I thought I'd been on the Saint Etienne email list for years and years. My email archive shows it's less than five, though. Nice Price was the first fan-club-only release I heard about. From the email:
We are pleased to announce the release of NICE PRICE — a collection of previously unreleased demos and alternate versions of well known Saint Etienne songs with suitably 'nice' artwork by Paul Kelly and 'Behind the Music' insights from Bob and Pete.
A playful nod to the ancient tradition of the CBS Nice Price series and gaudy stickers stuck to record covers. But that's what you get with Saint Etienne: a series of references that only connect with those in the know. Much of the time, I'm not one of them. But I intersect in the field of old promotional catalogue campaigns. The only thing is that the Saint Etienne boys (I'm pretty sure it is the boys) have more poetic and evocative things to say about collecting records than I do, and that makes me a little wary of them.
Nice little album, though. Just the kind of peek-behind-the-curtain you'd want if you were a fanclub member. Encouragingly, no one much seems to be trying to sell their copy on eBay at a large profit, yet. A limited edition of 3,000 — 1,735 more than tomorrow's album.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
Details, including full sleeve notes, on Saint Etienne fanclub site
Wikipedia entry for this album
Rate Your Music entry for this album
Listen to none of this album at Last.fm
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