The One about The House of Love - The House of Love (Super Deluxe Edition) (1988/2018)

This is such a wonderful 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition release! It’s one thing to get the original tracks but all these alternate takes, demo versions, A-Sides, B-sides, rarities, John Peele sessions and live concert performance versions (nearly five hours worth) for the low price of $8 (for the digital version on Amazon)! That’s truly a steal for an awesome album like this! Recommended!

Click here to the purchase The House of Love – The House of Love (Super Deluxe Edition) on Amazon

BAND: The House of Love

ALBUM: The House of Love (Deluxe Edition)

DURATION: 85 Songs (4 Hours, 47 Minutes)

RELEASE DATE: June 1998 (original album) / September 2018 (Deluxe Edition)

Disc 1: The House of Love

“Christine”
“Hope”
“Road”
“Sulphur”
“Man to Child”
“Salome”
“Love in a Car”
“Happy”
“Fisherman’s Tale
“Touch Me”
“Shine On” [demo version]
“Christine” [demo version]Tracks 11 and 12 were released on a 7″ bonus disc that accompanied the first 3,000 copies of the album in 1988. Andrea Heukamp appears on these two tracks, in addition to track 1. Remastered from original tapes except 11, 12 from vinyl.

Disc 2: A-Sides, B-Sides, Rarities

“Shine On”
“Love”
“Flow”
“Real Animal”
“Plastic”
“Nothing to Me”
“The Hill”
“Loneliness Is a Gun”
“The Hedonist”
“Welt”
“Destroy The Heart”
“Blind”
“Mr. Jo”
“Shine On” [Guy Chadwick demo]
“Real Animal” [demo]
“Touch Me” [demo]
“Happy” [demo]
“Road” [early mix]
“Salome” [early mix]
“Fisherman’s Tale” [early mix]
“Destroy The Heart” [demo]
“Shine On [Fuck version]

Disc 3: Demos

“Road” [longer early mix]
“Sulphur” [early mix]
“Happy” [early mix]
“Fisherman’s Tale” [alternative early mix]
“Touch Me” [early mix]
“Salome” [longer early mix]
“Shine On” [band demo]
“Real Animal” [16 track demo]
“Christine” [16 track demo]
“Hold On Me” [16 track demo]
“Hope” [alternative version]
“Man To Child” [alternative version]
“Love In A Car” [alternative version]
“Modern World” [demo – alias “Welt”]
“Little Girl” [alternative version – alias “Mr. Jo”]
“Sulphur” [alternative version]
“Happy” [alternative version
“Touch Me” [alternative version]
“Shine On” [alternate take]
“Real Animal” [alternate take]
“Destroy The Heart” [early version – no guitar]

Disc 4: BBC Sessions 1988-89

“Destroy The Heart”
“Nothing To Me”
“Plastic”
“Blind”
“The Hedonist”
“Don’t Turn Blue”
“Safe”
“Love In A Car”
“In A Room”
“The Beatles And The Stones”
“Christine”
“Loneliness Is A Gun”

Disc 5: Live

“Christine”
“Man To Child”
“Road”
“Shine On”
“Plastic”
“Sulphur”
“Touch Me”
“Nothing To Me”
“I Don’t Know Why I Love You But I Do”
“Never”
“Se Dest”
“The Hedonist”
“Soft As Fire”
“Fisherman’s Tale”
“Happy”
“Love In A Car”
“Destroy The Heart”
“I Wanna Be Your Dog”

In 1986, singer/songwriter/guitarist Guy Chadwick and co-founder/lead guitarist Terry Bickers would form a band in Camberwell, London.

Inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain, the band would start off almost like a pre-shoegaze alternative rock band. Chadwick would team up with his good friend, drummer Pete Evans, German rhythm guitarist/co-vocalist Andrea Heukamp and New Zealand bass player Chris Groothuizen.

Choosing the name for the band to be “The House of Love”, inspired by Anai’s Nin’s book “A Spy in the House of Love” and by 1987, they would release two singles, “Shine On” and “Real Animal”.

“Shine On” featured dreamy vocals by Andrea Heukamp and the low vocals of Guy Chadwick on “Shine On”, their next single “Real Animal” would be a rock track featuring Guy Chadwick’s vocals, with Heukamp in the background but with psychedelic guitars and soft background vocals, there was no doubt that The House of Love had something special and could have been in the forefront of dream pop/shoegaze music.

The band would release an album in 1987 through Rough Trade Germany titled “The House of Love” (aka “The German Album”) featuring all five members and the band went on tour.

All seemed to go so well for The House of Love, but by the end of 1987, Andrea Heukamp was tired of touring and quit the band. The person who provided The House of Love with those dream back vocals, was no more.

This led the band without their co-vocalist and they had to create new songs without Heukamp as Chadwick would go on to say that “Losing Andrea Heukamp was a massive, massive blow for me: I loved her voice and I loved her playing, she was easily as important as Pete (Evans), Terry (Bickers) or Chris (Groothuizen)”.

But the four members of the band would continue on working on their debut album, re-record the songs and the band would record songs despite being high on LSD and going for more of an alternative rock band style and get away from that pre-shoegaze sound that they were known with Heukamp.

The first single released was “Christine” which debuted at No.1 on the Indie charts. While their non-album single “Destroy the Heart” would be voted “Single of the Year” in John Peele’s Festive Fifty.

But the ten track album would do well for the band, receiving positive reviews, topping charts in Europe and eventually being signed to Fontana Records (known for the label with many major acts such as Tears for Fears, Cocteau Twins, Swing Out Sister and many more.

While the band would produce another chart topping album also named “The House of Love” (but would be known as the “Butterfly” album or “Fontana”) and more hit songs. Unfortunately for the band, signing with Fontana was not a good match and the band making decisions to delay an album release for two years. And the relationship with the band founders, Chadwick and Bickers would lead to major tensions, as Bickers would form his own band Levitation, the feud between Chadwick and Bickers no doubt had both former friends/band mates verbally attacking each other.

And by the early ’90s, the tastes of music in America went towards grunge rock and in the UK, it went towards Britpop. While Andrea Heukamp would come back as a guest vocalist and band would go through a few change in band members, while their fans supported them, the band were no longer commercially successful.

Things weren’t the same, many band members left and The House of Love would disband in 1993.

If there is a positive is that there has been a lot of self-reflection within the band members, Chadwick and Bickers made their peace and returned with an album in 2005 titled “Days Run Away” and have released albums in 2013 with “She Paints Words in Red” and their new album in Sept. 2022 titled “A State of Grace”.

So, if there was somewhat of positive story for The House of Love is that they were able to create years of cool music and through the challenges of a dysfunctional band, they were able to make amends. Granted, it may not have been like in their earlier years, but they have accepted what has happened and moved forward.

With that being said, I am reviewing their first album, but this time a Super Deluxe Edition version which comes with a total of 85 songs (nearly five hours worth of music) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the band’s debut album, “The House of Love”.

While you get the original ten tracks, you get the numerous versions of “Shine On” and “Christine” (which was a 7″ bonus disc that accompanied the first 3,000 copies of the album in 1988) and features that pre-shoegaze style when Andrea Heukamp was a band member.

You then get the A-side singles and the B-sides to those singles. This includes the Andrea Heukamp years, songs that were released on “The Germany Album” from 1987 and also the early mixes and demo versions of those songs. And I’m not talking about a few, you literally get demos, early mixes, 16 track demos, alternative versions and more.

In addition, you get the BBC Sessions from 1988-89 for disc 4, so you literally get 12 tracks from the 21 tracks that were featured on the “House of Love: The Complete John Peel Sessions”.

While the fifth disk features live performances such as tracks 1-4 from Vredenburg, Ultracht, Holland, tracks 5-9 from Groningen, Holland, tracks 10-13 from Top Rank, Brighton, England and tracks 14-18 from La Cigale, Paris, France.