U2 – A Celebration

Clean, thick vinyl in a poly sleeve. This is by far the cleanest A Celebration has sounded on vinyl, however, it also sounds a bit flat/tamed, the drums seem to have a lot less impact/presence than the original, the rhythm was a big part originally, immersive and had more of a Siouxsie & The Banshees vibe, the guitar also had more oomph originally, swirling in your head like a hive of angry bees. Party Girl sounds a lot more cleaned up and balanced, you could almost feel Bono's sore throat on the 45, I prefer it here. The live version is fun, but a unreleased live version from this era would have fit in better. The Main attraction is the Alternate version of A Celebration, unlike the single version the flat sound is not an issue for this version.... perhaps the tape was more "fresh" the outtake alone makes this 12" worth getting.

Mine doesn‘t have the misprint. Labels indicate it‘s this issue, though.

Great “forgotten” single. I used to get really excited when bands released non album singles. Some absolute classics were released with arguably Buzzcocks being the kings (The Jam not far behind). This is U2s best non album single imo. Electrical Storm was good but this is still the post punk U2. Edge sounding like he has been listening to Keith Levine anf the almighty McGeogh. Anyway, A Celebration sounds superb on the 12” format, and the session version is worth having as well.
We also get the classic B side Trash Trampoline etc. The studio version sounds a bit odd to me. Its almost as if the volume is wafting up and down very fast and very subtly. I can’t remember it sounding like that on the 7”. No one else has mentioned this so maybe my ears are knackered.
Worth having this. I would like I Will Follow in a similar format.

I always thought U2 later buried the song because of the lyric "I believe in the Third World War, I believe in the atomic bomb". Even at the time I thought it was a weird thing to say. Great song regardless, one of their best.

If they didn't like the song, why record it in the first place? It's actually their best single for me and a real shame it isn't on the October album.
Raw, energetic and post-punky, almost sounds like it could come from early The Southern Death Cult (similar to the awesome "Go West"). I really wish the band had an entire album with this specific sound.

Worthwhile RSD release. Sounds great all around and the unreleased tracks are great.

Is I worth buying, as in, is the outake any good? Great sleeve.

quite bizarre that it says on discogs ''this isnt a fans favourite'' as it IS one of my favourites ! powerful anthemic classic u2 sound with its strong melody and chant chorus . superb track imo right up there with the likes of ''bad'' . http://www.discogs.com/U2-A-Celebration/release/1447647

First issue has black and white sunburst label.

Contains a picture sleeve/sheet, front pic similar to uk release but has a nice band pic (adam with shocking ginger hair!) on the rocks by the sea.
Back of the sheet has the lyrics to "a celebration" both in japanese and english and also has album cover pics of "boy" and "october" bottom left and right respectively.
Record itself comes in a paper "polystar" sleeve and has a large hole in the middle (like a jukebox single).