FIRST PICTURES: Velvet Underground & Nico super deluxe

First Pictures: Velvet Underground & Nico Super Deluxe Edition

The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is released this week (North America and Canada, next week) and here we bring you some exclusive pictures of this new set.

This edition is simply a very elegant 92-page book, with the six CDs contained within two thick pages at the rear. The book itself is just under 12 inches wide but only ten inches high, which makes it much easier to hold and read than the large 12 x 12-inch books, such as the one included with the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks… super deluxe edition.

Although the content within lacks any contribution from the likes of Lou Reed or John Cale, the essay by Richie Unterberger (VU author/expert) is a detailed and fascinating look at how the album came to be, and the sessions and movements of the band during that period. Superb photos enhance his words.

The only let down with this presentation is the way the discs are stored. Although it has become fairly standard to have discs housed in pockets glued to strengthen leaves within these books, there is something rather inelegant about this solution and someone really needs to come up with a better way to house discs within a book soon. I know that many fans don’t like the ‘rubbing’ of the discs in these pockets and some have reported scratched CDs as a result.

The music within will be looked at on another day, but this book feels superb in the hands, and for once a truly influential record deserves this treatment. The volume is both tasteful and serious in approach, which is what you’d expect with The Velvet Underground.

What I really want to know is can I risk ‘peeling’ the banana on the front?

Full track listing below.

First Pictures: Velvet Underground & Nico Super Deluxe Edition
Tastefully designed (click to enlarge)

Continue reading “FIRST PICTURES: Velvet Underground & Nico super deluxe”

Out this week…

Frankie and frankie only… ZTT and Salvo show how to do a greatest hits properly, with Frankie Said by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. More here.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood / Frankie Said hits compilation


Thick As A Brick 40th Anniversary Edition. Jethro Tull celebrate with this CD+DVD double pack. A double vinyl is also available. More here

Jethro Tull / Thick As A Brick 40th Anniversary reissue


Enjoy some neon loneliness with the 20th Anniversary Edition of the Manic Street Preachers’ debut Generation Terrorists. The Collector’s Box has SOLD OUT but the three disc ‘Legacy’ edition is almost as good. More here.

Manic Street Preachers / Generation Terrorists 3-disc set


Hungarian RhapsodyQueen in glorious hi-def and surround sound with this 1986 concert in Budapest, on Blu-ray. More here.

Queen / Hungarian Rhapsody Blu-ray and DVD Deluxe Editions


The Rolling Stones – Charlie is My Darling Super Deluxe Edition. 1965 documentary expanded into this massive box set with CDs, DVD, Bluray and vinyl. More here.

The Rolling Stones / Charlie Is My Darling 5-disc super deluxe set


Velvet Underground & Nico – six disc Super Deluxe Edition with rare recordings and previously unreleased rehearsals and concert audio. More here.

The Velvet Underground & Nico / Super Deluxe Edition


So you have the greatest hits, but why not explore further with The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums box set by Bill Withers. More here.

Bill Withers / The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums box set


Genesis Vinyl Box Set 1976-1982 – limited edition with heavyweight vinyl and artwork faithfully reproducing the original artwork of A Trick Of The Tail, Wind & Wuthering, And Then There Were Three, Duke and Abacab. More here.

Genesis / 1976-1982 Vinyl box set


 

Fine Young Cannibals delayed

Fine Young Cannibals / 2CD reissues delayedFans looking forward to the deluxe two-CD reissues of both Fine Young Cannibals albums, will be disappointed to learn that the release has been pushed back from 19 November 2012 to a new provisional date of 3 Jan 2013.

We understand that the final track listings are still to be signed off and this has caused the delay.

Amazon in the UK are showing the incorrect release date at the time of writing, although we expect this to change in the near future.

PRE-ORDER Fine Young Cannibals  PRE-ORDER The Raw And The Cooked


Bryan Ferry / The Jazz Age 10-inch signed folio limited edition

Bryan Ferry / The Jazz Age Folio edition
Folio edition contains six 10″ vinyl records

A few weeks ago we informed you about Bryan Ferry‘s new album, The Jazz Age, which takes some of his classic songs and transforms them into 1920’s style instrumentals performed by a  Jazz Orchestra.

We mentioned that the album was being released in a 10-inch ‘folio’ edition but didn’t realise at the time that this was going to be a very special limited edition produced by The Vinyl Factory.

This release consists of six 10-inch vinyl records, housed in a hardback folio with exclusive screen printed artwork, with each of the 500 copies hand-signed and numbered by Bryan Ferry.

Limited Edition details:
• 500 copies worldwide, each hand signed and numbered by Bryan Ferry
• Hardback Folio with screen printed artwork by French poster artist Paul Colin
• Six x 10″ vinyl records, each with bespoke label artwork
• Essay and credits screen printed on folio, outer spine silver foiled

None of this attention to detail comes cheap and this edition will retail at £150. It is available to pre-order now, exclusively from The Vinyl Factory. Release date 3 December 2012.
Continue reading “Bryan Ferry / The Jazz Age 10-inch signed folio limited edition”

10cc / Classic Album Selection box

10cc / Classic Albums box set
10cc / Classic Albums box set

If the forthcoming Tenology box set is more 10cc than you require, then this Classic Album Selection box set might be of interest. It collects five albums from the period 1975-1978, although there are six discs here due to the live album Live and Let Live taking up two CDs.

10cc Classic Album Selection: Five Albums is out on 19 November 2012

Continue reading “10cc / Classic Album Selection box”

Hello Goodbye: McCartney cancels website premium membership

Hello Goodbye / Paul McCartney cancels premium membership on his websitePaul McCartney fans, who less than a year ago paid close to £40 for premium membership of his website, have today been emailed and told that changes have been made to paulmccartney.com and that “Premium Membership, will not feature in the new site”.

To thank the people who signed up for premium membership, the PM.com team are putting together a “package of goodies” that will include a free download of Paul’s forthcoming film, Live Kisses.

This is rather bizarre, and seems to bring to an end a premium membership scheme that promised much at the beginning, but actually delivered very little. People who signed up, late last year, originally received a membership card, a lithograph, a T-shirt, some small badges, a plectrum and a free download of an Paul McCartney album that, by definition, virtually every fan wanting premium membership would already have owned.

The card carrying members were then disappointed when the RAM reissue happened in May (amazingly, the one and only archive collection reissue in the 11 months the membership has been active) when nothing exclusive was offered to them. However, if you weren’t a premium member you did get a nice bonus – a free ‘digital’ version of the membership given away with the deluxe ‘book’ version of RAM. You are reading that correctly. Paying members got nothing extra, and non-members got free membership.

Given the depth of Paul’s archive – McCartney’s manager Scott Rodger refers to it in this interview – it seems ridiculous that not one single audio track from the archive was ever offered to paying premium members. Especially when you consider the slow rate of progress with the archive reissues.

Even when it’s time to say goodbye, Paul McCartney’s team are seemingly completely oblivious to what the hardcore fans really want. Rather than promoting the latest project – Live Kisses? no thanks! – why not give us premium members what we were expecting during the last year in the first place – high quality downloads (FLAC) of unreleased outtakes from his classic albums, such as RAM, Band On The Run, or McCartney?

Now that would be something.


Are you a premium member? Tell your views on the membership and your thoughts now that it is now being scrapped?