It goes without saying that here at NCB Radio, we love sharing a love of music, and nothing says NCB Radio without sharing something that’s both terrific that you’ve almost certainly never heard of.

This week we’re off to 1984 to explore an album that never saw the light of day in its intended form because the duo responsible for it split before completing the album.

This week, our featured artist is Care and the album which never saw the day was set to be titled Love Crowns and Crucifies.

But why are we talking about a duo whose album was never released? Because thirteen years later, in 1997, the music was released onto the world in a different form. Strap yourselves in, because we’re about to explain.

Care was a duo comprising of Wild Swans singer Paul Simpson, whose vocals you could compare relatively simplistically to that of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, and Ian Broudie, who would be later known for his work in the form of the Lightning Seeds, but up until this point had been mostly involved in production for Echo and the Bunnymen, most notably on the album Porcupine.

A few singles which would later be on the eponymous stillborn album made a minor impact in the charts, specifically My Boyish Days, Whatever Possessed You, Diamonds and Emeralds, Chandeliers and Flaming Sword, the latter of which managed to chart at number 48 in October 1983.

While their success was pretty minor in the United Kingdom, the duo achieved something of a cult following in Japan and the Phillipines, where demand for the recordings the duo produced continued well after their split in 1985, ostensibly due to musical differences. It was said that while Paul Simpson wanted the music to be darker and moodier, Ian Broudie wanted it to be more commercial and melodic – a template he’d later revisit in a form through the Lightning Seeds.

However, despite years going by without an album ever been released, the cult following in Asia still persisted and come 1997, a record label called Camden, without the permission or knowledge of Broudie and Simpson, so it is told, decided to fulfil that demand.

Taking the still-born Love Crowns and Crucifies, they added together demo recordings, B-sides, instrumentals and unfinished tracks and released it as ‘Diamonds and Emeralds’ and under the name ‘Care – featuring Ian Broudie’, no doubt hoping to capitalise on what was now Ian’s nascent fame, this being a year after Three Lions was released.

But what of the album itself? Firstly, you wouldn’t think if you didn’t know previous that it was a collection of songs put together by a record label hoping to make a few quid. You wouldn’t even think some of the tracks are demos and quite honestly, we’re not entirely sure which ones are.

That is because the album is genuinely a new-wave hidden gem at its finest – and one which has a 4.5 star rating on Allmusic. It’s best described as a joyous Joy Division – although if you can make it through Cymophane without singing ‘Zimmer Frame’, you’ve done well. It’s on streaming platforms – check it out.

PS – Merry Christmas to our listeners and team past, present and future from everyone at NCB Radio.