Pillows & Prayers

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Pillows & Prayers (subtitled, Cherry Red 1982-1983) is compilation album released Christmas 1982 featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label at the suggestion of A&R head Mike Alway. The record was originally sold at 99 pence (in fact, "pay no more than 99p" was printed on the original sleeve), which helped ensure that the album peaked and remained at number 1 on the UK Indie Chart for 19 weeks and sold over 120,000 copies. Of note are tracks by English post-punk groups Everything But The Girl—whose singer Tracey Thorn also sang on her own solo track and as part of Marine Girls -- The Monochrome Set and Felt, as well as a spoken word piece by writer Quentin Crisp.

In 2007 the album was repackaged as a 3-CD plus DVD box set featuring complementary tracks from the same period and an extended essay by Alex Ogg. This revised edition won the 2008 MOJO Award for Catalogue Release of the Year, with three of the key artists, Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza), Lawrence (Felt) and Bid (Monochrome Set) appearing on stage to collect the award, alongside Cherry Red founder Iain McNay.

Tracks

Side one

1. Five Or Six — "Portrait" (2:52)
2. The Monochrome Set — "Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" (2:19)
3. Thomas Leer — "All About You" (3:50)
4. Tracey Thorn — "Plain Sailing" (2:01)
5. Ben Watt — "Some Things Don't Matter" (4:25)
6. Kevin Coyne — "Love in Your Heart" (2:55)
7. Piero Milesi — "Modi 2 (Extract)" (1:02)
8. Joe Crow — "Compulsion" (4:23)

Side two

1. Marine Girls — "Lazy Ways" (2:42)
2. Felt — "My Face Is on Fire" (3:04)
3. Eyeless in Gaza — "No Noise" (2:49)
4. The Passage — "XOYO" (3:26)
5. Everything But The Girl — "On My Mind" (3:08)
6. Attila the Stockbroker — "A Bang and a Wimpey" (1:41)
7. The Misunderstood — "I Unseen" (1:58)
8. The Nightingales — "Don't Blink" (4:00)
9. Quentin Crisp — "Stop the Music for a Minute" (1:00)

Pillows and Prayers 2

In 1984 a sequel, Pillows and Prayers 2, was released in Japan. This time, there was no special price. In 2000 the album was reissued on CD (CDMRED 169) with volume 1.

Tracks

1. Marine Girls - "A Place in the Sun" (2:29)
2. Jane - "It's a Fine Day" (2:45)
3. Kevin Hewick - "Feathering the Nest" (3:51)
4. Fantastic Something - "If She Doesn't Smile" (3:14)
5. Eyeless in Gaza - "New Risen" (2:47)
6. The Monochrome Set - "Jet Set Junta" (2:04)
7. Morgan Fisher - "Un Homme et une Femme" - (2:45)
8. Felt - "The World Is As Soft As Lace" (4:15)
9. Maurice Deebank - "The Watery Song" (4:54)
10. In Embrace - "Shouting in Cafes" (3:33)
11. Grab Grab the Haddock - "I'm Used Now" (3:17)
12. Ben Watt & Robert Wyatt - "Walter and John" (4:05)
13. Five or Six - "Another Reason" (3:04)
14. Red Box - "Chenko" (3:40)

"Un Homme et Une Femme" is the theme from the film of the same name, composed by Francis Lai and with lyrics by Pierre Barouh. "It's A Fine Day" was later a hit single when covered by Opus III several years later, and Red Box went on to chart success after signing to WEA.