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| “Can
you forgive her?” was released in 1993 as the first single of “Very”,
the fifth studio album of the Pet Shop Boys. By that time, Neil & Chris
were tired to look naturalistic on all record sleeves and videos, and
they were just finished the Performance Tour, a completely theatrical
performance created by David Fielding… So they decided to change the way
they presented themselves by doing the opposite everyone else was doing
and look ‘artificial’. The artwork was designed by Mark Farrow and PSB
using photographs of the costume prototypes created by David Fielding
as an extension of the Performance Tour aesthetic, including orange-red
jumpsuits with large angular glasses, the famous orange-white striped
pointy hats, spray-painted shoes and and an orange glove in one hand and
a white glove on the other; by the time they had to start producing the
7” and CD Singles there were nothing else but the prototypes so they decided
to use them for the sleeves and weeks later, the 12” Remix Single included
real photos of Neil & Chris on the jumpsuits with all the background set
created for promotion, photography and video purposes. |
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So the different sleeve covers used the prototypes photographed against
green and blue backgrounds, some times using the two of them and sometimes
each one separately and the back cover for all formats was always red-orange
coloured; the typography was also completely different, influenced by
the work done by ‘Raygun' magazine in America with type bumping into
itself. There are two official UK 7” Test Pressings released before
the official launching in red and blue vinyl with just 5 copies printed
of each color including “Can you forgive her?” Original Version and
the B Side “Hey Headmaster”… This UK 7” vinyls are included in the top
5 rare items of PSB collection ever.
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| The
commercial release of “Can you forgive her?” in the UK included
one Cassette Tape, one 7” vinyl, one 12” vinyl and two CD Singles. Both
CDs were issued in cardboard sleeves and the second part included an outer
sleeve designed to fit both parts. The front cover of the first CD showed
a green grass-like background with the name of the band and the title
in white type centered in the lower half of the cover with a small squared
on the top right corner with one of the prototypes sited on a chair over
a blue background; the back cover was orange coloured with white type
same as the CD and included the original version, two remixes by Rollo
Armstrong and Rob Dougan -better know as Rollo- and the B Side “Hey Headmaster”.
The front cover of the second CD showed a blue painted-surface-style background
with the name of the band and the title in white type centered in the
lower half of the cover with a small squared on the top right corner with
the other prototype sited on a chair over a green background; the back
was also orange with white type but the CD was white with orange type
and included two remixes of “Can you forgive her?” made by Mark Kinchen
-better known as MK-, a second B Side titled “What keeps mankind alive?”
and a new remix of the song “I want to wake up” by Johnny Marr, originally
included in the “Actually” album; the outer sleeve included with this
CD designed to fit both parts of the single had the same style and color
combination as the inner sleeve but instead of showing one of the prototypes
in a chair, showed both of them. |
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For the Cassette Tape and the 7” Single, the front sleeve was the oposite
to the CD outer sleeve, green background and blue square showing not prototypes
and including the original version with the B Side “Hey Headmaster”. Finally,
the 12” Remix Single used a different sleeve with an actual photo of Neil
& Chris sited on chairs -similar to the prototype photos- on top of a
giant blue egg over white background and the name of the band and title
inside the egg; the back cover showed the same image of the egg but without
Neil & Chris and included all four remixes included on both CDs. Two promotional
12” Singles were released in die-cut generic sleeves, one with Rollo Remixes
and the other one with the MK Remixes but adding the ‘MK Bicycle Dub’
instead of the regular ‘MK Dub’ on one side and the other side with two
remixes of “I want to wake up”, the ‘1993 Remix’ and the ‘Groove Mix’.
For the international releases, countries like Italy, Spain and the US
used an alternative design for the cover with both prototypes sited on
their chairs over the green grass-like background for the full sleeve
with the title below and included the original version and all four remixes
of “Can you forgive her?”. The US promotional CD and Cassette included
some Edits of the MK and Rollo remixes, exclusive to these formats. |
