‘Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors’ and ‘Internal Exile,’ 2024 remixes are now available for pre-order, available 22nd July

12 June 2024

After so much anticipation, I can finally announce that my first two solo albums, ‘Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors’ and ‘Internal Exile,’ are now available for pre-order and will be released on July 22nd in three different formats. They have been in the pipeline for a very long time but got caught up in the triple vinyl box set debacle last year and were continually delayed by events, which also forced back the release of the “13th Star” remixed issue. They were always intended to be the last releases on the Chocolate Frog Record Company, to bring a circle to a close and to be the final remasters in the collection that hopefully will be seen as a legacy catalogue.

When we started working on them over a year ago, we knew they would become major projects, and I always wanted the deluxe versions to be incredibly special. I cannot believe just how much work it has taken the team to bring this all together, and I have to admit there were a couple of times I just wanted to walk away as the costs escalated and were making no sense. The deluxe versions are incredibly special, and I am proud to have these as the final releases from my label, which is closing its doors next April.

‘Internal Exile’ was my ‘difficult second solo album’ and the first recorded here at my studio after it was built in 1990. Chris Kimsey did a great job back then under the circumstances, but we were under a lot of pressure from many sources, and I don’t think either of us were completely happy with it. I asked Calum to have a go at a remix for the new re-release, and the results when I heard them were incredible. Chris Kimsey’s original 1991 recordings were faultless, and Calum worked with them to create something totally different with his 2024 mixes. The energy and dynamics he brought out in the songs gave them a new life, and when I heard them back for the first time in the old album running order, there was something not quite right. After playing about for a while with the tracklisting, it all finally clicked, and it was as if I was hearing a brand-new album for the first time. It was as if ‘Internal Exile’ was totally reborn and finally fired on all cylinders.

Calum also revisited the 1995 re-recordings that had been produced by James Cassidy for the ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ albums, including the fabulous duet on ‘Just Good Friends’ with Sam Brown, and once again found a new magic in the tapes.

I hadn’t been sure about remixing ‘Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors’ as the original was such a touchstone album in my solo career, but after hearing what Calum had done with ‘Exile,’ I asked him if he wanted to take it on. He jumped at the chance, and once again, when I heard the final mixes, it was like hearing a brand-new album, bristling with energy and with dynamics and songs I’d never heard before. Likewise, with Chris Kimsey on ‘Exile,’ Jon Kelly had done a fantastic piece of work recording the original contributions and given Calum a wonderful palette of sounds to work with.

VIGIL IN A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS (2024 REMIX)

PRE-ORDER STANDARD 3CD EDITION

PRE-ORDER DELUXE 4CD/BLU-RAY EDITION

PRE-ORDER 2LP VINYL EDITION

INTERNAL EXILE (2024 REMIX)

PRE-ORDER STANDARD 3CD EDITION

PRE-ORDER DELUXE 4CD/BLU-RAY EDITION

PRE-ORDER 2LP VINYL EDITION

The first CD on both titles of the deluxe versions is the 2024 remix of the original album plus all the B-sides. You can find all the track listings for the CD’s on the product pages. CD2 on both titles is the previously unavailable demos that have been digitally remastered from the original Akai 12-track tapes and mixed by Steve Vantsis. These were all recorded here at the old Funny Farm Recording Studios through 1988 to 1991. CD3 and CD4 on both deluxe issues are live versions from across the ages and by different bands on different tours. These include recordings from the BBC concerts at Town and Country Club and the Royal Court Theatre in Nottingham and some previously unheard versions of material which, when all brought together, have live performances of every song from the respective albums. CD3 on the ‘Internal Exile’ title has four 2024 Calum Malcolm mixes of the re-recordings made by James Cassidy in 1995, including ‘Just Good Friends’ and ‘Favourite Stranger,’ featuring Sam Brown.

The standard versions of both albums have three CDs, with the difference being that CD3 is a compilation of live and re-recorded material from CD3 and CD4 from the deluxe version. The deluxe versions of both ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal Exile’ come in hardback books in slipcases with 100 pages containing Mark Wilkinson artwork, including original sketches, rare photos and images from backstage, and also the promo material from the relevant eras. They also have over 13,000 words of original sleeve notes that take you through one of the most dramatic, testing, and exciting periods of my life as I began my solo career—a time in my life that was, to say the least, challenging. All the lyrics are printed and accompanied by images with the entire book brilliantly put together by Steve Vantsis.

The deluxe versions also have Blu-ray discs which contain the Dolby Atmos and 5.1 versions of the 2024 albums mixed by Avril Mackintosh and Andy Bradfield, who have previously mixed the ‘13th Star’ album as well as the most recent ‘Marillion’ remasters for Warners. ‘Internal’ and ‘Vigil’ are perfect for these special mixes, and Avril and Andy have pulled out all the stops to make them magnificent. The Blu-ray also has the relevant promotional videos that have had the 2024 mixes added to the audio beds and the film enhanced, and on both titles, there are extensive documentaries filmed by Dave Barras and Scott Mackay at Strangeboat. There are in-depth interviews with myself about the eras and substantial footage that I shot myself and with others from the studio and writing sessions at the Funny Farm and on tour, including the early solo shows. There’s also a documentary interview with Mark Wilkinson, who reveals the stories behind the artwork and his recollections of those early days of my solo career. There are nearly two hours of documentary footage on each title.

Finally, on each of the Blu-rays, there are two full concert audio recordings that were previously released in 1993 as part of the ‘official bootleg series’ and long since deleted. On the ‘Vigil’ deluxe, it is ‘Pigpen’s Birthday’ (1990) and ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ (1991), and on ‘Internal Exile,’ it’s ‘Uncle Fish and the Cryptcreepers’ (1991) and ‘Derek Dick and his Amazing Electric Bear’ (1991). The audio on all of these shows has been remastered by Calum Malcolm. The deluxe versions of the albums are without doubt the finest produced to date and rightly befitting these two outstanding titles. These are true legacy editions. The standard version of both ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal’ is a hardback digipak similar to the previous remasters and has 48 pages of photos, images, and lyrics with the aforementioned three CDs—the 2024 remix, the demos, and the live/re-recording compilations.

The final available format is the double vinyl gatefold album, both mastered by Barry Grint at Alchemy Mastering and pressed by Sea Bass Vinyl at Macmerry in Scotland. I’ve opted for the highest quality possible, and the black vinyl is 180 gm, with ‘Internal’ mastered at half speed, as the sides are slightly longer containing the 95 re-recordings, and ‘Vigil’ with slightly shorter sides allowing similar quality on the cut. The vinyl editions both have color inserts with all the lyrics. These 2024 remixes of ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal’ are now for me definitive legacy versions and are perfect releases to close this circle that began back in 1989.

All the formats are going to be limited editions to some degree. The deluxe version I have kept to £49.99 ex VAT or £59.99 inc VAT. This doesn’t include postage. For all the work that has gone into this across the board and the content, I think it’s incredible value, and I refrained from pricing this higher. This reflects a print order of 3000 in order to get the price down as low as I can. I think you can appreciate that a hardback book in a slipcase with 100 color pages and five discs (including a Blu-ray) is not a cheap item to make, and adding all the costs of licensing, filming, mixing, remixing, and designing, my margins have considerably narrowed. I appreciate that not all of you have the money to buy these deluxe versions.

The standard versions of the albums I’ve kept to £16.99 ex VAT or £20.39 inc VAT. This price does not include postage. Should you wish to contribute above the asking price, I am offering a personalized autograph for an extra fee similar to the previous one on ‘13th Star’ and on the deluxe versions of ‘Weltschmerz’ and ‘Feast of Consequences’. It’s an option and one that is only available for a limited period and only on the deluxe and the vinyl versions of ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal.’ The double gatefold vinyl versions of the albums are £24.99 ex VAT or £29.99 inc VAT; this doesn’t include postage.

As we are currently selling the studio, we have no idea how long the mail order will be able to continue from here. We are hoping to be operational until the middle of August, and then my daughter Tara is taking over the service and operating from Cumbernauld where she lives. Once the mail order is finished here, I’ll be unable to sign the personalized autographs, and on tour, even though the items will be available on the merchandise stalls, there will be no autograph sessions as I am being incredibly careful on what is a highly important series of concerts, none of which I want to lose to illness.

All the track listings of the different formats of both ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal’ you can find here. There are radio edits of the 2024 remixes of the various singles available here, which you can download and feel free to use and send to radio stations or websites that may provide some plays. They will be able to give people a great idea of just how good the remixed albums are. ‘Something in the Air’ is now released as a single, so please check it out and share it around. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, but you never know, there might be a few out there who rally around it, and it just might gain some momentum. With all the radio edits flying around, one might just stick somewhere.

The videos of the singles from ‘Vigil’ and ‘Internal’ with the added 2024 remixed audio will be added to my YouTube channel in the coming weeks, so check them out and again, please share. All the formats are available for preorder now, and we will be sending them out on the 22nd of July or before if they arrive earlier. The ‘Internal Exile’ and ‘Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors’ products cannot be preordered together with existing products in stock and cannot be ordered together, pre-orders can only be single product orders. If you’d like to order multiple formats, you will need to place multiple orders.

I hope this has all helped, and I appreciate that there’s a lot of product coming at you, and with that, I’m sure there’s a lot of questions. We will do our best to provide it. There are a lot of emotions flying around on this release, which is probably the most significant since I released ‘Weltschmerz’ back in 2020. It’s the farewell to the Chocolate Frogs and the end of an era.

Thanks for being out there and supporting us. Talk again soon.

Take care,

Fish