The Island 1980

On a journey to San Francisco, Richard, his father and cousin Emmeline find themselves on a ship about to explode. Rushed to a lifeboat with Paddy Button, the two children escape while their father (and uncle) are on another lifeboat. In the chaos following, the lifeboats are separated. Paddy, Richard and Emmeline find themselves with no food and no water stuck in the middle of nowhere. After some time, the three come across an uncharted paradise, where Paddy quickly teaches the children fishing, hunting and building. After maybe a month or two, Paddy gets very drunk off a barrel of rum found on the island when they first arrive, and drowns in the middle of the night. Emmeline and Richard, now alone and very scared, move location and rebuild their island home. Many years later, the two young teenagers have developed a very real home, but hormones and feelings between the two strain their friendship…

While the three other Con Funk Shun reissues from Cherry Red's Robinsongs division paired two albums, this one is a two-disc set that combines three of them: Touch (1980), Con Funk Shun 7 (1981), and To the Max (1982). For whatever reason, Spirit of Love (also 1980), the source of "Got to Be Enough," was left out of the series. These weren't among the band's best releases, though they did spawn hit singles like "Too Tight" and "Bad Lady," and the tremendous album cut "Love's Train." In addition to providing the albums in their entirety, there is a handful of bonus tracks, including the 12" versions of "Lady's Wild," "Body Lovers," and "Ms. Got the Body."

"Celebrate!" is the 12th studio album by American band Kool & the Gang. Released on September 29, 1980, the album reached #1 on the US R&B chart and #10 on the Billboard 200. The album produced perhaps Kool & the Gang's most recognizable hit song, the #1 chart-topper, "Celebration", which still receives heavy play today over three decades later.

Super Ape is the 1976 album by Jamaican reggae group The Upsetters. Centered around producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, this CD is undated but was most likely done sometime in the late 1980's by Mango/Island.

Each release in our ‘Yearbook’ series includes a vinyl edition, featuring a selection of tracks taken from the full line-up found on the CD version. Inevitably, this has meant that a huge number of fabulous tracks have not been included on the LP versions… plus we have also released an accompanying CD ‘Extra’ for each of the years.

The final Asylum album from 1980 couldn't be more different than Waits' '73 debut - his voice sounds like the marvellous ruin that we know and love today, the ballads remain (On the Nickel is beautiful and even Springsteen took a crack at Jersey Girl) but it's the twisted warped blues of the title track that points the way to the extraordinary world of Swordfishtrombones.