Hurrah! - Way Ahead

way ahead front sleeve, originally uploaded by unpop.

 

way ahead back sleeve, originally uploaded by unpop.

I decided to join in the fun’n’frenzy of the Hurrah! posting around the blogosphere and make the Way Ahead live album available. Originally released on the Esurient label, it’s long been one of the most treasured of Hurrah! records. Kevin Pearce, who ran the label has given the nod to put the record on the Web, which is fantastic, because it really does deserve to be heard. Hopefully the members of the group are cool with this as well. You can download the full album complete with artwork here. The lo-fi recording quality of the original album is blissfully intact…

Elsewhere on the Interweb, you can grab the long-deleted Tell God I’m Here album from here, and Krister has made ‘Flowers’ available here. Apparently you can track The Sound Of Philadelphia down through him as well, and he has Kevin’s sleevenotes for that collection on his blog as well. Result. Oh, and in case you missed Dan’s comment a few days back, there is a good comment from Hurrah!s Paul Handyside on Dan’s Backed With article about the group. Now all we need is someone to post the clips of Hurrah! on The Tube to YouTube. Or at least point me in their direction…

Comments

[ally]

in a world of lost treasures my hurrah! live tape still hurts. the idea of this lp was a fantastic one but the sound was dire and somehow just didn't capture what seeing a group i went to some of the direst places for was like. only a handful of the recorded stuff did. i don't know what it was but it was mighty special. ta ever so for this anyway - it's the nearest we've got
x

[kris]

doesn't seem to work i'm afraid. and btw, i think Tell God I'm Here was reissued in Japan last year, with some b-sides added as well.

[me]

I've just tried the link and it started downloading right away. Anyone else had problems? And yeah, I just had a look on Amazon, and right enough, there's the Japanese import. Looks like an 'expanded' version 2 disc set is lined up for a UK release too. Nice one.

[kris]

sorry, it seems alright now. looking forward to a hurrah! double-disc! hope it'll have all the singles too, it's ridiculous how hard it is to find a copy of the rev-ola compilation (or the japanese version of it)...

[kris]

considering the dated production, i like the person saying "even today this music sounds fresh and invigorating" in an amazon review!

any info on the uk release somewhere? i always like the b-side to "if love could kill" - "tell me about your problems"... that was the first hurrah! single i got.

[ogro]

Thanks a lot for this. Hip Hip Hurrah for Alistair!
I agree, tell me about your problems is one of my faves aswell, but then, there were so many others.
Anyway, good to hear your radio-show went better than mine.
All the best,
Ogro

[hellfried]

listening to 'tell god i'm here' after more than decade of not, i am gobsmacked that it was maligned by so many. it was the only recorded output that i owned prior to discovering this blogpost. hence for me it was what Hurrah! was all about. i knew no better but i still maintain that it is a thing of beauty. way ahead of most of everything that was passed off as indie rock at the time.

[alistair]

Listening to it again now I am largely in agreement, and can easily see how without any awareness of the pre-Arista Hurrah! it might have seemed so much better at the time. In hindsight too I wonder if it might have made a difference if everyone had got behind the record instead of being bitter about the Rock thing... probably not, and irrelevant too for all of that was about the context of the times, and is a complex puzzle that would take a lot of unpacking. But yes, as I say, listened too now without any of that context to get in the way, it does sound rather ravishing. That said, i still think the versions of some of the songs that can be found on The Sound Of Philadelphia were superior :)

[David James]

Anyone know where I can find the 12 inch version of "How Many Rivers" ??
I guess it was on the Japanese reissue, but that's a tough one to track down...