13 March 2009

CACTUS WORLD NEWS


I had written about Irish band Cactus World News in my very first post about 2 years ago. The files I put up back then are long gone, and I wasn't concentrating on rare stuff at the time, anyway.

For those who don't already know, Cactus World News were one of the first signings to Bono's Mother Records label back in the eighties. After their first single, "The Bridge", became a hit, they signed with a major, and put out the amazing album Urban Beaches.

They toured for ages, then went back in the studio and cut a second album, No Shelter. Just before the album was released, their label was bought up by another label, and they were dropped.

They kept going for a while, but broke up without another album seeing the light of day.

A few years back, they issued a re-mastered version of Urban Beaches on their own label, with extra tracks. Shortly after that, No Shelter was issued as well. Despite both albums having a good chunk of rare bonus tracks, they still skipped a few. Here's some more:

(files expired)

Cactus World News - "Hurry Back" B-side of the "Years Later" single.
Cactus World News - "America" (live Simon & Garfunkel cover) Issued on a radio-promo-only live album recorded at The Whiskey in L.A.
Cactus World News - "Skin and Dust" A flexi-disc given away with an issue of Melody Maker.
Cactus World News - "The Bridge" (live) Recorded at the Self Aid concert, and issued on the Live For Ireland compilation.
Cactus World News - "Don't Let Me Down" Their final single, released in 1990

Cactus World News discography:

Urban Beaches, 1986 (buy)
No Shelter, 1989/2004 (buy)



3 comments:

hw6152 said...

great post -- would love to see some live Cactus World News.

DeadBilly said...

The entire Whiskey show can be had thanks to Willfully Obscure:

http://wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com/2008/11/cactus-world-news-spin-special-forces.html

petecole said...


Cactus World News are releasing ‘Found’ a collection of very rare & previously unreleased tracks. Pledge now @ www.pledgemusic.com/artists/cactusworldnews

Cactus World News on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cactus-World-News-Official/1713841628840909?fref=ts