THE E.ZEE DEMOS
Having toured North America during March and April 1986 and played a handful of European dates in May, The Cult returned to the UK that June to play festivals and their own headline date at Brixton Academy in London on 28th June. They had premiered four new songs on a radio session the previous February and attempted to record a new single, Electric Ocean, in Montreal at the start of their North American tour.

Already booked to start recording the following month for their third album at the Manor studios in Oxfordshire, the band took advantage of their time off touring to record demos of songs and rough ideas at E.zee studios in North London.

Though nine of these tracks appeared on the Rare Cult box set, the entire session is included on this release in it’s proper context, with the unedited introductions and in the order that the songs were recorded.

Single CD in a digipak with an 8 page booklet
CD 1 - June ‘86
1. Love Removal Machine
2. Peace *
3. Zap City *
4. Love Trooper *
5. Angel
6. Tom Petty
7. Brown’s Gone To Ausy Land
8. Babywalker
9. Surf Nazi
10. Groove Co. (backing track)
11. Oink (version one) *
12. Oink (version two)
13. Waltz *
14. Blues One
15. Untitled (1) *
16. El Progresso *
17. Untitled (2) *
18. Groove Co. *
* tracks released on the Rare Cult box set

SONIC TEMPLE DEMOS
In mid 1988 The Cult were at a career crossroads. The band was back down to the original core three members and ready to try out ideas for the new album. On 11th June they entered Track Record studios at 5102 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood to record fourteen tracks and on the following day they laid down a further seven.

The second session, recorded on 13th August at Track Record, was the serious pre-production for Sonic Temple, with both producer Bob Rock and engineer Mike Fraser in attendance. On all eight tracks the arrangements have been reworked and tightened up; from the a cappella introduction to Wake Up Time For Freedom to the acoustic guitars on Edie, the song structures are much closer to the versions found on Sonic Temple.

For the fans who found the finished album too layered and produced, these are the unadorned, raw demos.

Double CD in a digipak with an 8 page booklet
CD 2 - June ‘88
1. Medicine train
2. New York City
3. American Horse
4. Sun King
5. Automatic Blues
6. Yes Man *
7. Zodiac *
8. Fire
9. Wake up time for freedom
10. Bite On The Bullet (Down So Long) *
11. Fred Divinyls
12. Citadel *
13. The River
14. The Crystal Ocean *

CD 3
1. Cashmere
2. Edie
3. Bleeding Hearts Revival
4. Lay down Your Gun *
5. My Love
6. Iron Star *
7. Star Child *
- August ‘88
8. Wake up time for freedom
9. Lay down Your Gun * *
10. Medicine train *
11. New York City *
12. Fire
13. American Horse
14. Sun King
15. Edie
* tracks released on the Rare Cult box set
* * track released on the Best of Rare Cult

THE CEREMONY DEMOS - January ‘91
The Red Zone tracks are the pre-production recordings for Ceremony, recorded on 23rd - 25th January 1991. Most of the songs from the finished album sessions are present here, though many would undergo lyrical revision and several have alternate, ‘working’ titles. Recorded live in one take with a scratch rhythm section and featuring rough guide vocals, the tracks provide a raw snapshot of the genesis of the album.

Double CD in a digipak with an 8 page booklet
CD 4
1. Ceremony
2. Full Tilt
3. Earth Mother
4. Crazy Hearted Lover
5. Friend (Heart Of Soul)
6. Wonderland
7. Bangkok Rain
8. Red Eye (Red Jesus)
9. Spanish Gold (take 2)
10. White
11. Host Of Angels *
12. Black Cat (Join Hands)
13. Pre take Jam /
14. Northern Man *
15. Auto *

HOT NIGHTS DEMOS - October ‘86
The Hot Nights demos were discovered on a 7” reel of tape by Billy Duffy, too late to consider including in the original box set. Neither Billy, nor producer Steve Brown, could remember any details of the recording which took place in October 1986, presumably around the time of mixing the Peace album at the Townhouse in London. However Angel is a fully formed demo for Lil’ Devil, complete with lyrics, and Upbeat Track is the instrumental basics of Soldier Blue.

CD 5
1. Angel (lil’ devil)
2. upbeat track
3. downbeat track

JAM DEMOS - March ‘89
The Jam demos are the last studio recordings to feature Jamie Stewart and, for over a decade, the only ones with Matt Sorum on drums. Recorded and mixed between 25th and 27th March 1989 there are five tracks which would be modified for Ceremony, including Track Six which became Host Of Angels / Sweet Salvation. On the tape boxes the songs are simply titled Track One to Track Eight but the subsequent given titles have been used on the release.

4. Tight Lip (Full Tilt)
5. Spanish Gold (89) *
6. White (89)
7. Track Four
8. Indian (89) *
9. Track Six
10. Track Seven
11. Track Eight

THE CEREMONY SESSIONS mixes / demo - spring 1991
The Ceremony out-takes were found on working DAT’s from the sessions. Host Of Angels was rough mixed on 19 March 1991 but, by the time new mixes were worked on between 16-19 April, the lyrics had been revised into Sweet Salvation, though the track still retained it’s former title. The second version included here is a very different mix to the final version released on Ceremony.

Similarly Northern Man first appeared on the 17th April mixes, was rough mixed 14 May and again on 31 May. The song structure of these later mixes bears more of a resemblance to The Witch but lacks the power of either the earlier mix or the finished recording. Still lyrically incomplete, the track was understandably dropped before the final overdubbing and mixing in June.

12. Spanish Gold (take 1) - (extra take from demos)
13. Northern Man (The Witch) - session mix
14. Host Of Angels - session mix
15. Sweet Salvation - session mix
* tracks released on the Rare Cult box set