Name: My Picture Gallery – The Artpop! Recordings
Brand: The Times

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CRCDBOX117

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2021-12-03

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cherry Red (ADA)

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5013929111790

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Total Cap

6 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

The Times

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

Cherry Red

Cherry Red is a British label that was founded by Iain McNay in 1978. Also known as Cherry Red Records, this label has become associated with the company Music and Media Group. With the label code LC 6730, Cherry Red has made a name for itself in the music industry. It is important to note that this label should not be confused with the US label of the same name.

Six CD box set containing the complete recordings released between 1981 and 1986 by Edward Ball’s indie mod band The Times including their albums Go! With The Times (recorded 1980 but released in 1985), Pop Goes Art! (1982), This Is London (1983), Hello Europe (1984), Up Against It (1986) and Enjoy (1986).

Also includes The Times’ rare 1981 debut single ‘Red With Purple Flashes’ / ‘Biff! Bang! Pow!’ which has sold for over £300 on Discogs and was named as one of the top five mod revival singles in Mojo magazine.

Bonus tracks include The Times’ legendary take on the ‘Theme From Dangerman’, a cover of David Bowie’s ‘London Boys’, tracks from the 12” EPs ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape’ (1983), ‘Blue Period’ (1985), ‘Boys About Town’ (1986) and ‘Times TV’ (1986) and an alternative version of perhaps their most famous song ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape’ (inspired by cult TV series The Prisoner) taken from the ‘A Splash Of Colour’ compilation that celebrated the early 1980s psychedelic revival.

Edward Ball was a member of cult band The Television Personalities alongside his school friend Dan Treacy before leaving to concentrate on The Times. Treacy plays guitar on the Pop Goes Art! album which was originally released on Dan and Ed’s Whaam! Records before being reissued on Edward’s Artpop! label.

The Whaam! label set up by Edward Ball with the Television Personalities’ Dan Treacy and Ball’s own Artpop! Label were a direct inspiration for Alan McGee to set up Creation Records who signed Edward Ball in 1988. McGee was a fan of The Times and the ‘Pop Goes Art!’ and ‘This Is London’ albums and they inspired his own band Biff Bang Pow! and Creation Records.

The 1986 album Up Against It is the soundtrack to Joe Orton’s rejected screenplay for The Beatles that was staged by Edward Ball and Mood Six’s Tony Conway at a West London theatre. Edward Ball has approved the box set and has contributed notes alongside MOJO and Record Collector writer Lois Wilson.

The albums This Is London, Hello Europe and Enjoy make up the ‘Frank Summit’ trilogy, an ambitious work with the scope of Tommy or Quadrophenia that foretells Brexit and the rise of right wing leaders such as Donald Trump.