A Factory Novelty Record

 

Ad Infinitum - Telstar [2001856 (FAC 96) PRT 1984 24-Bit FLAC]

Did you know there was a very rare twelve inch version? I've ripped my crackly seven inch pressing a few times for the old ESWA blog, but never this hard-to-find Portuguese twelve inch pressing. 

Ad Infinitum was a project by New Order's bass swinger Peter Hook and Lindsay Reade (former wife of the late Tony Wilson) with some help from Eric Random, plus a few Factory luminaries. 

This anonymous 7" single, a cover of the Joe Meek classic was released in early 1984 in a unique hologram sleeve. The A-side featured an electronic version of the track - if you listen closely you can hear Hook's treated bass, New Order's old sequencers and what sounds like the same guitar used on Everything's Gone Green. I'm not too sure what Lindsay was doing on the record, although she initiated the project with a vocal version which was abandoned following Meek's objections, leaving her with just a few baaa...ba..ba..baaaas.

The flipside features then A Certain Ratio keyboardist Andy Connell skillfully twinkling the ivories and Martin Moscrop's solo trumpet. As an experiment this my first 24/88.2 post, let me know what you think.

A1 Telstar
B1 Telstar In A Piano Bar