Catherine Wheel will get a second chance to make a first impression with their critically acclaimed, commercially flaccid album Adam & Eve. The album, originally released last year, will get re-released by the prog-rockers' new label, Columbia Records, this fall, and will likely include a second disc, composed of live material.

Though the deal with Columbia won't be inked until next week, band manager Merck Mercuriadis says the new deal with the Sony label will call for two new Catherine Wheel albums in the next four years and a re-release of Adam & Eve. Catherine Wheel split with their U.S. label, Mercury Records, last spring after the Polygram-owned label was unable to ignite a fire around Adam & Eve and refused to greenlight a music video for the album's second single, "Phantom of the American Mother." Historically, bands that don't fare well at one major label are considered damaged goods and have trouble re-signing with another major label -- Catherine Wheel being an obvious exception.

Mercuriadis doesn't expect Columbia to launch a major marketing campaign around Adam & Eve, but rather concentrate on the new Catherine Wheel album, which will probably be released in February. The possible live-album addendum to Adam & Eve will be seventy-five minutes of material recorded at a London show this past February including songs like "Crank," "Texture," "Black Metallic" and "I Want to Touch You." A two-part, import-only CD single for the song Adam & Eve track "Broken Nose" includes seven songs from that live show, along with the title track.

BLAIR R. FISCHER