Steam On The Underground

Paul Weller wrapped up his contract with Go/Island/Universal Records with the release of 2000's Heliocentreic, leaving for the appropriately named indie label Independiente. There was one piece of unfinished business, however – a collection of the B-sides and rarities he released during his tenure at the label, hence the 2003 appearance of Fly on the Wall: B Sides & Rarities. Like any other popular or semipopular musicians of the '90s, Weller released a lot of material that never wound up on a proper album, as he had to populate the B-sides of multi-part singles in both his United Kingdom homeland and in parts of Asia and Australia, and he also contributed to many tribute and charity albums. So, there was a lot to round up, and Fly on the Wall gathers everything of note (there are few remixes that didn't make the cut) on a generous triple-disc, 39-track minibox set.

Collection includes: All Over The Place (1984); Different Light (1985); Everything (1988); Greatest Hits (1990) and Doll Revolution (2003). The Bangles combined the chiming riffs and catchy melodies of British Invasion guitar pop with a hint of the energy of new wave. In the process, they became one of the handful of all-female bands of the '80s to win both critical and commercial success.

This exclusive video collection is jam-packed with the gritty best from noted New York filmmaker Richard Kern. His sexually-charged work has been alternately dismissed as “violent” and “offensive” by the mainstream press, but embraced by the underground as the perverse standard. Says Kern, “I've tried it all: crime thrills, drug thrills, sex thrills. Nowadays, I get most of my thrills by offending people with my films. I don't even have to be there. I can sit far away and think, “Someone's watching my video right now and thinking, Yeeughh!”

The Age of Steam was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life – from trade and transportation to health and recreation.