Singles, classics, and the focus of set lists

srfc said:
I'd class them as "grey area" singles at best.

Lord of the Flies was only released as a cd in a couple of countries. It was never released in the UK nor was it released as vinyl + 2 cds, as had originally been intended when the Man on the Edge single was released with a collectors box.

Futureal was only available as mail order from the Fan Club.

EDIT: Wasting Love I would class as being similar as well
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I thought Futureal was for sale in the stores. I may be wrong here but I thought The Wicker Man was released via the band's site (fanclub or not; I remember my copies had to be ordered).

Lord of the Flies could be bought as a CD single in my country. How was that not a single. A not world wide single is still a single.
 
This is a silly argument. If it was released for commercial or promotional use, then it's a single.

The only grey area I can think of is The Final Frontier. It was released ahead of the album in the form of a music video, but as far as I know it wasn't sent out to radio stations. El Dorado and Coming Home were.
 
I've seen that around on ebay but wasn't sure if it was real or not. Would love to hear more about it.*

*This adds to a point I brought up in another thread about more songs from FOTD being played live at the early gigs. I can't see them choosing a single without intention to play it live.
 
SirRobbins said:
4. Flight of Icarus
Rumored to be hated by Steve, this song was played in 1983 on the WPT and then again on the first 5 shows in 1986 then dropped and never revived. Gone to the grave, likely forever.
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You forgot it was played all through 1984 & 1985 on the Slavery tour also.

7. to save time and reading, every single from the 90s except Lord of the Flies has been ignored since the supporting tour... Tracks that have been played since were not released as singles...
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You forgot about Bring Your Daughter.
Played in 2003.
 
Well Out Of the Silent Planet was added to the set a few months after the single came out, so it makes a little more sense in that context.
 
Mosh said:
This is a silly argument. If it was released for commercial or promotional use, then it's a single.

The only grey area I can think of is The Final Frontier. It was released ahead of the album in the form of a music video, but as far as I know it wasn't sent out to radio stations. El Dorado and Coming Home were.
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I quite like this debate about the singles, find it quite interesting and don't see it as an argument.

Being from the UK from my perspective they haven't really bothered with Singles from the last couple of albums. Sure they made promo vids but never commercially released any actual singles. El dorado and speed of light were just promo releases which were ineligible to chart therefore it's not a single.

The first 3 reunion albums I remember all had singles which I purchased from HMV on release date. In my collection I have the wicker man which had 2 cd releases (with different b-sides) and a 7" vinyl which I got. Also picked up out of the silent planet on release too. Both wildest dreams and no more lies had proper commercial releases in the UK which I purchased in store on release day.

The last proper single I remember being excited for was the Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg. That had multiple versions released too, I have a couple of CDs and the 7" and 12" releases. After this the band seemed to loose interest in singles. Yeah they do promo vids but at this stage of their career they don't really need singles in the traditional sense to act as promotion for the album. All they need is to let a song or two out on iTunes, Spotify etc and chuck a video out and that's enough for them these days.
 
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You seem to be missing out Rainmaker and Different World...
 
Talking of what's a single and what's not a single...

Empire of the Clouds. Would you consider its release as a single, an EP, or just a promo release? There seems to be a few who consider it an EP instead of a single, given its length, which makes sense, so I'm interested in knowing what others' thoughts are.

Yeah @Magnus , I have a thing for Empire. What's the big deal? :P
 
I dunno, counting the b-side Empire Of the Clouds qualifies as an LP. I doubt anybody is going to argue that it is. But it's one track per side which is a typical single format. I would call it an EP if it had 4 short tracks (two per side on a 10 inch for example).
 
Lego said:
This is a myth; the reason why the song was dropped was because Adrian missed a couple of shows due to his father's passing, and in the interim the band dropped the song as they didn't feel comfy playing it without H. When he came back the decision was made to leave the set as-is because it flowed better.
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Another WTF moment. Just like ID not being played on the recent ME tour
 
SirRobbins said:
^ the band generally don't like TFF as an album.... I don't think we will ever hear anything from it again.... I like being optimistic but I feel the 2010 tour may have been their version of a history tour for the last 10 years.... I hope it wasn't a hoorah for those albums... I will go nuts if I never hear Paschendale live.....
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When the wind blows is a potential classic. Rather hear this than FOTD again for example
 
It's a little long though. The Talisman is probably a more likely epic to bring back. El Dorado and Coming Home are both highly likely to return IMO.
 
Black Bart said:
Apart from "Out of the Silent Planet" (it was tried out but later in the tour on 3-4 occasions only). I wonder why, by the way?
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I read an interview where Steve (or maybe it was Bruce) said they were not happy that OOTSP was released as a single by the record company, as they had no intention of playing it live. As it was released they then tried it out live at the end of the tour.
(sorry but I can't remember the source, but it was on line somewhere)
 
I can see sign of the cross, clansman, heaven can wait and bring your daughter coming back on the possible legacy tour. Rest of the set made up of the usual set list regulars. No surprises I fear.
 
Black Bart said:
I think "The Fugitive" was released as a promotional CD for radios only. Another "grey area" single then?
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There's loads like that, Where Eagles Dare has a promo for instance. Rime of the Ancient Mariner even has a promo from South Africa I think. I believe Cross Eyed Mary even got a bit of airplay in the States.

In terms of the debate in this thread, I think the meaning and relevance of the term "single" has changed with the decline of physical sales and in the UK with the inclusion of downloads in the charts.
 
Cross Eyed Mary was because they'd flip the record over. My first time hearing the song was on the Alice Cooper show. It sounded like Maiden but I had never heard it before. Then sure enough Alice says it's The Trooper b-side and he was playing straight from the record.
 
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