just remembered some more Meanwhile Gardens "gossip".

Someone somewhere, probably a journalist, said that the band were hoping to base the album on live recordings. Anyone else remember reading this?

They should. I was always sort of underwhelmed by Levitation records but I saw them twice in two days in NYC years ago and they were amazing live. I mean REALLY AMAZING live!

spzretent wrote:They should. I was always sort of underwhelmed by Levitation records but I saw them twice in two days in NYC years ago and they were amazing live. I mean REALLY AMAZING live!

Absolutely, live always was their their environment. I think they'd have been hard pressed to translate that energy onto a studio recording.

Need For Not was apparently mixed 'ambisonically' although i could never detect anything special about the mix. Listened to it the other day, a remaster would really help.

I accidentally stumbled upon the actual (as in real place) Meanwhile Gardens in London when visiting the Notting Hill carnival towards the end of the 90s which was a nice surprise.

ok kids, i have a levitation section on my HOL site at destroytheheart.org but just discovered the site has gone down. will get it working soon

duckstab2+ wrote:don't feel so guilty, jason was never guilty sacking all his old band members. i'm not bothered. if they ban us we re-locate

Nothing to feel guilty about at all. We, the mods, have commented on how great this thread is. How enthusiastic fans are about certain bands. How detailed the posts are. There is no threat from us at all. Nor are we upset in any way, shape or form. On the contrary.

OK, the forum is back up and running, http://www.destroytheheart.org

so if someone wants to move this thread over or somehow consolidate it, it would be much appreciated!

Agree that could be a better location. But, would be a bit concerned to see the thread move to a forum with limited posts or users. I'm a much bigger SPZ fan than HOL, so unlikely to stop by often to check thread. Simple solution could be to post link there to this?

sm-iom wrote:Agree that could be a better location. But, would be a bit concerned to see the thread move to a forum with limited posts or users. I'm a much bigger SPZ fan than HOL, so unlikely to stop by often to check thread. Simple solution could be to post link there to this?

that could be done or vice versa? let's see what the consensus is

This forum seems to have more traffic than the House of Love site

Danicus wrote:This forum seems to have more traffic than the House of Love site

true, but what do you want for a band who's basically defunct! ; )

burningwheel wrote:

Danicus wrote:This forum seems to have more traffic than the House of Love site

true, but what do you want for a band who's basically defunct! ; )

You can remove the word "basically" from that post lol Fair point.

well they did release that album a few years ago and apparently, they are working on a new one, but that was a couple of years ago now i think

Have just joined this thread, and some great reading on this site regarding the mighty Levitation. Think this might have already been covered previously but there is a brilliant link to some Terry Bickers versions of Meanwhile Gardens on the following site.

http://www.musocity.com/levitation/

If you haven't heard them, then you are in for a treat, i'd only ever heard the Australian version of MG and some of these alternative tracks just totally blew me away, especially King of Mice and Food for Powder. Amazing to hear Terry's original vocals and stunning guitar work on this material, the way it was originally conceived. I'd waited a long time to hear these tracks, and i wasn't disappointed ! You can download them to, though it's a little tricky and will require a little jiggery pokery to get them into mp3 form. I may be able to send them/email them/ftp.

Tracks are

✓ Bodiless 4:51
✓ Greymouth 3:59
✓ Food for Powder 4:56
✓ Gardens Overflowing 3:10
✓ King of Mice 8:29
✓ Going Faster 3:44
✓ Magnifying Glass 6:53
✓ Twice 2:59
✓ Burrows (Burroughs) 7:31

Additionally, would love to have the links to the fanclub cassette tracks that were posted on here a while ago - i think they have expired and would love to have them again as i have lost my old cassette. ( In fact any rare tidbits welcomed !

Cheers and keep up the good work.

P

please post them

I think it's fair to say that "Meanwhile Gardens" has become a catch-all term covering any unreleased material.

Fanclub demo cassette:

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/54bf0d ... cwzQ%3d%3d

Live, Reading Uni Cassette

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/147ac3 ... OgEQ%3d%3d

Will be there until 25th Jan - can't get any other upload services with a longer retention time to work from here at the moment.

Thanks for making those recordings available again Sim. Amazing to hear after all this time.
Loving the buzz that seems to be going on around Levitation.
I have a Facebook page dedicated to those who want to see the lost recordings see the official light of day if anyone is interested in signing up to that as well.

Thanks Sim, good work on the live gigs downloads. Managed to find my old fanclub casette case last night, but sadly, no cassette inside - so very timely ! Celestial, have seen the facebook link and stuck myself down on it, hopefully will have some effect. Would be brillliant to get a format of this finally released after sitting in the vaults for so long. The tracks i've heard in the last couple of days from musocity and myspace are superb, and a great find.

P

Does anyone know what the story is with "Greymouth"? The vocals on the the Bickers version seem to be identical to the Ludwin version. So who is singing the high-register lead vocals on both??

On the Australian official release of Meanwhile (the Ludwin version), Bickers is credited with guitar and backing vocals on Greymouth. Given that Laurence, Bic and Rob all contributed backing vocals to a lot of tracks I guess that this track is a real mixture of them all and if Ludwin is there he's probably buried in the mix.

BTW, can anyone really tell the difference between the Ludwin and Bickers versions of the songs on MG apart from the vocals? In interviews the band always said that they went back and re-recorded the tracks, but Bickers is credited with guitar on all of the tracks except the ones that were definitely done after he left (Chain By Day, Under Stone, All at Sea). It's been a good while since I listened to the Ludwin version but my impression was that the music was the same (except for the extended ending to the Bickers version of King of Mice).

Bickers is not credited with guitar on Food For Powder. Maybe that is a credit mistake, or maybe his guitar really was removed from this track and re-done by Bic?

The guitar parts on the Ludwin version sound identical to the Bickers version. But would Bic and Bickers know each others guitar parts? If they did, Bic could easily play Bickers parts, but it's not easy to so exactly replicate another guitarists sound. And even if he could, why would Bic choose to?

@duckstab - didn't you say that all of Bickers guitar was removed from the Ludwin album??

If backing vocals for Greymouth were recorded as a group ie two or three people singing into the same mike, the band would later have had a choice: remove every trace of Bickers by re-recording the backing vocals, or leave it.

hokusai wrote:I only have 7 songs that were recorded for the album and as far as I'm aware this seems to be the number of songs that were recorded when the plug was pulled - if anyone has other info it would be greatly appreciated. 3 songs not featured here but that were given an outing live and on the Boxed Set ITV show; The Last Thing She Ever Said, Roman Road and SYJ were not recorded for the album... DF told me this, he was pissed off they didn't!!!!

The copy of Zurich I have on white label CD, which came from an ex EMI employee, has 9 tracks, including Roman Road, and Valentine, which are not on any of the bootleg versions.

I've uploaded the whole album to SoundCloud for everyone to be able to stream. Links are on the Dark Star Facebook page here... http://www.facebook.com/thesoundofawake

anyone able to stream and mega upload this? Specially the 2 I haven't heard before.

can you upload high quality mp3s or flac by any chance? no one will care at this point i suspect

is loving the sludgy sound of Valentine

Sim wrote:Fanclub demo cassette:

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/54bf0d ... cwzQ%3d%3d

Live, Reading Uni Cassette

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/147ac3 ... OgEQ%3d%3d

Will be there until 25th Jan - can't get any other upload services with a longer retention time to work from here at the moment.

any chance of a reup on these?

burningwheel wrote:can you upload high quality mp3s or flac by any chance? no one will care at this point i suspect

seconded

i was able to download them but they are only at 128 bit rate

burningwheel wrote:i was able to download them but they are only at 128 bit rate

are you referring to the new Zurich links? if so i would still gratefully receive d/l links....cheers

Plenty of Levitation bootlegs to trade. PM me

i'll upload them shortly. they are only 128 because, that is what they stream at on soundcloud

ok muther funsters, about 2 years ago laurence okeefe sold me a mint copy of soul kiss/ glide divine and with it he sent me an mp3 disc. i never really looked through this disc but have found a file full of levitation and darkstar jams. trying to sort a mediafile a/c out but my laptop keeps crashing (its old and knackered see,)....if anyone wants to upload this stuff will be happy to burn a disc for them to sort and share with those who will appreciate......

Kurious Oranj wrote:

Sim wrote:Fanclub demo cassette:

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/54bf0d ... cwzQ%3d%3d

Live, Reading Uni Cassette

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/147ac3 ... OgEQ%3d%3d

Will be there until 25th Jan - can't get any other upload services with a longer retention time to work from here at the moment.

any chance of a reup on these?

Sorry, only just saw this. Uploading now, will post links later on.

spunder wrote:ok muther funsters, about 2 years ago laurence okeefe sold me a mint copy of soul kiss/ glide divine and with it he sent me an mp3 disc. i never really looked through this disc but have found a file full of levitation and darkstar jams. trying to sort a mediafile a/c out but my laptop keeps crashing (its old and knackered see,)....if anyone wants to upload this stuff will be happy to burn a disc for them to sort and share with those who will appreciate......

What a nice man Laurence is. Sounds very exciting.

Spunder, someone may have offered already but if not I'd happily sort out uploading them and/or send out CDs to those interested.

Hope this works, let me know if not.

Fanclub demo cassette first up.

http://www.mediafire.com/?6z9gl1tw2318ch8

...and Reading Uni live cassette

http://www.mediafire.com/?78d3qe63v4tixz0

Sim wrote:

spunder wrote:ok muther funsters, about 2 years ago laurence okeefe sold me a mint copy of soul kiss/ glide divine and with it he sent me an mp3 disc. i never really looked through this disc but have found a file full of levitation and darkstar jams. trying to sort a mediafile a/c out but my laptop keeps crashing (its old and knackered see,)....if anyone wants to upload this stuff will be happy to burn a disc for them to sort and share with those who will appreciate......

What a nice man Laurence is. Sounds very exciting.

Spunder, someone may have offered already but if not I'd happily sort out uploading them and/or send out CDs to those interested.

Would love to hear. One vote in support of Sim, who has been excellent at uploading!

sm-iom

Sim wrote:

spunder wrote:ok muther funsters, about 2 years ago laurence okeefe sold me a mint copy of soul kiss/ glide divine and with it he sent me an mp3 disc. i never really looked through this disc but have found a file full of levitation and darkstar jams. trying to sort a mediafile a/c out but my laptop keeps crashing (its old and knackered see,)....if anyone wants to upload this stuff will be happy to burn a disc for them to sort and share with those who will appreciate......

What a nice man Laurence is. Sounds very exciting.

Spunder, someone may have offered already but if not I'd happily sort out uploading them and/or send out CDs to those interested.

hi,

Sim, PM me your address and i'll send you a disc. when youve got it be sure to put a D/L link up in this thread....theres obviously a few like minded souls who will get their kicks with this stuff

Thanks spunder! - PM sent

i cant believe ive had this stuff for so long and only just located it.....Sim, i'll be posting 3 discs....as much as i loved Levitation, Dark Star always pipped it for me......real lovely, concise, psychedelia....these jams are fucking amazing.....i hope you all have access to them soon

please upload flacs or can i get a copy of the discs as well?

spunder wrote:i cant believe ive had this stuff for so long and only just located it.....Sim, i'll be posting 3 discs....as much as i loved Levitation, Dark Star always pipped it for me......real lovely, concise, psychedelia....these jams are fucking amazing.....i hope you all have access to them soon

Can't wait! Many, many thanks spunder! Glad you found them - I'm terrible for throwing away stuff if I can't immediately remember what it is. So glad you're not the same.

No fear - I'll get these up for all to hear as soon as they get to me.

Sim,

*ahem* due to an impromtu drinking session yesterday i completely forgot to bring discs to work to post....will rectify and post tomorrow....apologies!

spunder wrote:Sim,

*ahem* due to an impromtu drinking session yesterday i completely forgot to bring discs to work to post....will rectify and post tomorrow....apologies!

No worries, a perfectly acceptable excuse!

Cool thread, just so happens I've only really discovered Levitation this month after being a 'House of Love' fan for years and years... Anyhow, I bought 'Need For Not' & 'Cotterie' on CD and then downloaded the 9 Musocity Bickers 'Meanwhile Gardens' tracks and am totally blown away by them.. especially 'King of Mice'.

From reading this thread there are a fair few songs from the Bickers MG period I'd love to hear. I was wondering/curious if any of you in the know would have them that they could share with me? Not normally something I'd ask but I figure it'd be hard to track them down elsewhere... ?

or if someone could point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it...

Ta

KK

KK - drop me a PM with your address and I'll sort you out with some CDs.

As you've probably gathered from reading the thread, the tracks that are out there are a mixture of some tracks that were finished and probably desrtined for one or other of the Bickers MG releases, others which originate from the Barn Sessions (and most likely are unfinished) and some which are older, possibly shelved, tracks.

And keep an eye out for the recently uncovered tracks referred to in spunder's post above - coming soon!

Huge, huge, huge thanks to Spunder!

I'm trying to get this stuff upped as soon as I possibly can. Not sure if I'll get it all up tonight but I'll try my best.

First up is the Levitation stuff. I've split the disc up into 2 parts. Nothing here that hasn't surfaced before, but some of you out there may not yet have this stuff.

First is the Reading University 1992 live fan club tape. This is the same as the tape I previously uploaded (includes the explosion at the end of Paid In Kind and ends with the Mantra outro). However I've included it here as it may be of better quality than the rip I made from my much played tape.

http://www.mediafire.com/?al8h1ls1117qb7i

Next up are 5 assorted tracks as follows:

1. Heavy Roller (Instrumental track from the Barn Sessions)
2. Heart of the Home (Instrumental track from the Barn Sessions?? - later appeared as a B side to the German-only King of Mice single)
3. All at Sea (Instrumental track from the Barn Sessions - later appeared on the Australian Meanwhile Gardens release which featured Steve Ludwin)
4. King of Mice (with Terry Bickers)
5. Cutwater (originally given away on a free 7" with Need For Not - as with the recording that surfaced along with the other Barn Sessions/missing Meanwhile Gardens tracks, I can't hear any vinyl crackles on this so assume it was taken direct from master tapes/CD)

http://www.mediafire.com/?tq4zmu2dt77zdib

For those who have already got this stuff, do not be too disappointed…….. as Spunder pointed out in a previous post, the real gems on the discs are the Dark Star tracks - absolutely 100% pure gold here, and coming up as soon as I can get them uploaded……..

While you're waiting... Dark Star fans make your way over to the Facebook page Stealth Rodeo has set up...

http://www.facebook.com/thesoundofawake

Stranger and Madmen has reached 200 plays and so is now available as a 320kbps download. Each track will become available at this quality once it reaches 200 plays. Or if the group gets 100 FB fans, every track will be made available at this quality.

can you do flac please

OK 1st disc of the Dark Star stuff here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yc4qez4yv4lc8c9

(Just noticed I forgot to change the name of the file so it will appear as Archive.zip when you download it)

1. The Day That Never Was (Zurich album track but appears here as a shorter, possibly demo version?)
2. Joy Div Jam
3. Hijack
4. Drowning Cowboy
5. Spacey Loop
6. Twirly PIL-y Groove
7. Maximus
8. Bass Delay Opus
9. Desert Fever

I'm still not that familiar with the Zurich tracks but some of these jams may have ended up in tracks on Zurich. Twirly PIL-y Groove sounds like it could be Perfectly Simple?

Running out of time tonight, will try and get the 2nd disc up in the morning...

burningwheel wrote:can you do flac please

I've made this offer to burningwheel and I'm happy to open it up to others also...

Uploading FLACs will take more time than I have patience but I'm happy to send out CD copies to those who are interested. Just drop me a PM with address.

Sim wrote:OK 1st disc of the Dark Star stuff here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yc4qez4yv4lc8c9

(Just noticed I forgot to change the name of the file so it will appear as Archive.zip when you download it)

1. The Day That Never Was (Zurich album track but appears here as a shorter, possibly demo version?)
2. Joy Div Jam
3. Hijack
4. Drowning Cowboy
5. Spacey Loop
6. Twirly PIL-y Groove
7. Maximus
8. Bass Delay Opus
9. Desert Fever

I'm still not that familiar with the Zurich tracks but some of these jams may have ended up in tracks on Zurich. Twirly PIL-y Groove sounds like it could be Perfectly Simple?

Running out of time tonight, will try and get the 2nd disc up in the morning...

can't download for some reason. cheers!

Big Hearty Thanks!!!!! to Sim & Spunder for your efforts to make this material available... absolutley fantastic!!!! Listening to JoyDiv Jam and it sounds superb; what a find! Feel free to PM me with your email so I can reciprocate your generosity with any DS/Lev stuff you may not have... drinks are on me at the Forum Bar!!!

Sim wrote:While you're waiting... Dark Star fans make your way over to the Facebook page Stealth Rodeo has set up...

http://www.facebook.com/thesoundofawake

Stranger and Madmen has reached 200 plays and so is now available as a 320kbps download. Each track will become available at this quality once it reaches 200 plays. Or if the group gets 100 FB fans, every track will be made available at this quality.

better get playing then! or sign up with loads of seperate profiles?!

2nd CD of Dark Star goodies from spunder….

http://www.mediafire.com/?258mv4vq393s0uy

1. Top Of The Pops #1
2. Top Of The Pops #2
3. Top Of The Pops #3
4. Expressway 3
5. Monster Groove 1
6. Discovery Of Got Eggs
7. U3
8. Kill The Noise
9. Firstake

Huge, huge thanks for sharing these Dark Star tracks - downloading now! I may put some of it up on the FB page if that's alright?

Stealth Rodeo wrote:Huge, huge thanks for sharing these Dark Star tracks - downloading now! I may put some of it up on the FB page if that's alright?

s'alright with me....hope Loz don't mind!...

Fantastic stuff!!! This really is a wonderful thread, made wonderful by all the wonderful people contributing.

Many thanks to Sim and Spunder.

Danicus wrote:Fantastic stuff!!! This really is a wonderful thread, made wonderful by all the wonderful people contributing.

Many thanks to Sim and Spunder.

seconded.......glad i could give something back!

No probs, I'm just grateful spunder thought to look at those CDs he got from Laurence!

And glad there are so many people still interested in both Levitation and Dark Star.

This thread's been going for just over a year now but has thrown up more info and lost material than has appeared in the previous 10+.