No Man's Land Rumours and Mysteries

UPDATE COMING SOON

There are many rumours circulating around Lene's third album. One of these rumours is that Lene has remixed the album or re-recorded songs at the wish of her record company, in order to make the recordings more commercial,

or that the tracks on the "New Toy" EP reflect what Lene had in mind for the album, while the album itself does not.

All of this is totally wrong.

These misunderstandings mainly go back to liner notes of CD re-releases, from which one could gather only bits and pieces of this complicated story, but not the full information. In addition to this, liner notes or news items often tend to become elaborated by those who write them.

Also, these misunderstandings partly originate in the fact that Lene did not always tell every single detail about the story to interviewers, or because not everything she said was printed.

The above-mentioned unfounded statements about remixing or re-recording have also been made in an article on an early-1980s Stiff Records fanzine sheet, written by somebody who was not well informed because of the same reasons.

The following is based on various interviews (mainly from 1981-1983).

The first part of this writing is an attempt to rectify the above-mentioned rumours around "No Man's Land" and "New Toy"; the second part is the story of Lene's third album in general.

Lene and her partner Les Chappell had started to record their third album at Sound-Suite Studios (Islington Road, Camden, London) in late autumn 1980. These sessions may have continued into early 1981 (not confirmed). "New Toy", the first single from the album sessions, was released in February 1981. According to a Stiff Records press announcement, "No Man's Land" was given a catalogue number, scheduled for late March 1981 release.

Stiff Records decided to prevent further work on the album when "New Toy" had become only a minor hit. Having become a more commercially orientated record company since Lene's last album "Flex", they could not see much hit potential in Lene's newest recordings. The postponed album, now with a new catalogue number, was expected to be out around September 1981.

However, it was clearly the fault of Stiff Records that "New Toy" did not sell better, despite massive radio airplay. The promotional release of the single has been played frequently on the radio, but it was released two weeks before the official single would be available. By the time it was finally in the shops, radio stations had already started to play the song less frequently.

After work on the album had been stopped by Stiff Records, Lene became ill for awhile and used that time to look at herself and came out of it strong and confident, finding that there was nothing wrong about what she was doing. She was very determined not to compromise at all.

Stiff Records wanted Lene to change and record songs that were not recognisable as being hers, even down to taking on an anonymous singing style. Also, Dave Robinson (boss of Stiff Records) started to develop the idea that Lene should record a cover of a Motown song in order to have a hit record. Their policy would have been to force Lene to change by stopping her from recording.

Lene pointed out she wanted to stay true to herself and was having none of this.

To record the remaining songs and to do mixing work, Lene had to try and grab studio time whenever Dave Robinson was in good mood, which is why it was done at scattered sessions in different studios (most of it in 1981).

As Lene has mentioned, it was in some ways an "acceptable compromise" how the album was finished and released.

She had made clear in interviews that these compromises were "acceptable" in that she used them as means for everything to turn out the way that she wanted it to be, that she would compromise only in terms of how to get there.

The way how she could persuade Dave Robinson to let her go to the studios was by working with his producers of the time.

However, Lene has pointed out (source: 1983 interview for Québec Rock magazine, plus other interviews) that she had used these producers just as engineers (assignated studio times were brief, and Dave Robinson was not aware - or interested - what exactly was going on there in the studios).

It is the reason why they are not credited as producers on the album's rear sleeve, but as "Recorded with ...".

Also, Lene had sent the finished tapes to Stiff Records, to no response, so she turned to Epic Records in America. Epic said the album was fine, but the fact that the recordings were made in different studios by different engineers gave the album an overall uneven sound, so they wanted this to be fixed in order to make a release possible.

Lene was not aware there was a commitment for Stiff Records to finance this, as there was a contract between the two record companies that if Epic Records decided to release something, Stiff Records were obliged to finance finishing the product.

When Stiff Records sent Lene to New York to remix the album at Bob Clearmountain's studio, the record company hoped that he would take out all the craziness.

Lene was worried about this at first, but when she and Les Chappell got to New York with their multi-track in late September 1982, working with Bob Clearmountain and his engineer Dick Wingate turned out very well.

Bob Clearmountain did not remove or add anything; the album is just as Lene had recorded it in England (source: 1983 interview for Music Sound Output magazine, plus other interviews),

but he balanced the sound better in order to make it appear as one record, so it would not be noticeable that the songs were recorded in different studios with different engineers.

Lene mentioned she didn't want the album to sound patchy; she wanted it to appear like "one positive impact".

She was so happy to work with Bob Clearmountain that she said he would use him again in the future.

As Lene has related much later to her guitarist and bandleader Jude Rawlins (2012-2019), what they did was not exactly remixing but rather kind of a remastering session.

As for the rumours that Dave Robinson wanted Lene to re-record tracks to make them sound more commercial:

"Savages" and "Special Star" were released on both the "New Toy" EP and the album. "Savages" on the EP was more experimental with its fragmented lyrics. There is no doubt that Stiff Records were happy about not having a sort of semi-instrumental track on the album.

Still, this was not the reason why the complete lyrics have been used for the album release (which has the same backing track as the EP release, while "Special Star" is a re-recording).

These different versions were made because North America, where the EP had been released, was an important market for Lene's records, so it would not make sense to release exactly the same versions again on the album.

Lene has explained that the initial recordings of these songs (as released on the "New Toy" EP) reflect how they were originally conceived, and that the album versions stand equal with the EP versions - not necessarily having developed these songs for the better, but taking them into different directions.

"Savages" was recorded with complete lyrics for an early 1981 BBC radio session (see below), and was played live always with complete lyrics (first time in 1981).

When Lene plays "Special Star" live, it has never been played after the original recording on the "New Toy" EP, but always after the album re-recording.

(When listening to the album re-recording of "Special Star", it is incomprehensible why some people make it out to be "more commercially appealing" than the original recording. Both versions are haunting and spacey in their own right.

What is more commercialy appealing about the album recording is the sound quality, in having more of a hi-fi sound to it.)

In addition to this, people unsurprisingly tend to make up their own stories. About the fact that Lene has done a cover of "It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)" by Dutch band The Meteors (not the British band of the same name), they "somehow" think she must have done this because Dave Robinson wanted her to do a Motown cover,

while in fact she has recorded it because it was one of her favourite songs at the time, and she found that it suited her very well.

Anyway the Meteors' songs were totally different to the Motown sound. Also (although this is not confirmed), the song seems to have been around already for the initial recording sessions.

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Lene and Les Chappell did not have very much time to work on the songs for the first two albums. Some of the original songs on "Flex" have actually been written in the studio. Before recording sessions for the album started, they had only three original songs ready ("Monkey Talk", "Joan", "Bird Song"), plus home-recorded tapes with many little bits of ideas.

They decided to take more time for the third album, which they did after Lene came back from an extended visit at her family's place in America in the summer of 1980.

They had made a visit at producer Conny Plank's recording studio near Cologne in 1980. Contrary to what was written in the media, Lene did not go to Japan in 1980 to check out Japanese recording technology. Her only visit to Japan was during her 1983 tour.

At one point in 1980 Lene has thought of wanting Ennio Morricone as (co-)producer for "No Man's Land", because of the different slant from which he would have taken everything into, but he was already booked well into the future.

Lene was very put off when she learned that The Cars' producer Roy Thomas Baker has claimed in some 1980 music paper that he's going to produce Lene's next album.

When further work on the work-in-progress album has been basically stopped by Stiff Records after the relatively poor sales of "New Toy" and Lene was having to grab time for scattered recording sessions (see above), Epic Records intended to release the song "New Toy" in America (where up to then it was available as an import).

The US release of the single was eventually withdrawn because Epic came to the conclusion that an extended release with more tracks would make more sense commercially.

It was decided to put out the six-track 12" EP "New Toy" with recordings from the "No Man's Land" sessions: "New Toy", "Savages", "Special Star", "Never Never Land", "Cat's Away", "Details". The EP was released in July 1981 (see albums discography).

(The Japanese six-track 12" EP "New Toy" (released in spring 1981) and two other 12" EP releases of the same title are NOT releated to the actual "New Toy" EP. Also, these three releases are unrelated to one another. See specifications at singles discography.)

Epic Records may have financed mixing these tracks for the upcoming EP release. This is unconfirmed though; Lene may have finished mixing previous to this and before it was decided to release the EP. It is not unlikely that the mixing just took place at the same occasion when "New Toy" and "Cat's Away" have been mixed for their upcoming release on the "New Toy" single (February 1981). "Cat's Away" on the EP (different mix than on the "New Toy" single b-side) might be an up-till-then unused mix from these sessions.

The release of the "New Toy" EP in America made room for more tracks on the upcoming album itself. North America was an important market for the album, so obviously it would not make sense to release an album with mostly the same songs that were already available there on the EP.

The songs that would be released on the "New Toy" EP, plus "Faces", "Walking Low", "Blue" (which became a single b-side), and "Savages" (the album version has the same backing track as the EP version) have been recorded during the initial album sessions at Sound-Suite Studios (late 1980, perhaps continuing into early 1981).

Most of the other tracks on the album have been around for the initial sessions, but have not yet been recorded by the time these sessions were stopped by Stiff Records.

The songs "Savages", "Details", "Rocky Road", "Maria" have been first heard as special radio session recordings for BBC host Richard Skinner's programme in March 1981. "Savages" from that radio session stands out with its haunting double-tracked vocals on the verses.

Whether "It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)" and "Sister Video" have been around for the initial sessions is unconfirmed, but likely.

"Blue Hotel" and "O Seasons O Castles" are the two songs known to have not existed during the initial sessions.

The album version of "Blue Hotel" was recorded around autumn 1981, in order to be performed at Sanremo song festival (Italy, late January 1982). The original song was a demo recording by the writer of the song, with dreadful English lyrics.

When it was remarked that Lene had changed the original song too much to use it for the contest performance at the festival, she recorded a different version that was musically closer to the songwriter's original demo. This new recording, which became virtually a different song, was performed half-playback (vocals live) twice at the festival, and released on single in Italy in early 1982. It was also released in Germany in 1983.

"O Seasons O Castles" was recorded around early 1982, specially for the French television film "Rock", in which Lene plays a leading part.

It is unknown if Lene had considered this song to go on the album at some point. It became a single b-side in Australia and Germany in 1983.

(See upcoming page with information on all songs.)

Justin Hildreth, who was Lene's drummer since the recording sessions for "Flex", was playing drums on the songs from the initial sessions for "No Man's Land", and also at the above-mentioned BBC radio session.

He was not available for later recording sessions, which is why Fingerprintz drummer Bogdan Wiczling was playing drums for "It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)" and "Rocky Road".

For "Special Star", "Sister Video", "Maria", and "Blue Hotel", Lene preferred the sound of a drum machine.

On the BBC radio session recording, the drums on "Rocky Road" were played (by Justin Hildreth) with higher speed than on the album recording. Perhaps Lene has changed her mind about the speed because of the song's position at the end of the album (in case she knew by the time the song was recorded that she wanted it to be the album's closing track).

Stiff Records were concerned that the word "no" in the album's title might put the audience off, so they asked Lene to explain the title on the sleeve, which is the reason why she has written the poem "No Man's Land", printed on the rear sleeve.

A concert of Lene's in New York in September 1981 (part of a short tour of America's East Coast) was filmed for television by the production company of American band The Osmonds (they were the only people who wanted to put money into this). When Lene and Les Chappell were going to the Osmonds' place in Utah on that occasion, they took photos for the album sleeve at the Great Salt Lake Desert. Some film footage they had shot at the same occasion was used for brief scenes of the video for "Blue Hotel" in 1983.

The following credits are taken from the inner sleeve of the album's Japanese release (except the studios). See albums discography for more "No Man's Land" credits.

Apart from the initial sessions being confirmed to have taken place at Sound-Suite Studios, the other studios are listed on the album's rear sleeve but there is no specific information mentioned.

Following internet research for the engineers and studios, the locations of the individual recording and mixing sessions listed below are virtually confirmed (except where noted).

Recording engineers:
"Faces", "Walking Low", "Savages", "Blue", "New Toy", "Cat's Away", "Special Star" (from "New Toy" EP), "Never Never Land", "Details": Alvin Clarke, Peter Rackham (Sound-Suite)
"Special Star" (from "No Man's Land"), "Maria": Martin Rushent (Genetic)

"It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)", "Sister Video", "Rocky Road": Steve Nye (Air)

"Blue Hotel": Gordon Fordyce (Good Earth)

Mixing engineers:
"Faces", "Walking Low", "Special Star" (from "No Man's Land"): John Walls (Wessex)
"It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)", "Sister Video": Bryan Evans (Good Earth)
"Blue Hotel", "Maria", "Savages", "Rocky Road": Damian Korner (Konk ? / Basing Street ?)