Hard-Fi announce deluxe 20th anniversary reissue ‘Stars Of CCTV’ 

Hard-Fi have announced a deluxe reissue of their ‘Stars Of CCTV’ album to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Find out the details below.

• READ MORE: Hard-Fi: “‘Stars of CCTV’ seems more relevant now than it did back in 2005”

Set to arrive on July 4, the new release will celebrate the indie band’s iconic debut album with a limited edition yellow gatefold 2-LP vinyl, as well as through two CDs. It comes 20 years after the four-piece shared the era-defining breakthrough album, and celebrates how the record “transformed four working-class lads from Staines into one of the UK’s most vital bands of the ‘00s”.

With the anniversary edition, Hard-Fi will include the original tracklist in full, along with never-before-heard demos of ‘Hard To Beat’, ‘Move On Now’ & ‘Gotta Reason’.

Also included are various live versions of the original tracklisting, alongside B-sides and a host of special remixes.

When ‘Stars Of CCTV’ was first shared in 2005, it was only ever available as a limited run on vinyl, meaning that the 20th-anniversary version will give most fans their first opportunity to own the record on vinyl.

“We were skint, recording in a freezing old minicab office, but we knew we had something raw and real,” said Richard Archer, reflecting on the breakthrough LP. “‘Stars’ was our life – watching mates struggle in dead-end jobs, police mobile surveillance vans parked up watching our every move, but still finding the thrill in a night out, music, street culture and celebrating a lifestyle familiar to anyone stuck on the outskirts, in satellite towns up and down the country”.

Visit here to pre-order the 20th-anniversary reissue, and check out the tracklisting below.

The ‘Stars Of CCTV’ 20th-anniversary tracklist is: 

CD1
‘Cash Machine’
‘Middle Eastern Holiday’
‘Tied Up Too Tight’
‘Gotta Reason’
‘Hard To Beat’
‘Unnecessary Trouble’
‘Move On Now’
‘Better Do Better’
‘Feltham Is Singing Out’
‘Living For The Weekend’
‘Stars Of CCTV’
‘Stronger’
‘Sick Of It All’
‘Seven Nation Army’
‘Peaches (Radio 1 Live Version)’
‘Polish Love Song (Single Version)’
‘1969’
‘Gotta Reason (Demo)’
‘Hard To Beat (Demo)’
‘Move On Now (Demo)’

CD2
‘Cash Machine (Roots Manuva Dub Remix)’
‘Cash Converter (Dub Machine) (Pt.2)’
‘Better Dub Better (Wolsey White Dub)’
‘Middle Eastern Holiday (Wrongtom Meets The Rockers East Of Medina Dub)’
‘Living For The Weekend (Wolsey White & Fred Dub)’
‘Dub Of CCTV’
‘Better Do Better (Wrontom Wild Inna 81 Version)’
‘Dubbed Up Too Tight’
‘Move On Dub’
‘Dub Machine’
‘Middle Eastern Holiday (Chicken Lips Dub)’
‘Cash Machine (Roots Manuva Vocal Remix)’
‘Hard To Beat (Axwell Mix)’
‘Middle Eastern Holiday (Chicken Lips Vocal Mix)’
‘Hard To Beatmix’
‘Cash Machine (Wrongtom Remix)’
‘Cash Machine (Acoustic)’

Two-LP Vinyl Tracklisting

SIDE ONE
‘Cash Machine’
‘Middle Eastern Holiday’
‘Tied Up Too Tight’
‘Gotta Reason’
‘Hard To Beat’
‘Unnecessary Trouble’

SIDE TWO
‘Move On Now’
‘Better Do Better’
‘Feltham Is Singing Out’
‘Living For The Weekend’
‘Stars Of CCTV’

SIDE THREE
‘Stronger’
‘Sick Of It All’
‘Seven Nation Army’
‘Peaches’
‘Polish Love Song’
‘1969’

SIDE FOUR
‘Gotta Reason (Demo)’
‘Hard To Beat (Demo)’
‘Move On Now (Demo)’

When the album was first released, it went on to top the UK charts, reach triple platinum and earn the band a Mercury Music Prize nomination –  where they reportedly missed out by just one panel vote to ANOHNI’s ‘I Am A Bird Now’.

It has sold over 1.2million copies globally and over 750,000 in the UK alone, as well as solidified the band as a voice of a generation, exploring the difficult aspects of life in Britain.

Speaking to NME around the time of their reformation in 2023, Richard Archer looked back at the debut release and said: “‘Stars of CCTV’ seems more relevant now than it did back in 2005, almost. A lot of the subjects are more prescient now perhaps, so, it’s just trying to figure out what is it we want to say, and sonically what do we want to be doing? We’re trying lots of different things out to see what resonates.”

Exploring how the topics resonate years after, he added: “There’s so much going on in the world that you could talk about and comment on and critique or whatever. But there’s always that thought at the back of my mind that people know that, do they wanna be reminded of it or do they want to forget about it and think about something else?”

“When we wrote ‘Stars Of CCTV’, even though the subjects were talking about what was happening, it wasn’t really as on purpose. It was just talking about our lives and when we were growing up, writing about we knew and trying to make a point about it in some ways. We want to do what feels good and not worry too much, like we did on album one. We just want to enjoy the process and not be pressured into making the new ‘Hard To Beat’.”

Last September, Hard-Fi shared a single ‘Always And Forever’, which was taken from their EP ‘Don’t Go Making Plans’ and contained a single with the same title.

Going into 2025, the band have three live shows planned too. These include a set at Moto GP in Silverstone on May 24, followed by an appearance at Glastonbury the following month, where they will perform on the Avalon Stage on June 28.

In July, they will then take to the stage at Englefield House for the Heritage Live concert series, alongside The Wombats, Doves & Alfie Templeman. Visit here for tickets to upcoming shows.

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