Modern Eon- Fiction Tales PLUS CD
This one is a bit of a classic in its genre. Liverpool based post-punk act Modern Eon released but one underground record during their short tenure, and though it didn’t make the splash that their contemporaries (Echo & the Bunnymen, The Chameleons, Modern English) did, the record is held in high regard by those who’ve discovered it, and its lush production mirrors and even outdoes some of the best records of its kind. I also adore the cover, perhaps my all-time favorite of any cover from the era, designed by the always excellent Brothers Quay.
Modern Eon formed in 1979 and released a handful of singles before cutting their lone full length, 1981’s Fiction Tales. The band appeared on John Peel’s radio program, but misfortune soon fell upon them as their drummer, Cliff Hewitt, injured his wrist. The band did a quick tour with Cliff’s tracks pre-programmed on primitive drum machines, but the band failed to record their sophomore effort, a shame, especially as they were rumored to have demoed new material. After Modern Eon’s demise, sax/guitarist Tim Lever would join up with Dead Or Alive, who made the charts with their more new wave-styled sound.
Note that this particular CD contains all of their 7” releases and extra tracks. I do believe it’s a bootleg, but the quality is absolutely impeccable! Thanks to Jeff for the donation!
Modern Eon- Fiction Tales LP
1. Second Still
2. The Grass Still Grows
3. Playwrite
4. Watching The Dancers
5. Real Hymn
6. Waiting For The Cavalry
7. High Noon
8. Child’s Play
9. Choreography
10. Euthenics
11. In A Strange Way
12. Mechanic
13. Second Still (7″ Version)
14. Special Patrol
15. Choreography (7″ Version)
16. The Look A Smack
17. Euthenics (7″ Version)
18. Waiting For The Cavalry (7″ Version)
19. Cardinal Signs
20. Child’s Play (7″ Version)
21. Visionary
22. Mechanic (7″ Version)
23. Splash!
*download link removed* – check out the new 2-disc Cherry Red reissue of this excellent album!
For more info on Modern Eon, including a full bio, pictures, a gig-ography, and more, click below:
March 25, 2008 at 2:44 am
this is by far the best album i’ve heard in 2008, thanks for showing me this beautiful music.
by the way… maybe i’m just beeing silly, but i thinkg the vocals slightly resemble perry farrel don’t you think?
August 29, 2008 at 3:54 pm
A classic album, that I bought back in the day. All their singles should be sought out as well, for some different versions and a couple of extra very nice b-sides. Work on a CD re-issue has been going for at least a year.
November 20, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Brilliant. bought this album in the delete bin back in 1984. Found a copy of a cd on ebay and the guy also sent me 18 other tracks called "Peel Sessions & Live". I'd be happy to upload and send a link if anyone is interested.
jeff
uberbelly@shaw.ca
ps. love your blogsite Frankie!
December 28, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Thank you. This represents the pinnacle of lost new wave claasix and in my opiion at least a work of great beauty. Also its fucking hard to find. So thanks
July 16, 2009 at 5:40 am
brilliant! thanks a lot.
un saludo.
August 23, 2009 at 11:58 pm
saw them support the Strangers on the Meninblack tour
April 13, 2012 at 6:44 pm
[…] I’ve already touched on Modern Eon previously, and again, this particular entry is dead in the water from that horrid Zshare crash, but Jeff was […]
November 27, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Hi. I was wondering if you would consider ripping this CDR into flac format rather than the current highly lossy 192bps mp3. I ask because I was just about to buy the LP from discogs and rip it myself as a CDR for my own listening pleasure. I’m sure your CDR would sound a lot better than my homemade rip. If you wouldn’t like to repost, would you consider selling your CD, or telling me where you got it? Thanks, Lance
November 27, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Hi Lance,
unfortunately i do not own the cd-r (which i believe was purchased by jeff) and encoded for us. I can reach out to Jeff and see if he wouldn’t mind re-encoding it for us, but since he got it from ebay, hopefully the person who made it originally burned it from lossless sources!
hang tight, hopefully will have some news for you soon!
February 4, 2013 at 5:53 pm
Worth it for Childs Play on its own, a song you can melt into. I had this album, never thought it made it on to cd, big respect my man.
I
June 7, 2013 at 3:58 am
[…] corner 7” Excentrique Noiz- Dark Crystal Day 7” Repetition- A Still Reflex 7” Modern Eon- Fiction Tales Plus (VBR rip thanks to Jeff!) Ultime Possibilité- Errance […]
March 13, 2014 at 11:20 pm
My word! To hear Mechanic & Child’s Play again – the melancholy of adolescent testosterone in the early 80s: vinyl, British Rail, louts up trees.
August 20, 2014 at 7:37 am
Excellent! Really enjoying this one. Thanks all!
September 15, 2014 at 6:56 pm
I appreciate someone combining the singles with the LP but the single versions are mis-named…those labelled 7 inch singles are the LP versions and the singles are not labelled…i replayed my singles to check…Tom F USA
April 3, 2015 at 7:46 pm
Discovered Fiction Tales 31 years ago…. A firm favourite ever since.
Found a RAR file on a Brazilian website 8 or 9 years ago that had the album, singles and demos in MP3 format. Fleetingly also saw Amazon selling a re-released CD a few years later.
Would love to know where the demos for the never released second album went. Anyone know?
Tend to bracket Fiction Tales with England’s Trance by Placebo (the original one from the 80s) – another forgotten classic.
September 26, 2016 at 5:13 pm
loved it back in the day, was really looking forward to hearing again so just downloaded. it seemed to have worked but it comes up on my download list in grey and i dont seem able to access it despite it being there (127mb).
i am using a mac. can anyone suggest a solution?
September 28, 2016 at 12:16 am
Hey there, John. I just gave this a shot on a few different computers, and it downloads and unzips just fine. Try deleting the file, rebooting, and downloading again?
September 30, 2016 at 8:49 am
thanks frankie. i tried downloading it again, moved the original download to trash, then i moved it to my desktop and it worked! who know how it all happened but i can listen now. great! cheers 🙂
March 31, 2019 at 4:33 pm
An excellent album. I still have my vinyl copy from the 1980s. I bought it after hearing them in concert on BBC Radio 1. I still have the recording I made back in the day of that In Concert programme, sadly in mono as I did not have stereo rx equipment then although I did all I could to get the best quality I could with the gear I had. I have made a CD of this and still play it.
March 31, 2019 at 4:39 pm
Further to the above. my Rx of the In Concert seems to be the same one as is on the end of your “Plus CD” posted here.
March 31, 2019 at 4:46 pm
Sorry – I meant to say the same as on the end of the “Peel Sessions and Live” CD
January 16, 2020 at 4:17 pm
Hi,
Is there any way I could get hold of a CDr or FLAC download of Fiction Tales? Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks
January 31, 2020 at 1:34 am
i’ve contacted some people at CTR (Caroline True Records) and supposedly they’re going to look into getting Fiction Tales a proper CD release. From the email it would appear that Cherry Red owns the rights to the music. Kind of strange that it hasn’t been released yet. Of course we’ve seen what they did with that Five or Six compilation back in 2008. I’ve only had the listening pleasure of being able to hear 3 tracks courtesy of their post-punk and goth box sets. Leave it to corporate greed to cheat the fans that want to hear the music. Here’s looking at you whoever owns the rights to Land and Seven Day Weekend by The Comsat Angels!
February 3, 2020 at 10:12 pm
my favorite album of all time. Every track beautifully synchronized to lead into the next with some brilliant electronics and percussion to chill in and out of . an album of a mistakenable ear
May 9, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Hi . Love to have a digital hard copy of this amazing cd ! Let’s get it pressed 🙂
July 6, 2020 at 4:19 pm
Excelente banda infravalorada
May 14, 2023 at 2:29 am
How is it that an unofficial release is better sounding than the legit one? The new Cherry Red release sounds horrible by the way, it was all sourced from vinyl. If you actually care about quality, don’t waste your money on it.