Have been following this thread with interest and decided to chip in.

We've been working with Nic & Julia for almost 10 years now, selling all of the self released albums - it works well as it offers people the chance to buy discs using cards, and it opens up a wider market than the UK.

We've been offered the CD-Rs of the first couple of albums, I declined to carry them. Not because I thought they weren't commercial (far from it) but for the ethical reasons well documented here.

I really don't want to get into arguments with individuals here, but I think the discussion about the demand for ANY release from Nic needs to be addressed.

There is a strong demand for anything from Nic, to back that up I'm happy to discuss figures from my point of view.

We've sold well over 1700 copies of Unearthed and ISONJ (combined), and that's just through Fish and not counting the copies Nic & Julia sell. Both Topic releases continue to sell well too.

There's no reason to suggest that ANY re-issue of the missing 4 albums wouldn't sell at least as well as this....I'd take any suggestion from someone saying they're struggling to sell copies with a huge pinch of salt.

There certainly is a market for the discs, and when they finally do see the light of day in an official format, I think the demand for them will be incredible....in the interim people have a choice to make - either get the first two albums in CD-R form, or do the right thing and wait for an official release (whenever that may be).

Neil
Fish Records