Shark Vegas

When Die Unbekannten were asked for a New Order tour of Europe in early 1984, founding members, Mark Reeder & Alistair Gray decided to change their bands name and image, especially since the line-up had once again changed, with 2 new members Leo Walter & Helmut Wittler (previously from "popper" band Soif De La Vie). Shark Vegas only lasted for one year, however, recording only (a live tape and) one single - You Hurt Me - which was released on Factory Records (FAC 111) and on Die Toten Hosen's label Totenkopf (TOT 11) in Germany. The demo for this single was originally recorded at Harris Johns studio in Berlin and these rough tapes were eventually taken to Cologne to Conny Planks studio, to be mixed and co-produced by New Order's Bernard Sumner during a few days off from their tour. However, the Cologne recording session was a complete fiasco. The studio engineer had suffered a serious back problem a few days before and had to lie in front of the mixing desk on a specially constructed bed. In between screams of agony, he shouted his engineering instructions to Bernard. Feeling the need to update the B side, Mark, Alistair and Bernard then went to England and remixed the track (it became You Hurt Me... But Now Your Flesh Lies Rotting In Hell) for the Factory version of the single for the UK release. Bernard played some additional guitar and A Certain Ratio's Donald Johnson added some backing vocals. Mark asked his friend Mark Farrow to design the artwork for both English and German versions of this single and they remain today as two examples of his earliest record sleeve designs. Although this single went virtually unnoticed in the UK, it became very popular throughout the indie clubs and gay discotheques of the USA and it gave the band a cult following.