ADVISORY/Kinks Soap Opera Continues; Velvel Releases Four More Classic Kinks Albums in Acclaimed Reissue Series.

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1998--On November 24, Velvel Records advances its much-heralded Kinks reissue series with a second set of expanded CD versions of classic albums by the renowned British band.

The four new titles -- The Kinks Present A Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, Sleepwalker and Misfits -- chronicle a fascinating transitional period in the band's history. A Soap Opera and Schoolboys In Disgrace (both originally released by RCA in 1975) represent the end of the band's critically acclaimed string of theatrical, satirical concept albums, while Sleepwalker (1977) and Misfits (1978) marked the band's move to the Arista label and introduced the streamlined melodic rock approach that would reestablish The Kinks as a major commercial force in the 1980s.

The Kinks Present A Soap Opera is one of the most provocative and personal of The Kinks' '70s-era concept albums, and finds band leader Ray Davies exploring several of his favorite lyrical themes on such prime Kinks kuts as the poignant "A Face in the Crowd" and the wacky "Ducks on the Wall." Schoolboys In Disgrace is both a meditation on the loss of youthful innocence and a prequel of sorts to the band's earlier two-album Preservation project. The album's standout songs include the hard-rocking "The Hard Way," the wistful "No More Looking Back" and the anthemic seven-minute "Education."

Sleepwalker finds the band trading the conceptual leanings of its RCA releases for stripped-down, hard-rocking pop songs like the title track, "Juke Box Music" and "Life on the Road." That direction continues on Misfits, which features the soul-searching U.S. hit "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy," along with such memorable numbers as the introspective title track, the frantic rocker "Live Life" and guitarist / co-founder Dave Davies' impassioned epic "Trust Your Heart."

Like all of the titles in the series, the four newly remastered albums feature expanded artwork, liner notes and archival photos. Additionally, three of the four titles contain rare bonus tracks that have not previously appeared on CD. The Soap Opera disc includes a rare alternate mix of "Everybody's A Star (Starmaker)" plus previously unreleased live versions of three album tracks. Sleepwalker adds four rarely-heard Ray Davies compositions: "Artificial Light" and "Prince of the Punks," two of the group's most sought-after b-sides, plus the never-before-released "The Poseur" and two different mixes of "On the Outside," which appeared only on a rare import EP. Misfits features the non-album holiday single "Father Christmas," which remains one of the band's most-played radio numbers, along with alternate single versions of "Black Messiah," "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" and "Live Life." The latter song also appears on the album portion of the Misfits CD in an extended version that appeared on the U.K. edition of the original LP, and which is previously unreleased in the U.S.