Fruits de Mer Records - Psychedelia, Krautrock, Progressive Rock, Acid-Folk, R&B, Spacerock and Vinyl Heaven

the lesser-spotted Fruits de Mers - Part 2

For my benefit far more than yours, I'm summarising some of the scarce/expensive/hard-to-find items that have seen the light of day since the early days of FdM. some are planned - some aren't - such as the weird colours of vinyl that have escaped, sometimes intended, often not. If you spot any errors or omissions, do let me know

Fruits de Mer is a vinyl-only label, so why is quite a lot of this page given over to Fruits de Mer CDs?
Ah wellll... Not so much the promo CDs I send out to reviewers and DJs for each new vinyl record, I'm thinking more the short-run CDs I very occasionally slip into Fruits de Mer orders, to promote a new artist, or future release, I'm going to try to build up a list of them before the brain cells give up on me completely. It'll all be pretty random for a while, then maybe I'll be able to sort it into a logical order
And I've added the highest ebay price I've seen, when I've noticed copies listed


MORE SCARSE FRUITS de MER ITEMS CAN BE FOUND HERE - JUST CLICK..... More Info

KEEP OFF THE GRASS
BAND INSERT
not seen on ebay

I thought it might be an idea for the artists involved to see what they all looked like, so i produced a bunch of 30cmx30cm inserts for their copies only - although if my memory serves me correctly, a few did escape into copies I sold and posted

ME AND MY KITES
KITE
ebay :£5.50

I bought a bunch of appallingly-flimsy kites, hand-stamped them and included them randomly in parcels containing the Me And My Kites 7" in 2013. They didn't fly and didn't really travel well at all, so not many went outside the UK

PLANKTON
ROSCOE
LP+T-SHIRT PACKAGE
not seen on ebay

RRPG's Ian Shirley designed 'Roscoe' for the Plankton/Pretty Things 7" label and produced 20 t-shirts afterwards; we made five of them into special packages and Ian even produced special certificates of authenticity for them! There'll be three for sale at Crabstock in Wales

CRABSTOCK WALES
GOODIE-BAG
1-50
ebay: £210

100 goodie-bags were dished out at Crabstock in Cardigan on April 26th - the first 50 people got all of this, the next 50 got NEARLY the same bagful of goodies

THE SEVENTH RING OF SATURN
BORDERLINE
PROMO ALBUM CDr
ebay:£26

All 150 of the Summer Fruits de Mer goodie bags included the TSROS CD - a different mix to the original CD, with an outtake added, the sleeve also 'remixed' by me and printed on my trusty laserjet

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS
EXORCISING THE DEMOS
PART ONE
ebay: £45

200 of these CDs are/were given away to Fruits de Mer members who got their orders in early for the first FdM releases of 2014, and the band have a small supply - and that's it. An exclusive mix of demos, unreleased tracks and stuff like that

MAYFISH
PROMO CD
not seen on ebay

the first 100 people through the door at each of the Crabstock gigs got a copy of this compilation CD, with tracks from each of FdM's May releases (except the Simones 7" will now come out in the summer, and the Tir na nOg 7" that WILL come out in May, make that June, was confirmed too late to include a sample track!)

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS
£127

At the end of 2012, Nick Leese from Heyday and I slipped 50 copies of this CD randomly into parcels of vinyl going out to FdM members, as a little introduction to this excellent band

         
           

SCHIZO FUN ADDICT
BORDERLINE
PROMO ALBUM CDr
ebay:£27

SFA sent me 50 copies of their 2006 album for early arrivers at the Summer Fruits de Mer gig. I put them in clear sleeves, ran off stickers for the covers, put them in the first 50 goodie bags and...well that was it, really

         
         

CRABSTOCK
A3 POSTER
not seen on ebay

I've run off a batch of these - probably around 50 of them - and we'll ber giving them out at the Cardigan gig first-come-first-served to people buying stuff from the merchandising stall

SCHIZO FUN ADDICT
THE SUN YARD CD
not seen on ebay

Part of the Crabstock goodie-bag in Wales, the only way to get hold of Schizo Fun Addict's new album on CD

THE SEVENTH RING OF SATURN
ORMYTHOLOGY CD
not seen on ebay

Thid is an exclusive preview/promo of the next TSROS album, it's part of the Crabstock goodie-bag in Wales, there'll also be some copies given away at Crabstock USA - around 250 pressed in total

PEGASUS
demo and finished track
TEMPLE MUSIC
ebay: £27

Again, at the end of 2012, I included 50 copies of this CD in members' packages; it included the original demo to 'Pegasus' by Temple Music, as well as the final version

SUMMER
FRUITS de MER
GOODIE-BAG
ebay:£599

150 goodie-bags were lovingly put together at FdM Towers, dragged up to the Borderline and dished out on a first-come-first-served basis. so far, I've seen three bags sold on ebay - how could you? (only joking - good luck to you)

A PHASE WE'RE
GOING THROUGH
(PINK)
ebay:£290

'A Phase We're Going Through' was our first LP. Most copies were on grey vinyl, but odd colours crept out thanks to a slightly haphazard pressing plant - not that we minded. We didn't have in mind them fetching slightly crazy prices on ebay at a later date - but this one did!

A PHASE WE'RE
GOING THROUGH
(YELLOW)
ebay:£228

Not sure how many of these escaped - we thought only a handful, but quite a few people have copies so maybe it's nearer 20 - we really don't know for sure

A PHASE WE'RE
GOING THROUGH
(GREEN)
ebay: £84

...and here's a copy on green vinyl - really don't know how many of these there were either!

LUCID DREAM
HITS ME LIKE I'M STONED
PROMO CDr
not seen on ebay

I pressed up about 50 of these - the 'A' side from The Lucid Dream's 7" on Regal Crabomophone, plus the extended live version recorded for Dandelion Radio

VIBRAVOID
KRAUTROCK SENSATION
RED VINYL
ebay:£87

We knew the label was starting to get a bit of traction when we had to re-press 100 copies of this single - they came out on red vinyl

VIBRAVOID
WHAT COLOUR IS PINK
ONE-OFF PRESSING
not seen on ebay

A David Attenborough moment when the pink vinyl started to kick in on the vinyl press after a mix of black and white vinyl ran out - a real one-off pressing

THE PRETTY THINGS
HONEY I NEED
PROMO CDr
£10

This was the first 'replica' label Andy designed, i thought it was so good I pressed up a few more copies beyond the usual promos, stuck them in 'clam shell' cases and slipped them into vinyl parcels

POSTCARDS FROM THE DEEP
SIGNED SET
ebay:£125

I managed to persuaded all the artists - including designer Mick Dillingham - to sign their respective postcards/poster; 30 sets were produced and found their way out to some lucky club members 9one of whom couldn't contain himself and cashed out)

STRANGEFISH
NUMBERED
CD BOX SET
not seen on ebay

I just fancied putting a few sets of CDs together for posterity, using the vinyl-lookalike blank CDs. I produced five sets, put them in DVD cases and numbered them. I have '1' and '2', Andy has '3'; '4' and '5' were won in a competition by FdM club members

A MOMENTARY LAPSE
'EL SYD'
AND OTHER ONE-OFF COVERS
not seen on ebay

I ran a members club competition to name the Floyd/Syd covers double CD-set. Ten of the best suggestions were printed as 'specials' for the people who came up with them, and a few of these covers were slipped inside the 'Momentary Lapse' sleeves ans sent out to members at random; 'El Syd', 'Careful with That Wrasse, Eugene', 'Pike', 'Sea Anemone Play'...and a few more

WHITE SAILS
BLACK VINYL
ebay: £50

25 copies pressed up to sell at the Borderline gig, and to a few members soon after

LONELY CRAB
POSTER
not seen on ebay

FdM club member Simon Larson took the photo, and i occasionally include a copy with albums i send out; there's not a fixed number of there - just depends if/when i have some nice A3 paper to spare and albums to send out

KING PENGUIN
PROMO CD
BORDERLINE SPECIAL
not seen on ebay

Bill Sweeney and his wife flew over specially for the Borderline gig, and brought with them a handful of King Penguin promo CDs (featruing extracts from their FdM releases and one or two other rarities) which we dished out with careless abandon at the FdM stall - too careless, i didn't keep a copy for myself and had to ask Bill for a photo of it. If a copy ever appears on ebay, I'll be bidding myself!

JACK ELLISTER
DAWN DREAM CLUB
BLACK VINYL
£44

25 copies pressed up to sell at the Borderline gig, and to a few members soon after

FdM
ARCHIVES
CD BOX SET
not seen on ebay

I ran off four box sets a couple of years ago - a 12 CD compilation of all the tracks released to-date, plus demos, live versions and other odds and sods. Produced for an FdM member who was extremely ill, Andy has one copy and I have the other two - I can't imagine any of them ever seeing the light of day

AUGUST 2013
TEST PRESSINGS
BORDERLINE SPECIAL SET
Crystal Jacqueline £40
Me and My Kites £15
others not seen on ebay

I asked the pressing plant to produce 50 extra sets of the five August 2013 singles, I stamped the labels, ran off folded-sheet sleeves with the Summer Fruits de Mer logo subtly added to the design and by the time it got to the Borderline gig, i had maybe 45 sets to sell - at £25 a time - they all went on the day. If you've got a set, you might notice that the Jack Ellister tracks are in a different order to the final pressing - that was my cock-up.

STAY
MERSEY DREAM
BLACK VINYL
£42

25 copies pressed up to sell at the Borderline gig, and to a few members soon after

ME AND MY KITES
BLACK VINYL
not seen on ebay

100 copies pressed up - a batch for the band, who are black vinyl junkies, some to sell at the Borderline gig, and to a few members soon after

SENDELICA
VENUS IN FURS
SPLIT COVER
ebay:£37

My failed Blue Peter-audition cover. I tried to replicate the Velvet Underground 'peel' cover and failed miserably. But a few copies did go out with the PVC sleeves stickered with the final cover, and a second cover hidden inside - don't ask me how many copies went out like this, I'm still covered in sticky-backed paper

CRYSTAL JACQUELINE
A FAIRY TALE
YELLOW VINYL
ebay: £37

75 copies pressed up to sell at the Borderline gig, some for Jacqui and Icarus, and the rest sold a few members soon after the gig

Tir na nOg
CELLAR BAR GIG CD
ebay: £35

I pressed up 75-80 of these, which were given out at the band's October 2014 gig at Cardigan's Cellar Bar; they feature three tracks from their Fruits de Mer single, and a bonus track, 'Strong In The Sun', from their 'Live at Sirius' CD

SCHIZO FUN ADDICT
FdM 1
DIFFERENT COVER
not seen on ebay

again not VERY different...Andy printed most of the covers on paper that wasn't big enought to wrap all the way round the back cover. I printed off the last batch on full-size paper and stretched the image so it filled the full 14"x7" size. Oh, what fun we had.

shrunken HEAD MUSIC
CLEAR SLEEVE & VINYL
£42

I pressed up about 100 sets on clear vinyl for an event that didn't happen, using acetates for sleeves that I printed up years earlier for the original 'Head Music' when it was supposed to be a single!

JULIE'S HAIRCUT
NOVEMBER 2013
FREE DVD
ebay: £40

20+ minutes of music from their new album - as performed at its launch = brilliant! 250 copies pressed - 150 randomly inserted in November vinyl packages, 100 sent to the band

CRANIUM PIE
FdM 7
DIFFERENT COVER
not seen on ebay

not VERY different, but a bit odd - most covers had some text details on the back, but there's a few of them without! and the FdM logos are different sizes!! I printed the bloody things but i have no recollection of this - I THINK it may be that i simplfied the cover when i ran off the final batch as the lettering didn't read very well - but god only knows

THE PRETTY THINGS
SF SORROW LIVE
SIGNED POSTER
not seen on ebay

only 25 of these were signed by the band, and inserted randomly into orders - very nice!

BORDERLINE GIG
GOODIE-BAG
ebay: £599

free to the first 100 people through the door at the FdM Alldayer in August 2013 - it included CDs, posters, flyers - and the bag that sold for £599 also included a set of the 5 test pressings i was selling for £25 at the gig

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS
NOVEMBER 2013
FREE CD
£51

an unreleased track from the band's archives together with a brand new demo - 100 numbered copies - inserted randomly in November vinyl parcels

MANTLE BREWERY
CRABSTOCK EMPTY BOTTLE
ebay: £2.99

the only good beer bottle is an empty one - Mantle Brewery's excellent best bitter

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL FISHY
BBC 6MUSIC PROMO CD
ebay: £100

a nifty little compilation of tracks from 2014 FdM releases - sent to around 15 BBC 6Music DJs - and no-one else; so if you see one on ebay....!

TOR PEDERS
NOVEMBER 2013
FREE CD
ebay: £108

a track by a wonderful and little-known Sedish band, who unreleased album will finally see the light of day on FdM in 2014 - 100 numbered copies - inserted randomly in November vinyl parcels

CRANIUM PIE
THE ONE NOT ME NOT I CD
ebay: £65

an early mix of a track from Mechanisms Part Two - about 100 copies pressed - sent randomly to FdM international club members in 2014

SENDELICA ACOUSTICA
13th DREAM 10"
ebay: £140

rare lathe-cut 10" of an even-rarer outing by Sendelica's offshoot, at our 2015 festival; a Friends of the Fish release.

JACK ELLISTER
TEST PRESSING LP
ebay: £82

Jack only had 111 copies of his debut LP pressed up, but he did have some test pressings, which he also sold - but not for anything like this ebay price!

VIBRAVOID
PROMO CD
ebay: £16

in an act of random kindness, or random act of kindness, we put together 100 free CDrs for FdM club members, with a preview of a new Vibravoid track, 'Save My Soul'

A NEW CAREER
IN A NEW TOWN
MEMBERS CLUB CD
ebay: £38

we also produced around 300 copies of this Bowie follow-up to 'Fashion' for club members at the end of 2016

PLANKTON
RECORD COLLECTOR COMPILATION LP
ebay: £54

Record Collector's compilation of early Fruits de Mer releases, which launched their 'Modern Collectibles' series, sold out pretty quickly at the time, but not many copies have found their way onto ebay so far

DIONYSUS FESTIVAL
FREE FdM 7"
ebay: £106

The first 60 people who booked tickets for the 2016 Dionysus festival in Derby got a free FdM back-catalogue single for their trouble on the day of the gig - wrapped up in a new sleeve.

SENDELICA DRONE BAND
LIVE AT THE 15th DREAM FESTIVAL
TEST PRESSING LP
ebay: £161

a handful of test pressings were made available by the band; meanwhile, one of the 'normal run' copies sold for £226!

MICHAEL PADILLA
ATMOSPHERES
Pic disc LP
+ 8" lathe-cut
ebay: £232

just 25 of these were put together with an 8" lathe-cut containing two new ambient tracks from Michael, specially recorded for sale at the Lucid Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus festival

THE LITLE GOLDFISH
7" lathe-cut pic disc
not seen on ebay

12 of these were pressed by Phil Macy at 345rpm.co.uk - for competition prizes, for the artists and for the hell of it

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW...
CD
ebay: £30

A giveaway at our Summer Fruits de Mer gig at the Borderline - i guess there must have been about 200 of them produced, all in dummy 7" sleeves

THE HONEY POT
ASCENDING SCALES
4CD festival edition
ebay: £81

Out of the total of 500 3CD sets, I think I produced 150 of these 'specials' - which included a 4th CD (live at Games For May) and a packet of seeds to attract bees. 50 went to the band and their guests, and 100 for our gigs - all mine have gone.

"NEAR COMPLETE
COLLECTION"
ebay: £1,800

That's how it was described on eBay and it looked like pretty much all the regular releases were included in the sale - an FdM record so far in terms of the final auction price

MOLOKO+
CAN'T WAIT TIL MONDAY
ebay: £225

I had a few copies of this lathe-cut single produced as pic discs - this one was sold recently on eBay by a member of Sendelica

ARNALD PAUL
TRANSLUCENT IDEATION
ebay: £50

I had around 60 copies of the 10" lathe-cut + DVD set for sale - and a very long queue for them

ELFIN BOW
EDITH'S SONG
ebay: £45

A 16th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus festival lathe-cut special

CRANIUM PIE
THE MECHANISM TAPES
SPECIAL EDITION
ebay: £103

Only 30 sets were produced (it should have been 33, but some of the parts went walkabout at FdM Towers), this very silly set contains the Mechanisms Tapes double cassette, a seriously-cheap personal cassette player, a fish-shaped USB containing WAV files of all four sides of music from the cassettes and an FdM tape rewinder.
What will we think of next? Hopefully, something more sensible

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