Where is the LOVE for ... The Au Pairs?

I really love Sense and Sensuality, but I've heard the the first album Playing With A Different Sex, is even better, although out of print. : (

I bought two Au Pairs badges from E-Bay for $15 dollars while drunk once.

All I have by them is the BBC collection. It seems like most of the songs on the albums are on there -- is it worth tracking down the albums anyhow?

All I have by them is the BBC collection. It seems like most of the songs on the albums are on there -- is it worth tracking down the albums anyhow?
I haven't heard much from it but the album versions of "Shakedown" and "Sex Without Stress" are somewhat different to the BBC versions (although the latter, as I noted, didn't appear on the compilation due to reasons of space).

Is the corrected version of "Sense & Sensuality" really that much better than the original release? I had the RPM CD but sold it - I felt it paled in comparison to "Playing With A Different Sex".

Hmmm. The forthcoming Au Pairs revival tour doesn't sound promising.

It's basically just Lesley with a new band, plus a lot of bad feelings from Jane, Paul and Pete.

Time isn’t on my side: Au Pairs vocalist Lesley Woods on reforming the 80s punk pioneers – without her bandmates

the sense and sensuality reissue had some songs bizarrely slowed down, and the last reissue of the first album sounded pretty thin. any renewed interest in the band might help another proper remaster and ideally, reissue of the bbc sessions disc too which aside from the fall and the only ones is probably my favorite peel sessions disc.

i’d see lesley playing these songs with a decent band of ringers, sure. sounds better than those slits tours 15 years ago where they were mostly playing new stuff?

Thanks for the answer 15 years later!

I'll stick with my 1992 CD of their debut, and you're damn right about their Peel session disc (and love your Peel picks and would add Gang Of Four's as a favorite).

the sense and sensuality reissue had some songs bizarrely slowed down

is that the music on vinyl reissue? just bought that this morning.

apparently the original pressing of it was mastered too fast, the reissues are at the intended speed. I've never heard the original so not sure how it compares.

i’m honestly not sure what to think here.

there’s a vinyl rip of the original sense and sensuality on youtube as well as most of the bbc sessions disc. compare two of the best songs, stepping out of line and america. the 2000s era remix brings forward a few guitar bits you can’t hear in the vinyl - good. but the voice doesn’t sound right to me, nor does the tempo and the guitar tone. the original issue sounds like the same key and similar tempos to the bbc versions; the remix sounds obviously slowed down, not correcting a real technical issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKUar3w7Ocg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHodAo0EwSQ

but maybe i just want to hear the album at the tempi i first heard it? the “new” backing vocals in sex without stress you can’t hear on the original are nice but… i dunno. curious what ya’ll think.