More details are now available on the Fire Records site and there’s some great info.

The first release is “Pigbag Volume 1 – Dr Heckle and Mr Jive“.
This consist of 2xCD:

• “Dr Heckle and Mr Jive” album
• 7″ and 12″ versions of “Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag” plus B-sides
• 7″ and 12″ versions of “Sunny Day” plus B-sides
• 12″ of “Getting Up” plus B-sides (7″ version is on Dr Heckle and Mr Jive anyway)
• 12″ of “Big Bean” plus B-side

The second release is “Pigbag Volume 2 – Lend An Ear + Pigbag Live”

This consists of 2xCD:

• “Lend An Ear” album
• “Pigbag” album (Live tracks and remixes)
  
• “Hit The ‘O’ Deck” instrumental

So that’s pretty much everything that Pigbag released, except the BBC Radio Sessions which were previously released on CD. Full track listings for both releases can be found on the “Re-Issues” page.

The site says they will be available 17th May 2010, priced at £15 each, and they’re available for pre-order.

Both releases already appear to be available for immediate download at £5 each, or £0.79 per track.

Additionally, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag” (7″ and 12″ versions) are available for download at Amazon and Apple iTunes Store for £0.79 each.

Angela Jaeger, former Pigbag singer, as part of Critical Music Writing week at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, reads “Kickwants: Excerpts from the Diaries of Angela Jaeger” on September 29 2009

Pigbag have signed a deal with Fire Records to have their two studio albums, “Dr Heckle and Mr Jive” and “Lend An Ear“, re-issued.

“Dr Heckle and Mr Jive” was re-issued once on CD in 2000, but has become increasingly difficult to get hold of. For a while the tracks were available on iTunes, but have disappeared in the last few months.

“Lend An Ear” hasn’t been officially re-issued since it was released on LP and cassette in 1983, so it will be great to have a clean digital copy after almost 27 years! (There is a Japanese CD available through Ebay and a few other sources, but that release wasn’t approved by the band and is probably a bootleg as far as I know).

The new re-issues are likely to be early in 2010, more details of what and when as I get them.

My thanks to Jim for the news.

Jim Johnstone has got a new EP out this week, “Bamako” under his ATOMM guise.

It’s the third release on NINE YARDS RECORDS, the digital label that Jim set up earlier this year with Mark Smith.

The EP is available from JunoDownload for £2.99, £3.79 or £5.99 depending on bitrate. You can preview the tracks on JunoDownload or hear some of the tracks on the ATOMM MySpace page.

Lots of info about bands from around Bristol in the post-punk late 70’s, early 80’s era. Nothing directly Pigbag-related but lots of bands who were around before and at the same time.

So if you want to find out about The Cortinas, Glaxo Babies, The Hybrids and loads more bands from that time and place, have a look at the site, and maybe buy some of the re-issued tracks from the iTunes Store.

More info at Alex Gaudino’s website – www.alexgaudino.com – which currently has the track playing in the background on the front page.

Here’s the video from YouTube:

Here’s hoping the Pigbag guys are getting their royalties on this.

You can check out a couple of his new tracks at the ATOMM MySpace page or play with the whizzy Flash page at www.atomm.co.uk.

Go to http://www.myspace.com/starekits for some retro-Angela sounds!

To celebrate the CD’s availability, Hardware have a website where you can listen to the tracks – http://www.hardware79.co.uk/

My thanks to Mike Chandler for the info