1.Outside

Reissues

In March 1996, the album was reissued in Europe and Australia as a two-disc set titled 1.Outside Version 2. This omitted ‘Wishful Beginnings’ from the first disc, but appended the Pet Shop Boys’ remix of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ as the final track.

The second disc contained six tracks: a longer edit of the PSB remix of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’; live versions of ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Moonage Daydream’, and ‘The Man Who Sold The World’; an edit of ‘Strangers When We Meet’; and ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Bowie Mix).

A Japanese edition of Version 2 substituted the Bowie Mix of ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ with the Rubber Mix.

In 2003 the album was reissued by Columbia in the UK as a single disc, and was re-released the following year by Sony with the bonus track ‘Get Real’.

In September 2004 Columbia released a limited edition of 1.Outside, with a bonus disc containing 14 b-sides and remixes:

• The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Trent Reznor Alternative Mix)
• ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Rubber Mix)
• ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Simple Test Mix)
• ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Filthy Mix)
• ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ (Good Karma Mix by Tim Simenon)
• ‘A Small Plot Of Land’ (Basquiat)
• ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ (12″ Remix)vHallo Spaceboy (Double Click Mix)
• ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ (Instrumental)
• ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ (Lost in Space Mix)
• ‘I Am With Name’ (Album Version)
• ‘I’m Deranged’ (Jungle Mix)
• ‘Get Real’
• ‘Nothing To Be Desired’

In 2015 the full album was released on vinyl for the first time. The limited edition was issued on white vinyl, in a partnership with Iso, Columbia, Sony, and Friday Music. It was followed by similar reissues in translucent blue and green swirl vinyl, and black and white swirl vinyl.

The album grows on you. I told a lot of people on interviews over the years that I didn’t think people would fully get that album until about 2010. I didn’t get it initially, either. I enjoyed playing on it, but I didn’t get it for a few months. Even the music has a way of building and getting under your skin.

The Leon Suites

In 2003 a number of outtakes from the Montreux recording sessions for 1.Outside were leaked as bootleg recordings.

Known as the Leon Suites, they ran for a total of 71:14. More material later emerged, and the recordings were divided into three discrete files: ‘I Am With Name’ (22:09); ‘Leon Takes Us Outside’ (21:29); and ‘The Enemy Is Fragile’ (27:37).

This was a fraction of the music recorded in Montreux, and was never intended for an album release. They were, however, likely to have been some of the material that was rejected by Bowie’s record label in 1994, after which he recorded additional songs in New York and London.

It was supposed to be a trilogy, and all that other stuff hasn’t been released, but there’s at least 25, 30 hours sitting in the vaults. Somebody put out some bootleg of it that they somehow got a copy from the studio, so they’re actually good quality, and there are some of the things we played. They’re kind of improvised. They’re not complete songs, but the quality is good. Somebody has sent me a bootleg of that, and it’s actually tremendous.

The music is varied and sprawling, and encompasses several more identifiable pieces than the three titles suggest, as well as longer spoken word sections and improvisations. It includes a piece commonly known as ‘I’d Rather Be Chrome’, a lengthier version of the b-side ‘Nothing To Be Desired’, and sections by the fictional Nathan Adler, Ramona A Stone, Algeria Touchshriek and a mysterious extra character possibly named Waloff Bomberg.

As the ’90s progressed I felt my writing was getting stronger and stronger. I knew it was different, it might not have the frantic energy of some of the more youthful stuff but that’s the way it is when you get older. But there was a certain quality to the writing.