 Reissue Issue! One of the very
first news items I included on Dreamscape
back in March 2000 was regarding the
possibility of 'Love Is The Law' being
reissued on CD. The year previously, both
'Anthem' and 'The Changeling', Toyah's
two studio albums immediately prior to
'Love Is The Law', were liberated from
the Safari vaults by the Connoisseur
Collection label.
'Anthem'
(EVSOPCD263) and 'The Changeling' (EVSOPCD264)
were reissued on 1st February 1999 and
included original track running order
plus extra songs and were also enhanced
with a video. The CD's also came with
original artwork, though didn't include
lyric inserts, plus extra images.
Connoisseur
Collection had previously released two
other Toyah albums, both compilations;
'The Best Of', a hits collection, in 1994,
and 'Live And More', a live and rarities
set in 1998. So there were high hopes
that next on their list would be 'Love Is
The Law', considered by many to be
Toyah's best album. Alas it was not to be.
Rob
Cope, a Toyah fan of many years from
Stoke-On-Trent emailed Connoisseur
enquiring about the possibility of the
album getting a reissue. They sent him
this reply:
Dear
Rob, Thanks for your continued interest
in the Toyah catalogue.
Unfortunately
sales on ANTHEM and THE CHANGELING have
simply not been great enough to justify
re-releasing the other albums.
We will
of course continue to monitor sales and
if the situation changes I will be back
in touch.
With
best regards
Claire
Higgins
However,
there are those of us, quite a few I
think, who still feel that there is a
chance that 'Love Is The Law' somehow,
someway, someday could be released on CD,
it definitely deserves to be. It is the
only 'solo' studio album from the eleven
Toyah released ('Sheep Farming In
Barnet', 'The Blue Meaning', 'Anthem',
'The Changeling', 'Love Is The Law',
'Minx', 'Desire', 'Prostitute',
'Ophelia's Shadow', 'Take The Leap' and
'Dreamchild') that has never been
officially available on CD.
The
recent news that 'Sheep Farming In
Barnet' and 'The Blue Meaning' will be
reissued on a double CD to coincide with
Toyah's inclusion in the 'Here And Now'
UK Arena Tour is encouraging. Toyah and
Robert Fripp also now own the rights to
'Prostitute' and 'Ophelia's Shadow', and
there has been mention that these two
will also be reissued. This is fantastic
news for fans who don't have these on CD,
and any Toyah music release, old or new,
is always welcome. Surely the one album,
and such a classic one at that, that has
never been on CD deserves to join all the
others?
At
present the best bet is still to get in
touch with the Connoisseur Collection,
not that I'm saying 'pester' them, just
let them know there is a certain demand
for 'Love Is The Law' on CD.
They
can be contacted via email :
You
could also write to them in the old
fashioned way:
claire@connoisseurcollection.co.uk
The
Connoisseur Collection Ltd.
2/3
Fitzroy Mews,
London
W1P 5DQ
If the
album is ever made available hopefully it
will be similar to the previous reissues
and contain extra tracks. For 'Love Is
The Law' these could include; 'Street
Addict', 'Laughing With The Fools', 'To
The Mountains High', 'Baptised In Fire'
and 'Haunted'.
There
are so many Toyah tracks not available on
CD (eg: entire 'Mayhem' album) , and
others somewhere that were recorded and
never released. There are also mixes of
songs, and various versions of songs (eg:
Razzmatazz version of 'Be Proud', TOTP
version of 'It's A Mystery', 6.55
Special version of 'Dawn Chorus' etc.)
that weren't ever made available either.
But then unravelling all is another (re)issue
altogether!
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