Robespierre’s Velvet Basement

Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth’s Jacobites first found themselves in the American spotlight in 1986, when Paul Westerberg of the Replacements turned his then label Twin/Tone onto the Jacobites’ first two albums JACOBITES and ROBESPIERRE’S VELVET BASEMENT. Twin/Tone in turn expressed its enthusiasm by introducing the American masses to Sudden & Kusworth with THE RAGGED SCHOOL — those who weren’t already turned onto the ex-Swell Maps frontman’s work through the British press and import shops, that is. That now classic collection of songs (taken from those first two albums as well as their first EP) met wide fanfare in the press and among fans, but due to a lack of touring in the States and the fact that the Jacobites did not deliver a follow-up for over a decade, the band — and the albums — slipped away from the public’s memory. Now, almost 20 years later, these classic albums are made available again as proper albums in expanded form as part of the Secretly Canadian Nikki Sudden reissue campaign. Aside from 20 page booklets of photos, liner notes and complete lyrics, each of the two titles has been expanded to include bonus tracks. JACOBITES now contains the four-song SHAME FOR THE ANGELS EP in its entirety. ROBESPIERRE’S VELVET BASEMENT has been expanded to a double-disc set in order to fully represent it as the double-album as it was initially conceived and recorded, not to mention an additional 3 bonus tracks.

Reissues release date: February 12, 2002.

Original release dates: SHAME FOR THE ANGELS 12″ EP (Pawn Hearts, July 1984) JACOBITES LP (Glass Records, March 1984) ROBESPIERRE’S VELVET BASEMENT LP (Glass Records, August 1985)