THE LOWDOWN ON THE "FORTUNATE SMILES"/"SODAS IN HELL" EXILES
by Nick Parker Melody Maker, September 1991
Recently Epic released Plaastik's long-awaited double album in a botched format, splitting it in half, with some songs lost in the process. We asked Nick Parker to tell us about what was lost and what he hopes will be done about it.
TWO: This was a very nice tune that I wrote with Janet and Tina. It was something we decided to leave off because the last thing we want to do now is put money in Epic's pocket, and this song is so good that's all it would do.
LOVE IS NEVERENDING: We spent ages trying to get this instrumental perfect; it's thirty-nine minutes but it's not a jam, it's actually very precise. Steve Lillywhite hated it and told us they'd never release it. We should've listened.
I DON'T KNOW: Probably the best pop song we've ever written; I was hoping we would save it for a future record but we found out that Epic wouldn't let us have the recording if we left so we threw it on a fucking b-side, which is a real shame. Janet plays some grand Spanish guitar.
STARSTRUCK: I was very angry about losing this, it's such a divinely unique recording of the old Kinks song. We turned it into sort of death-lounge thing. I hope this gets released at some point.
STEAL THE SHOW: Just us goofing around, but it was a nice little interlude. We've put it on the b-side for the "Mix" single, which will be out in October.
PLAY WITH: The other "Mix" flipside damn near made it but this was our decision; we took it off because it sounded too much like the other instrumentals.
MY FULL ATTENTION: I really love this song. We tore at it while we were rehearsing a couple of years ago and it's raw and beautiful.
LIES: This is a cover of an old Beatles-clone type song from one of those one-hit bands. I really love the original and I'm glad our version was well-recieved when we put it on a b-side.
WHERE IS MY SODA? IT'S IN HELL! (ABOUT LAST NIGHT): I made this out of an old song of ours called "About Last Night" which was pretty bland and worthless. I was on so many drugs when I recorded this it was ridiculous. I just thought it would be cool to sync up two crappy songs and make a good song. It was gonna be the hidden track but Epic sort of ripped that privelege away. Even though it's the title track for the jazz record we didn't put it on. We've got it lined up for an EP release later in the year.
This experience has been a real eye-opener. You've not heard the last from me.