Rare Cult

The Best of Rare Cult

The Best of Rare Cult is a single-disc compilation drawing selected songs from the Rare Cult box set, with five tracks not present on that box set. Its cover artwork, by American artist Rick Griffin, adapts Griffin's original cover for the abandoned 1987 single release for Soldier Blue. The CD was released on 21 October 2000, preceding the box set. The track listing includes Love Removal Machine (Peace remix), Zap City, Faith Healer (written by Alex Harvey and Hugh McKenna), She Sells Sanctuary (long version), Edie (Ciao Baby) (acoustic), Little Face, Spanish Gold, Love Trooper, The River, Lay Down Your Gun (version two) (demo), No.13, Bleeding Heart Graffiti, Sea And Sky, Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles) (original mix), and Join Hands.

Songs marked with an asterisk are unavailable on the Rare Cult box set. All songs are by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy unless otherwise stated. Bleeding Heart Graffiti is misspelled as Bleeding Heart Graffiti throughout the album's liner notes.

Rare Cult: The Demo Sessions

In August 2002, Beggars Banquet released Rare Cult: The Demo Sessions, a five-CD box set limited to 3,000 numbered copies sold exclusively through their online store. It collects every demo session The Cult cut between 1986 and 1991, totaling 77 tracks, with 51 of those never issued before. The packaging mirrors the earlier Rare Cult set but swaps out the artwork for reproductions of the actual studio worksheets and tape reels used during those sessions.

After wrapping up a North American tour in March and April 1986, plus a handful of European shows in May, the band headed back to the UK that June for festival appearances and a headline gig at London’s Brixton Academy on the 28th. Earlier that February, they had debuted four new songs during a radio session, and they’d tried to cut a single called Electric Ocean in Montreal at the start of their North American run. With studio time already booked for July at the Manor in Oxfordshire to record their third album, the group used their downtime to lay down demos and rough ideas at E.zee studios in North London.

The full E.zee session appears here in its original order, with unedited intros, even though only nine of its tracks made it onto the earlier Rare Cult box set. The tracklist runs: Love Removal Machine (4:44), Peace (4:15), Zap City (4:46), Love Trooper (3:56), Angel (5:17), Tom Petty (4:02), Brown’s Gone To Ausy Land (5:58), Babywalker (4:13), Surf Nazi (3:09), Groove Co. (Backing Track) (3:39), Oink (Version One) (3:53), Oink (Version Two) (3:52), Waltz (3:50), Blues One (3:03), Untitled (1) (2:50), El Progresso (2:46), Untitled (2) (2:32), and Groove Co. (3:38).