Elysium or The Burning Skies Of Elysium: The Last Revolving Door 1987 (Reissue 1993)

 

ELYSIUM was formed in Horley, Surrey (UK) in the autumn of 1981 by brothers Chris and Graham Mitchell together with their best friend Matthew Venn. They started writing songs and by March 1982 they recorded their first two songs at Rendezvous, John Ratcliff’s studio in the south of London. Their debut on stage took place at Brighton’s Kensington Arms public house in April 1982, followed by dates

at The Cartoon Club in Croydon, The Richmond in Brighton, and The Half Moon in Herne Hill. In January or February 1983 they recorded another two songs and released their first 4 track cassette ep. With most of their work centred on some of London’s top venues and earning respect from their many followers as a brilliant live band, they constantly played gigs from Brighton to Bradford. In September 1984, joined by saxophonist Ron Howe, they recorded and put out their first vinyl release, the ‘Summer House’ b/w ‘Through Flak & Flak’ 7”. Shortly after Ron would also join The Cure for their ‘The Head On The Door’ album sessions.
                   

            
The band went into The Slaughterhouse studios and in February 1985 ELYSIUM released their second single ‘Carousel’ b/w ‘Weeping and Wailing’ on 12”, produced and engineered by Colin Richardson

who would become responsible for their later recordings also. More gigging and in August they shot a promotional video for ‘Carousel’ at the Barbican in Manchester. In October 1986 they started working on an album at The Slaughterhouse. ‘The Last Revolving Door’ was completed in February 1987 and released in December 1987 under the expanded BURNING SKIES OF ELYSIUM moniker. Shortly after the release, Ron Howe left to pursue other interests.
                    

In February 1988 a double A side 7” was extracted from the album, featuring ‘Alone’ and ‘Beggarman

Thief’. Everything was going fine for the band but fatality struck and Graham Mitchell tragically passed away in April. Sadly on their own then, Chris and Matt played some live dates in July with the help of a drum machine. In December they returned to The Slaughterhouse and recorded three incredible songs, also using a drum machine; ‘One Afternoon’, ‘It’s All Over’ and ‘Dutch Villa’. Only the latter would see the light on the rare various artists cassette-only sampler ‘You Can’t Be Loved Forever No. 2’.
                     

Their record label folded and in June 1989 drummer Mark Simmonds joined the lineup. As a three-piece again, gigs at the Marquee, Powerhaus, Mean Fiddler and Subterania followed. BURNING

SKIES OF ELYSIUM were voted one of the best live bands of 1989 at The Cricketers, London. They continued playing live in the early 90s, recorded three more songs in one last session and finally split in 1995, only to reform one year later as the renewed indie band LOLATWIST. They recorded three albums independently and kept playing live until fatality struck again when Matt Venn tragically lost his life in a car accident on the 12th of October 2001. That was it, unfortunately. IT’S ALL OVER.
                   

DEAD WAX RECORDS HERE  

Elysium – The Last Revolving Door
Label: Spectre Records – SPV 084-25192 CD
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: Germany
Released: 1993
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave

TRAXS

                       

01. Alone    3:22
02. For My Eyes    2:35
03. Carousel    4:12
04. Death Of The Clowns    3:50
05. Far From The Crowd    3:18
06. Beggarman Thief    2:43
07. Domino    2:53
08. Out On The Paperchase    3:36
09. Too Late For Tears    4:30
10. Fragments    2:21

BONUS TRAXS        

    
11. One Afternoon    4:59
12. It's All Over    3:16
13. Dutch Villa    3:03

LINE - UP

                   

Bass, Keyboards – Matt Venn
Drums, Percussion – Graham Mitchell
Saxophone – Ron Howe
Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards – Chris Mitchell
Written-By – Mitchell, Mitchell, Venn

NOTES

This Album Is Dedicated To Graham Mitchell, Greatly Missed.
The 3 bonus tracks on this CD re-issue "One Afternoon", "It's All Over" & "Dutch Villa" were recorded in December 1988 by BURNING SKIES OF ELYSIUM's remaining members Chris Mitchell & Matthew Venn "in memory" of their drummer (and Chris' brother) Graham Mitchell who had passed away earlier that year (April 1988) at the age of 23 (was diagnosed with cancer since 1984).

Flac Size: 463 MB