Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Making Your Mind Up
2. Piece of the Action
3. One of Those Nights
4. Land of Make Believe
5. My Camera Never Lies (Dead End Version)
6. Now Those Days are Gone
7. If You Can’t Stand the Heat (Dead End Version)
8. Run For Your Life
9. When We Were Young (Dead End Version)
10. London Town (Dead End Version)
11. Rules of the Game (Dead End Version)
12. Talking in Your Sleep
13. Golden Days Are Over (Dead End Version)
14. I Hear Talk (Single Version)
15. You and Your Heart so Blue
16. Magical
17. New Beginning
18. Love the One You’re with (7” edit)
19. Keep Each Other Warm (Dead End Version)
20. Heart of Stone

Disc 2:

1. Oh Suzanne
2. When We Were Young (Extended Mix)
3. Rules of the Game (Extended mix)
4. What’s’ Love Got to Do with It?
5. You and Your Heart So Blue (Extended Mix)
6. New Beginning (Original Extended Mix)
7. Love The One You’re With (Extended Mix)
8. Keep Each Other Warm (Long Version)
9. Give A Little Love (Long Version)
10. If Paradise is Half as Nice (Extended Version) (Cheryl Baker) solo track
11. This Fragile Heart (Cheryl Baker) solo track
12. My Camera Never Lies (1987 Remix)
13. Land Of Make Believe (1991 Dance Funk Remix)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30039 in Music
• Released on: 2005-07-18
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
Bucks Fizz are the seminal 80s pop band whose career kicked off with the Eurovision-winning stormer, "Making Your Mind Up". They had 20 chart entries during their career including "The Land Of Make Believe", "My Camera Never Lies" and "Piece Of The Action". The Ultimate Anthology is the first Fizz collection to encompass hits from their entire career through RCA, Polydor and WEA, and the second disc features many rare and unreleased tracks.

Customer Reviews

An insight from the executive producer Kevin Newell
Well, I had to give this review 5 stars didn't I? Having had no previous connection with the recording industry, it was a pleasure and an honour (not to say a big surprise!) for the Album Producer Dean Murphy to ask me to help with this release.

Like many people I suspected and assumed that you basically turned up with a few CD's of the tracks, stuck them into a computer, twiddled some knobs and out came the finished article. WRONG!

Dean had an idea that was going to completely change the concept for what is basically a Greatest Hits compilation. His vision was to include all the RCA and Polydor singles (not as easy as it sounds) and then to find every track that had a `dead end' (or TV) version and include it on this CD, a very near impossible task to achieve. Oh and just for good measure, disc 2 was to contain tracks from WEA and a few unreleased remixes thrown in for good measure, as if we didn't have enough on our plate!

To do this took us to the great man himself, Andy Hill, and to his studio where some of the tapes had been stored since they were recorded. Dean had previously been given access to the studio and had seen some master tapes with, shall we say, unusual details on them. Some of the tapes were in quite bad condition having being left for 20 years and I suppose at the end of the day, no one was going to do anything with them where they? There were many formats, 2" tape, 1" tape ½" tape ¼" tape, U-Matic, Betamax and Sony DASH. Some of the machinery required to transfer the tracks is many years old and only a handful of studios in the world still have functioning equipment. These studios are becoming increasing hard to find mainly due to the continuing onslaught of digital recording techniques and as parts become unavailable or just too expensive to be commercially viable the machinery is sold off or scrapped. Eventually there will not be any commercial studios capable of transferring old analogue tape at which point anything recorded on it is lost. FOREVER. Whilst it is still possible to do this, the tape has to be treated with utmost care. After a period of time the oxide on the tape starts to shed from the plastic backing and is termed as being `gluey'. If this tape is played the oxide can be stripped off and the magnetic information (the track) is lost. Tapes can also snap in the machine with the same result. To overcome this problem the tapes had to be `baked' in a specially designed oven to literally stick the oxide back on. Sounds simple, but believe me it takes years of experience to get it right.

Our immediate task was to find these studios and we made hundreds of telephone calls. Luckily we struck gold and through the dedication of and ex BBC engineer, Andy Popplewell, of 40 Watt Productions in Manchester, the tapes that we had rescued, although in terrible condition, were restored and transferred into digital format. We must have driven tens of thousands of miles. In a space between July & September I alone clocked 9000 miles, between London, Leeds & Manchester in my car and that is not counting the numerous train journeys that Dean made too.

Some discoveries that were made on these tapes lead to Dean persuading BMG (Now part of the Sony Corporation) to put together another album of unreleased Fizz tracks. Due out very shortly as I write this, `The Lost Masters' contains over 30 previously unreleased tracks, some especially mixed and finished by Dean himself. The full story is for another day!

Back to this CD, and well, I am biased but after seeing the blood sweat and tears (literally) and the sheer determination by all those involved with it, this is one hell of a CD. Yes Bucks Fizz, the tacky, cheesy `80's pop group made famous for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, made some bloody good music. Think of the slick `My Camera Never Lies' with its myriad of harmonies, to the menacing drum and synths of `When We Were Young' to the fairlight programming and Hammond organ on `I Hear Talk', all via `London Town', the acapella `Now Those Days are Gone' and New Beginning (Mamba Seyra) is a timeless gem. No auto tune back then, sing it out of key and that is how it stayed! The production qualities of these tracks put some present day `sensations' to shame. For 20 odd year old tapes with a bit of digital remastering, these tracks have a new lease of life, especially the TV endings giving the CD a new feel and something for the fans to have that there was never any chance of owning in all there remastered glory. Shame Rules of the Game was the one that got away...!

As previously said, put away the musical snobbery and get out of the pigeon hole and just have a wallow in some `80s pop that didn't need foul language to make it sell. Bucks Fizz made some pretty good music and as a group they weren't afraid to take risks with their style. I can't say that `Magical' floats my boat, but I do remember playing it to a couple of `rockers' at college and they though it was brilliant. Its music for everyone and I bet you will find yourself singing along even though you thought you didn't know the words! Go on buy a copy today!

Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the ultimate anthology of bucks fizz combines the long awaited chronological singles in order of release and a bonus cd with special versions of fizz material. for fans like me a great thing, to hold this album in hands after all these years. brings back good memories. the best thing is, that the sound quality of all songs are just amazing. listening to it even no fizz fans can hear, that every single sounded different and that the fizz always changed their style, which makes them so unique. my fav songs are: you and your heart so blue, heart of stone, new beginning and keep each other warm. a must have!!!

A great pop collection
Despite the fact that they were dogged by ridiculous musical snobbery, Bucks Fizz released a slew of great pop singles. Those of you with your noses in the air should step the hell away from the daft "Making Your Mind Up" and investigate the glamorous sheen of "My Camera Never Lies", "When We Were Young", "I Hear Talk", "You And Your Heart So Blue", "New Beginning" and "Heart Of Stone" (later covered by Cher). This is a strong set of catchy pop songs and wonderful performances, underscored by some great production.

Unusually, great efforts were made in compiling this album to create something worthwhile for loyal fans who already had pretty much everything. Cold-end mixes used for TV performances have replaced some of the standard mixes and, surprisingly, "London Town" really benefits from the dramatic new conclusion. A bonus disc featuring 12" versions, unreleased material and a couple of new mixes really adds value.

This is a great collection for any fan of tuneful, well-produced pop. Recommended.