Vinyl Album - Billy Bragg - Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy - Utility

Vinyl Album

Artist:	Billy Bragg
Title:	Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy
Label:	Utility
Country:	UK
Catalogue:	UTIL 1
Date:	Jun 1984
Format:	LP
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	23 Own, 3 Want
Price Guide:	$33
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PRICE GUIDE

$33

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A1	Billy Bragg	The Milkman Of Human Kindness	Billy Bragg	8.6 Rate
A2	Billy Bragg	To Have And To Have Not	Billy Bragg	8.8 Rate
A3	Billy Bragg	Richard	Billy Bragg	7.6 Rate
B1	Billy Bragg	A New England	Billy Bragg	9.7 Rate
B2	Billy Bragg	The Man In The Iron Mask	Billy Bragg	7.4 Rate
B3	Billy Bragg	The Busy Girl Buys Beauty	Billy Bragg	7.6 Rate
B4	Billy Bragg	Lovers Town Revisited	Billy Bragg	7.8 Rate

Notes

45 RPM
Marketed by Go! Discs, also on spine

Images

Number: 475514 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By: poohbear Description: Cover	Number: 2146198 Uploaded By: hiwatt1973 Description: First Edition Rear Cover	Number: 484937 Uploaded By: janiejjones Description: detail on back	Number: 484938 Uploaded By: janiejjones Description: a side label
Number: 484939 Uploaded By: janiejjones Description: b side label	Number: 478864 Uploaded By: Bodston SUBS Description: Back Cover (second edition)	Number: 478865 Uploaded By: Bodston SUBS Description: Side 1 Label Wrong Speed	Number: 478866 Uploaded By: Bodston SUBS Description: Side 2 Label Wrong Speed
Number: 880603 Uploaded By: hookrecords Description: A Side Label - 45 RPM & Go! Disc Logo	Number: 880604 Uploaded By: hookrecords Description: A Side Label - 45 RPM & Go! Disc Logo

Comments and Reviews


hiwatt1973 14th Mar 2020		@Gian_paolo I think you are correct, I wasn't aware of the Charisma release it must be very limited as there were Two other releases in 1983. Thanks for posting your comment and by the look of it completing the entry for his release. Just need somebody to post the labels.



Gian_paolo 14th Mar 2020		@hiwatt1973: so where should fit this other Pressing I think that pressing, still missing here and without any sign of 'Go!Disc' is actually the first pressing, I paste here what I found on Wikipedia (edit) ... His demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner.[14] Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for music publisher Chappell & Co., so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy (credited to Billy Bragg) was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.[14] Within months Charisma had been taken over by Virgin Records and Jenner, who had been made redundant, became Bragg's manager. Stiff Records' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label, Go! Discs – received a copy of Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy. He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983, at the fixed low price of £2.99.



Bodston SUBS 13th Mar 2020		I've reordered the scans, they should be in chronological order now.



hiwatt1973 9th Feb 2020		I have added the First Edition Rear Cover. Over the years there has been some confusion regarding the labels for this release. The First Edition Labels are the ones added by janiejjones which has the square Go Discs logo. The Second edition labels have the round Go Discs logo and Chrysalis reference with the wrong speed 33 1/3. The Third Edition Labels is the same as the second edition label with the speed corrected back to 45RPM.



hiwatt1973 2nd Mar 2018		The first edition labels for this release are the one's added by janiejjones The Chrysalis labels came later



Klepsie 21st May 2017		My copy (marketed by Go!), though not marked as a promo, has a letter from Andy Macdonald at Go! Discs ("Dear Mark"...), a slew of press cuttings, some reviewing Bragg gigs and some the actual album (latest one from end October 1983), a bio of Bragg and a publicity photo of him sitting on some London phone books. Unfortunately someone left it out in the sun and the orange front cover has faded badly. Beware!



hookrecords 8th Nov 2015		Added scan A+B Label - 45 RPM & Go! Disc Logo



janiejjones 1st Jan 2014		Added labels for non-Chrysalis marketed version, which gives the correct speed of 45RPM. "Go" logo is also different, as are ⓅⒸdetails. I also put up a detail of the back with these differences. For good measure here are deadwax details (stamped) A: UTIL 1 A - 1 U - 1 - 1 - B: UTIL 1 B - 1 U - 1 - 1 - Pressed by EMI, I would say. The Chrysalis ones will probably be PRS pressings, with "// 420" somewhere in the runout?



Bodston SUBS 5th Dec 2013		Just noticed that my labels show the playing speed as 33 1/3 RPM. This is wrong.



nboldock 30th Sep 2013		30th anniversary re-release out now on 180gm vinyl - see Proper Music. Jolly cheap too!

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Linked Releases

Europe - Chrysalis - 1983