For Record Store Day, spring 2025, there were multiple New Wave albums available for purchase at participating stores. These albums were The B-52’s on picture disc by The B-52’s; Head on the Door on picture disc by The Cure; First Issue by Public Image Ltd.: the first U.S. release of the album after Warner Bros. Records scrapped it before its 1979 release; Peel Sessions 1979-1983 by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: the first vinyl release of the album; and DANSE MACABRE: DE LUXE (BONUS TRACKS) by Duran Duran: a zoetrope picture disc featuring a dancing skeleton; it includes songs released exclusively on DANSE MACABRE: DE LUXE.
David Bowie also had a release, a live album recorded in 2003, however, it only contains tracks from his albums Outside (1995), Heathens (2002), and Reality (2003): all after the end of Bowie’s New Wave era.
At Josey Records Dallas (in Farmers Branch, Tx), I purchased The Cure’s Head On the Door, OMD’s Peel Sessions, and Public Image Ltd.’s First Issue. The crowd was huge, much bigger than we expected. We missed out on the Duran Duran album and the B-52’s picture disc.
We arrived at 6:30 am to find the line was already wrapped around the store! It took about 4 hours before we finally reached the area with the Record Store Day releases. However, if you’re a New Wave fan, that Josey Records location has a bunch of concert and album release posters for New Wave Bands like The Smiths, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, Morrissey, The Cure, and many others. It is worth visiting that store just to check out that memorabilia.
Head on the Door – The Cure
The Cure’s picture disc of their phenomenal 1985 album, Head on the Door, has the album’s eerie cover on the A-side and the reverse of the album, containing the track listening on the B-side. The album cover was created by Parched Art (a design company run by designer Andy Vella and The Cure’s own guitar player Porl Thompson, who made his first full-time appearance on this album) using a cotton bud, bleach, and photographic paper; the image was a manipulated photograph of Robert Smith’s younger sister, Janet, taken by Porl, who, with Vella had also created the album cover for Faith. The album was widely inspired by Siousxsie & The Banshees’ album Kaleidoscope, which frontman Robert Smith played guitar on the tour for, as well as playing guitar on Siouxsie’s 1982 tour for the band’s album A Kiss In the Dreamhouse; this was Smith’s (The Cure’s) first album release after
Peel Sessions 1979-1983 – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
There is no doubt that BBC One radio host John Peel was instrumental in the rise of making New Wave bands successful, from The Smiths, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Joy Division, his program also brought the brilliant OMD to the popular scene. This release of OMD’s complete John Peel Sessions is its vinyl debut. OMD’s sessions contained few hits as they wanted to show their diversity in styles and bring some of their lesser-known works to public light, some of the band’s four sessions, demos of songs like ‘Enola Gay’ were featured with different backing synth than the final edits.
First Issue – Public Image Ltd.
Originally meant for release in the U.S. in 1979 by Warner Bros. Records, First Issue was cancelled for an American release due to being considered non-commercial despite its massive success with its UK release via Virgin Records. First Issue spawned the single ‘Public Image,’ which did get a U.S. release in 1980; the album also contains the song ‘Swan Lake,’ which has never been released, as it was only for the U.S. mix of the album; the U.S. mix also contained an extended version of the song ‘Annalisa,’ which tells the story of Anneliese Michel, who was starved to death by her parents in 1976, after they became convinced she was possessed by a demon; her parents were charged with negligent homicide. The U.S. mix did, however, not include the songs ‘Religion I,’ ‘Religion II,’ and ‘Fodderstompf,’ a song that can only be described as bassist Jah Wobble playing with a funky bassline and a fire extinguisher.
