'A Heart Full Of Napalm'

I'm so happy that the Bowie mix of Iggy and the Stooges 'Raw Power' is due to be unleashed onto the public again.

I originally bought this album when I was the tender age of 14. I heard that Siouxsie and Steven Severin had listened to it when they were growing up in Chislehurst and Bromley respectively.

So what effect did this purchase have on my life? It changed it forever. A trite statement perhaps but very true nonetheless.

I had never heard guitars sound so brutal, corrosive or downright damaging before. But before you think that this album is some noisy atonal heavy rock fest, it isn't. Its a perfect pop album. How the blazes didn't a song like 'Shake Appeal' become a number one single? It has loud guitars, handclaps and Iggy Pop on it!

Even the cover artwork lured me in. The cover is a Mick Rock photograph of Iggy bathed in red light, barechested, lips pursed. He looks like the coolest pop star ever to have landed from another planet. The back cover features more pictures of Iggy and even the band- an sensory mindfuck of silver trousers, demented clown make-up and savagery.

Then it was announced in the late 90s that Iggy had remixed and remastered Raw Power and that this version was even better than the CD pressing I had. I couldn't wait to get my dirty little mitts on it. This was the first ever 'remaster' I'd ever bought. And it was awful. Iggy had turned up the volume so much that the album was distorted on any stereo it was played on. He also inserted burps and other sound effects before and during songs. 'This album can now compete with the latest Smashing Pumpkins album' he proudly announced in an interview from around that time. D'oh. 70's Iggy raped by 90's Iggy. Vile.

What was worse was that I had given away the original Bowie mix of the album to a friend. Hence I was without 'Raw Power' for a long time.

Until now! Lets hope the remaster of the Bowie mix due to be released (with an extra disc containing a concert from that time and a couple of studio outtakes) is in keeping with the CD I bought when I was 14.