Billboard
November 5, 1994
Rhino To Reissue Robyn Hitchcock's Early Albums
by Craig Rosen
Reissue king Rhino Records is taking a tip from competitor Rykodisc by reissuing the early catalog of an underappreciated but influential '80s singer-songwriter.
Beginning January 24, Rhino will begin reissuing Robyn Hitchcock's eight early-to-mid-'80s albums, which were released on various independent labels prior to the British eccentric's move to A&M Records in 1988. Rhino will top the campaign off with an album full of previously unreleased Hitchcock rarities.
The albums will be reissued on CD in three stages only, beginning with the
January 24 release of 1981's Black Snake Diamond Role, 1982's Groovy
Decay/Decoy, and 1984's I Often Dream Of Trains.
The second batch, due February 28, will include the Robyn Hitchcock And The
Egyptians albums Fegmania! and Gotta Let This Hen Out! -- both originally released in 1985 -- and 1986's Element of Light.
The final flock of Hitchcock reissues, due March 28, will include 1986's Invisible Hitchcock, 1990's Eye, and the rarities set, titled You & Oblivion.
A few tracks featuring R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who has played on Hitchcock's A&M albums, will be included on the rarities album, Hitchcock says.
Some of the albums, long out of print, have never been released in the U.S. on CD. Alternate versions of some tracks will appear on each album as bonus tracks.
Jim Neill, national director of promotion at Rhino and a longtime Hitchcock
fan who is spearheading the project, is optimistic that the reissue campaign will bring Hitchcock's talent into broader view.
"We feel there are a lot of people who are only aware of his albums on A&M. This body of work will be a real revelation to them," he says. "It has been
unavailable for a long time. Once they hear this stuff, they will better understand where he was coming from on the A&M albums."
Assisting Neill on the project is another longtime fan, A&M publicist Rick
Gershon.
Hitchcock says Rhino was a logical choice to reissue the albums. "They have
a good reputation as back-catalog people," he says. "There are two companies that begin with 'R' and end in '0' that do that real well. We did The Soft Boys through Ryko, so I thought we would do this through Rhino."
In 1992 and 1993, Ryko reissued the catalog of The Soft Boys, a band which included Hitchcock, future Katrina And The Waves member Kimberley Rew, and the rhythm section of Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor. The latter two musicians later rejoined Hitchcock as The Egyptians.
Says Hitchcock of the reissue campaign, "I consider the whole project my living tombstone. It's a chance to carve part of my epitaph while I'm still alive."
The unreleased material, most of which dates back 10 years, was only recently rediscovered. "I had forgotten where the tapes were," says Hitchcock. "The guy that recorded it isn't involved in the music business anymore. He's selling ecologically friendly timber."
Rhino and Hitchcock began to drum up interest in the reissues with the singer-songwriter's recent visit to Los Angeles. On September 16, Hitchcock
performed an intimate lunchtime acoustic set at the Rhino offices here for label staffers and press and retail contacts.
On the same day, Hitchcock squeezed in live performances on public radio KCRW and new album alternative outlet KSCA -- both in Los Angeles -- before heading off to McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica for two sold-out shows.
Hitchcock topped off the visit with two more sold-out shows at McCabe's the
following evening.
Rhino distributed fliers announcing the reissue campaign at the McCabe's engagements. According to Neill, the label has received more than 200 postcards with inquiries about the reissues, and an additional "pile of letters" after the project was listed on the internet.
The label also has a "tell a friend" campaign in the works. Fans who write the label with the name of a potential Hitchcock fan will received a limited-edition lithograph of Hitchcock artwork, and the "friend" will receive a Hitchcock cassette sampler.
In addition, Rhino will release a CD sampler -- featuring a cross-section of material from the reissue campaign -- to retail, radio, and press.
On the radio front, Neill hopes that the burgeoning album Alternative format will embrace Hitchcock. "Part of my goal is to introduce him to that format," Neill says. "Robyn really never got a chance at Alternative radio, and now we have the opportunity to correct history's mistake. He has a lot of Beatlesque songs that they could embrace and put into recurrent rotation."
Hitchcock isn't merely living in the past, however. He recently recorded a three-track single for Calvin Johnson's K Records in Olympia, Washington, which
should be released in January.
"I did it in Calvin's basement," Hitchcock says. "There was no messing around, no rough mixes, no overdubs. It was all done on 8-track while someone was upstairs stomping around making soup."
The titles of the tracks to be included on the single -- "I Something You",
"Zipper In My Spine", and "Man With A Woman's Shadow" -- suggest that Hitchcock hasn't lost his eccentric edge.
There also is a possibility that Rhino may release on its Word Beat imprint spoken-word recordings of some of the notorious, nonsensical stories that
punctuate Hitchcock's live performances.
Hitchcock is working on a new album -- despite the fact that he is without a label at the moment -- and has already recorded material in London and Seattle. "I've been working on it for about a year now," he says. "It may come out at the end of next year, but I'm taking my time and being quite selective about it."
Live dates to support the Rhino reissues and the K single are planned in the Northeast in March and April. "And, when the next collection of songs is ready," says Hitchcock, "I'll do the whole circuit again, lasso style."
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