The Adverts - Cast Of Thousands
Original Release Date
1979
Release Information
UK LP 1979 (RCA Victor - PL 25246)
A1 Cast Of Thousands 5:26
A2 The Adverts 3:06
A3 My Place 2:49
A4 Male Assault 2:26
A5 Television's Over 3:17
B1 Fate Of Criminals 3:09
B2 Love Songs 2:27
B3 I Surrender 3:02
B4 I Looked At The Sun 4:15
B5 I Will Walk You Home 4:04
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UK 2xCD 2005 (The Devil's Own Jukebox - SDEVIL 905 CD). Sub-titled: The Ultimate Collection
Disc 1: Cast Of Thousands
1 Cast Of Thousands 5:26
2 The Adverts 3:06
3 My Place 2:49
4 Male Assault 2:26
5 Television's Over 3:17
6 Fate Of Criminals 3:09
7 Love Songs 2:27
8 I Surrender 3:02
9 I Looked At The Sun 4:15
10 I Will Walk You Home 4:04
Bonus Tracks
11 Television's Over (Single Version) 3:20
12 Back From The Dead 1:41
Disc 2: The Complete Adverts Radio Sessions
1 One Chord Wonders 2:30
2 Bored Teenagers 1:53
3 Gary Gilmore's Eyes 2:17
4 Newboys 3:20
5 Quickstep 3:19
6 We Who Wait 2:04
7 New Church 2:33
8 Safety In Numbers 3:22
9 Great British Mistake 3:33
10 Fate Of Criminals 3:09
11 Television's Over 3:22
12 Love Songs 2:35
13 Back From The Dead 1:39
14 I Surrender 3:07
15 The Adverts 3:18
16 I Looked At The Sun 4:28
17 Cast Of Thousands 4:59
18 I Will Walk You Home 4:43
Chart Placings
NoneCredits
LP:
T.V. Smith - Vocals
Gaye Advert - Bass
Howard Pickup - Guitar
Rod Latter - Drums
Tim Cross - Piano, Synthesiser
Richard Strange - Guest Synthesiser on Cast Of Thousands
Tom Newman - String Synthesiser on I Will Walk You Home
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CD:
Cast Of Thousands
Produced by Tom Newman
Digitally remastered at Fonoposto, Düsseldorf, Germany.
The Complete Adverts Radio Sessions:
Tracks 1-5 John Peel Show 29.4.77
Produced by Tony Wilson. Engineered by Bill Aitken.
Tracks 6-9 John Peel Show 30.8.77
Produced by Malcolm Brown. Engineered by Mike Robinson.
Tracks 10-14 John Peel Show 11.9.78
Produced by Tony Wilson. Engineered by Dave Dade.
Tracks 15-18 John Peel Show 12.11.79
Produced by John Sparrow. Engineered by Mike Robinson.
The Adverts were, on all recordings
T.V. Smith - vocals, guitar
Gaye Advert - bass guitar
Howard Pickup - guitar
Rod Latter - drums
Tim Cross - keyboards
Except Disc 2
Tracks 1-8
Laurie driver: drums
Tracks 15-18
Paul Martinez - guitar
Rick Martinez - drums
Additional Credits
CD Disc 1 Tracks 11-12: Television's Over 7", 1978
Reviews & Opinions
PUNKY GIBBON: A splendid, strange second album, with a new drummer (Rod Latter, ex-Maniacs) and a very different sound indeed. Badly received by critics (who slated it) and fans (who ignored it), it actually stands up to the rigours of time very well and is lyrically just as pointed as the debut. Most people had a bit of difficulty getting to grips with the outrageously thin production - by hippie knob-twiddler Tom Herman (Mike Oldfield, anyone?) - which emphasises the weedy keyboards and leaves the guitars for the most part disembodied. Songs like 'Television's Over' (a much lusher version than that of the 7-inch) and 'Fate of Criminals' want for nothing, and it stands as a fearless, adventurous and exciting work. 'I Will Walk You Home' and 'My Place' are two of the album's oddest cuts, the former a lovely ballad with what sounds like a mandolin but is actually a guitar recorded at half-speed. It ends the disc on an entirely appropriate ambiguous, melancholic note.
JOE YOUNG/IRA ROBBINS, THE TROUSER PRESS RECORD GUIDE, 1991: Oddly, Cast Of Thousands is as feeble as Red Sea is vital. Fatigue and depression permeate the LP, suggesting that Smith's muse had made a hasty exit. One need only read the backcover quote from 1 John 2:15 to get the picture: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." Pretty punky, huh?
DAVE THOMPSON, MOJO: With punk's obituary already filed, the idea that The Adverts even record a second album was greeted with scorn. That it sounded nothing like The Adverts and was helmed by Mike Oldfield producer, Tom Newman, did the rest. Reviews were hostile, fans were baffled and The Adverts themselves broke up before its release [sic]. For the few hardy souls who ventured in, Cast Of Thousands offered widescreen, anthemic, post-proggy rage that spat bitterly in the eye of prevalent trends (2-Tone, PiL, Oi) and remains out on a twisted limb today.
Additional Notes
The remastered "ultimate collection" boasts liner notes by Smith and Henry Rollins and an extra disc of radio sessions (palatable, if hardly essential, alternate versions of tracks from both studio albums) that had previously been released as The Wonders Don't Care.
Images
UK LP 1979 (RCA Victor - PL 25246). Click here for more
UK 2xCD 2005 (The Devil's Own Jukebox - SDEVIL 905 CD). Sub-titled: The Ultimate Collection. Click here for more
