Vinyl Junkie #13 - Fiction

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I've been extremely lax. Not in buying music, I've been purchasing quite a bit, actually, from sellers on Discogs and Musicstack, mostly. I've been lax in reporting it here. Before Coronavirus, I managed to find this gem, Fiction, the 1982 album by Sheffield, England post-punk band Comsat Angels, in great condition for a great price (just eight bucks,) at a Denver record store. And I would have willingly paid more. I was quite surprised to find it on vinyl, for one thing. Even though they toured the United States twice in the 80's, and landed a song, "I'm Falling," on the soundtrack to the 1985 Val Kilmer movie, Real Genius (a great 80's flick, in which the tune was played in it's entirety,) the Comsat Angels never really caught on over here, and I've always had trouble finding their music. In fact, other than a CD copy of their 1992 album, My Mind's Eye, I have only owned a couple of BBC Session import CD's by the group. Which is weird, because Fiction has been reissued three times on Compact Disc, yet I never found a copy. And Fiction is bloody great. It's got a favorite of mine, "Ju Ju Money" (on one of those compilations, vocalist/guitarist Stephen Fellows, tongue planted firmly in cheek, claimed that song as "Proof we invented goth... You're welcome!"), a bit of an odd statement considering that Fiction is nowhere near as gloomy as it's predecessor, Sleep No More. Even "Now I Know," a melancholic, love-gone-wrong tune, isn't exactly "slit your wrists" music. And Fiction's opening track, "After the Rain," is quite pretty, and even a bit optimistic! I've linked to a performance of "After the Rain," which I presume was filmed for one of the BBC's numerous music television shows, but I don't recognize the background. The band did spend a lot of time touring the Netherlands, so it could be from there. Either way, it's proof that, like fellow post-punker's The Chameleons, the Comsat Angels didn't quite achieve the popularity they deserved. I really can't believe someone parted with this. Their loss is my gain, as they say. (Info verified by Wikipedia)