I remember seeing a TV special in the UK sometime before this album finally came out called the Gold Experience or something and I remember it being ten times better than the album when it came out with a much different, much funkier sound to it. Was it live? or just different mixes of the songs?

Does anybody know?

It took me a while to get over this disappointment, but now I think it's a pretty good album.

You're probably thinking of The Beautiful Experience which was aired on UK tv. It had songs that eventually appeared on both Come and The Gold Experience albums: Come, Pheromone, Shhh (live), Race, Papa, Loose (all Come) The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, Now (live) (all TGE) plus Interactive, Days Of Wild (live) (on Crystal Ball).

Both Come and TGE experienced many different song selections before eventually being released. Days of Wild and Interactive, for instance, were originally going to start the Gold Experience album.