Many of you may not have heard of Peter Godwin. He was in a band called Metro during the seventies and released a series of excellent singles as a solo artist in the early eighties before disappearing into obscurity; through I did once spot him in an episode of Minder! He also wrote a great single, ‘To Have and Have Not’, for French singer Ronny, which I would highly recommend.

Released in 1998, ‘Images of Heaven’ is an odd sort of album. It is not a greatest hits, if only on the basis that Mr Godwin never had any, but as a ‘collection’ or ‘best of’ there are some unusual inclusions. There are the excellent solo singles mentioned earlier, vocally very much in the Bryan Ferry / David Sylvian style but musically more electronic. In addition there are the singles, and a couple of album tracks, from his only solo album ‘Correspondence’. These are all firmly rooted in the early eighties and are very enjoyable.

Going back further there is also Metros first ever single, ‘Criminal World’, which was covered by Bowie on ‘Let’s Dance’. Whilst the Bowie version is obviously the much better known, Metros is far superior. In fact Mr Godwin thanks Bowie for covering the song in the sleeve notes. I imagine this brought him a very welcome influx of cash! There is also a previously unreleased Metro song from their third, never released, album. Whilst good I would rather have had the last Metro single, ‘America in my Head’, and its excellent B-side ‘Alone’.

Bringing it up to date there are three new songs that whilst OK I felt failed to live up to the quality of his earlier material. A remix of one of these songs is also included together with remixes of two earlier singles. Personally I would have preferred some additional material.

When all is said and done I am delighted to find Peter Godwin on CD at all and if you love early eighties music, Ferry, Sylvian or all three, you will be in for a treat with this CD.