On one hand, Catherine Wheel fans have only themselves to blame for thinking the band were finally reuniting – frontman Rob Dickinson has given no signs he’s interested in giving up the world of custom luxury automobiles for the life of a touring rock band – but whoever they’ve got managing their social media accounts certainly knew what kind of an effect they’d have when they began teasing some news last month.

And yes, while I didn’t actually think anything was going to happen, I did let myself hope (I had decided I’d travel to one show in addition to their inevitable Toronto reunion gig). So it’s just as well they didn’t let the tease go on for too long, and instead their announcement was the remaster and digital release of a couple of the band’s earliest EPs – She’s My Friend and Painful Thing – both released in the Spring of 1991 on Wilde Club Records, a year before their debut Ferment would come out.

40 days ago on 2/28 the band let me release a statement about b-sides missing on streaming. Everyone always asks and I didn’t know what to say without their help so we wrote it together.

If you look back at that 2/28 post I assure you someone asked for Wilde Club re-releases. There was no consultant suggestion it was a fan here on this page.

A few days later I started researching suggestions there, I found out there were 8 forgotten tracks not controlled by labels / corporate entities but owned wholly by the band recorded in Brian’s bedroom (Neil in a studio later) before the sessions with Fontana, the original demo tapes.

I took this info to Brian and we brainstormed. We designed artwork together, we took the idea to Rob and he approved everything about 3 days later.

Remastering began in Motown, my hometown. Neil stepped in and made some suggestions, we tweaked the audio to address his concerns.

Within 30 days of the suggestion we had a release ready to go.

I want vinyls too, I’m sorry it can’t happen this month. I’m doing the best I can to spread the gospel of CW to the world. In the fall when we get the numbers from the streaming revenue in, my first suggestion will be to push those funds towards vinyls. Maybe by the time the EP’s anniversary comes in January that could be possible but at this time there are no plans beyond a TuneCore streaming release.

The Catherine Wheel @ Facebook

So obviously live shows would be better, but new old music – no one who doesn’t own the original 7″s has heard these – isn’t a bad consolation prize. And it also answers the question that everyone has been asking since Wishville – are they committed to the definite article? Yes, yes they are.

The first of the EPs, for She’s My Friend, appeared on streaming services yesterday and the second will land on May 30.