Soft Cell to reissue deluxe ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’
An expansive reissue has been announced for Soft Cell’s seminal debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, originally released in 1981 by Some Bizarre Records, which will be out on October 20th via Mercury-EMI/UMR.
In addition to a remastering of the album, the release will see a 6xCD Super Deluxe edition containing 98 tracks – 40 of which have been previously unreleased. The first disc will include the A- and B- sides in their original 7-inch versions, while the second disc will feature extended versions and new remixes of each of the album’s tracks.
The third will contain demos, BBC session highlights, outtakes, and audio from BBC TV and radio appearances on The Richard Skinner Show, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops, and more. It will mark the first release of Soft Cell material since 2022’s Happiness Not Included.
Fans will also have access to a full instrumental version of both the album and demos, original 12-inch A-sides and B-sides from 1981 to 1982, and more recent recordings from Soft Cell’s live shows at the London 02 Arena in 2018, and Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo in November 2021.
The reissue will be available as a limited edition 2xLP in either yellow/blue or black vinyl. Their breakout album contains their signature hit ‘Tainted Love’ along with singles ‘Bedsitter’ and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, which were both in the top five in the UK.
Speaking about the album in a statement, vocalist Marc Almond said it “tells a story of a bored ordinary bloke seething with his life wanting more and looking for excitement and adventure in a red neon-lit Soho world of red-light cabarets, prostitutes and sex dwarves, looking back at his youth and wondering what happened”.
“The album was the other side of the coin of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain,” he continued. “I never felt it was political at the time, but it seems it now. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret was the secret seedy life that went on behind the mask of Conservative Britain.”
Listen to the extended version of ‘Frustration’, released ahead of the reissue, below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.