THE DAY JOHN DENVER WENT TO IBIZA....

It was Comrade Colin's musings about New Order the other week that got me thinking about this track from the LP Technique:-

mp3 : New Order - Run

I was surprised to find that I had never on TVV talked about or mentioned the fascinating story behind the release of a remix version as a single....

The remix was the work of Scott Litt who at this point in time was known for having worked on couple of LPs by R.E.M. That he would also work on the multi-million sellers Out Of Time and Automatic For The People albums in the 90s and become one of the most talked about producers of that era was all in the future.....

It is quite a different version. The long instrumental section at the end of the original is replaced by a repeat of the chorus. There's also greater prominence given to Bernard's vocal and guitar and Hooky's bass lines in an effort to make it more appealing to radio stations. Despite this, Factory Records didn't give it a huge print run and it wasn't the easiest thing to find in the shops.

The record stalled at #49 in the UK charts which was the poorest showing by a New Order single in a long while. But this where the fun really started.....

After the release, John Denver (or more accurately John Denver's lawyers) sued the group, claiming that Run, in particular the instrumental part, sounded too similar to his hit Leaving On A Jet Plane. The case was settled out of court, and as a result the single in it's remixed form was out of print save the original few thousand copies made available in 1989.

As a result, Run 2 was a bit of music much sought after by fans, especially outside the UK (it was never made available at all overseas). There was much anticipation when Run 2 was listed on the track lists of compilation LPs in 1994 and 2005, but in fact it was the original version from Technique that was included.

The only way to get the track was via the video released for the song:-



But then, in 2008, a deluxe edition of Technique was released that included the extended mixes of Run 2 and the track MTO that had been on the b-side of the 12". But even now, the regular mixes of Run 2 and MTO are otherwise unavailable.

Unless someone rips them from vinyl:-

mp3 : New Order - Run 2
mp3 : New Order - Run 2 (extended mix)
mp3 : New Order - MTO
mp3 : New Order - MTO (minus mix)


Oh and nowadays, the credits to the track Run are attributed to Sumner, Hook, Morris, Gilbert and Denver.



Happy Listening.