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2025 Repress

140g vinyl, remastered, double LP with the original LP along with a second record of 14 rare tracks

Sweet And Nice is the vital debut album from Jamaica’s undisputed first lady of song Marica Griffiths. It’s reggae at its most soulful. Slinking through a tight ten tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. 45 years after its initial release the LP is available again on vinyl, now as a double LP, with an extra record collecting 14 rare tracks.

Sweet And Nice has appeared over the years with a revised running order and under different titles. But the original’s opening sequence of loping soul is legendary, even beyond reggae circles. These songs are now returned to how they were presented on that first Jamaican release, and under their intended album title. Be With doesn’t mess with magic.

Marcia’s version of “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” has long been lusted after, played by genre-hopping selectors to snapping necks for decades now. It’s followed by the sophisticated, rollicking wah-wah funk of “Everything I Own” and the slice of smooth lovers soul par excellence that is “Green Grasshopper” and her ace, lilting Neil Diamond cover “Play Me”.

The thundering, humid funk of “Children At Play” “sounds uncannily like a precursor of Massive Attack”, as FACT Mag astutely noted when they put Sweet And Nice at number 16 in their list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s. Otherworldly, moody and essential.

Side two keeps the fire burning. “Sweet, Bitter Love” should leave you swooning, and is also one of the album’s alternate titles. Curtis Mayfield’s already-eternal “Gypsy Man” is up next, recast as proto-lovers rock.

“There’s No Me Without You” is elevated to canonical status by the majestic, forlorn horns of the Federal Soul Givers and Marcia’s heartbreaking delivery. And if this doesn’t get you then surely the next track will: arguably the definitive version of Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. Yes, seriously.

“I Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” re-takes its rightful place at the end of the LP’s second side… but we couldn’t leave it at that. So we added an entire second record of rare material recorded around the same time as Sweet And Nice, much of it unavailable since it was originally released. Some of these songs have only ever been found on now unattainable 7" singles and no, rarity doesn’t always correspond with quality, but in this case we’re talking about some seriously jaw-dropping music.

Amongst 14 extra tracks you’ll find the exquisite late-60s singles “Melody Life” and “Mark My Word” which, along with the sumptuous reading of “Band Of Gold”, are now £100 records, if you can find them! Just sayin’. There‘s also a fantastic version of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and an alternate take of “Play Me” with producer Lloyd Charmers adding his own vocals.

Everything’s been remastered of course, including the original LP, so Sweet And Nice now sounds even sweeter, and even nicer.

5 x LP
60-page hardback book
Black vinyl
Printed labels
Printed inners
Slipcase
A2 poster
Slipmat

Originally released in 1990 by Happy Mondays, Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches captured the chaotic, euphoric spirit of the Madchester movement, blending indie rock, acid house rhythms and funk grooves into a sound that helped reshape British alternative music. Featuring era-defining tracks such as “Step On” and “Kinky Afro,” the record became both a commercial breakthrough and a cultural snapshot of a generation fuelled by dance culture and Northern nightlife.

More than three decades later, its grooves, attitude and genre-blurring production still resonate strongly with contemporary audiences, influencing modern indie and electronic artists alike.

5LP Edition. All original audio remastered from Factory Records master tapes. Includes original album, Hallelujah + Madchester Rave On, Baby Big Head Bootleg Album (Live at Elland Road, 1991), classic and new remixes, 60-page hardback book with brand new essays from James Brown and Central Station designers, fold-out A2 tour poster and Madchester slipmat.

Vintage Sounds - FOLK Edition Die neue Ausgabe der beliebten Vintage Sounds Vinylreihe widmet sich einem der ehrlichsten und bewegendsten Genres der Musikgeschichte: Folk. Diese Sammlung vereint 14 zeitlose Klassiker, die das Herz und die Seele der Folkbewegung widerspiegeln - roh, poetisch und zutiefst menschlich. Mit dabei sind Legenden wie Joan Baez, deren "Donna Donna" zur Hymne der Friedensbewegung wurde, und Bob Dylan, der mit "House Of The Risin" Sun" seine frühe Meisterschaft zeigt. Woody Guthrie bringt mit "This Land Is Your Land" ein Stück amerikanischer Geschichte auf die Platte, während Townes Van Zandt und Dave Van Ronk die dunkleren, introspektiven Seiten des Genres beleuchten. Auch seltene Perlen wie Dave Bixbys psychedelisch-spirituelles "Morning Sun" oder Bridget St Johns melancholisches "Autumn Lullaby" finden hier ihren Platz. Die Compilation schließt mit einem bewegenden Duett von Terry Callier & Paul Weller, das Folk in die Gegenwart holt.

"Hushman is the new project from renowned folk musician, singer &
songwriter Ewan MacPherson
Originally hailing from Liverpool, with family ties to Scotland, Ireland and Wales,
Ewan moved to Edinburgh in 1999 where he is now a recognised figure on the
vibrant Scottish music scene, performing and writing with Scottish Indie folk band
Salt House & Scottish Acid folk legends, Shooglenifty, amongst others. Likened to
Ben Howard, John Martyn and Nick Drake, the music and songs Hushman is
producing are painted and sculpted to the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands,
the walls of the shed they have been recorded in are thin; black grouse, torrential
rain and gales subtly underpin Hushman's music through the cabin walls.
Hushman features Hannah Read on backing vocals, Lauren MacColl (Rant, Heal &
Harrow) on strings, Ben Nichols (Seth Lakeman, Nadine Shah) on Bass and
James Mackintosh (Shooglenifty, Capercaille) on percussion."

"Hushman is the new project from renowned folk musician, singer &
songwriter Ewan MacPherson
Originally hailing from Liverpool, with family ties to Scotland, Ireland and Wales,
Ewan moved to Edinburgh in 1999 where he is now a recognised figure on the
vibrant Scottish music scene, performing and writing with Scottish Indie folk band
Salt House & Scottish Acid folk legends, Shooglenifty, amongst others. Likened to
Ben Howard, John Martyn and Nick Drake, the music and songs Hushman is
producing are painted and sculpted to the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands,
the walls of the shed they have been recorded in are thin; black grouse, torrential
rain and gales subtly underpin Hushman's music through the cabin walls.
Hushman features Hannah Read on backing vocals, Lauren MacColl (Rant, Heal &
Harrow) on strings, Ben Nichols (Seth Lakeman, Nadine Shah) on Bass and
James Mackintosh (Shooglenifty, Capercaille) on percussion."

Singer, guitarist, flautist (and practitioner of the double tin whistle), John is
also a member of celebrated traditional group Skipper’s Alley and is joined
here by bandmate Ultan O’Brien (also of Slow Moving Clouds).
Also contributing to the record are singer Consuelo Breschi of the duo Varo,
sean n s singer Saileog N Ceannabh in, Phil Christie (O Emperor / The Bonk) on
keyboards, and drummer & composer Ross Chaney who created many of the
Tascam tape-loop drones that bind the album together.
The record was produced, engineered and mixed by Brendan Jenkinson (Villagers / Cloud Castle Lake) who also joins in on a host of instruments for the record. It was recorded and mixed at Oxford Lane and Sonic Studios, Dublin. The
material John Francis Flynn has chosen to record includes songs learned from
recordings of Shirley Collins, Frank Harte and settled Traveller Paddy Quilligan,
two songs written by activist and folk revivalist Ewan MacColl, and a West Indies halyard shanty published by “Last Working Shantyman” Stan Hugill, alongside in-studio improvisations and tunes picked up by John along the way