The Who / My Generation Mono CD mastering query

We’ve had a few questions about the mastering of forthcoming issue of The Who‘s My Generation Mono CD.

As some of you will be aware the original UK mono mix is previously unissued on CD outside of Japan, where it was included on a pricey box set and as a standalone CD with bonus tracks back in 2008. The mastering used in Japan was by Jon Astley, from Shel Talmy’s original mono tapes.

Universal Music have confirmed that this is NOT Jon Astley’s remaster and so will be different to what appeared on those Japanese releases. This new release appears to be a new remaster, with the tapes from Universal’s tape library ‘baked’ recently for the playback and mastering process. We can exclusively reveal that the image above is one of the actual tapes used for this new mono CD, although it is not yet clear who did the new remastering.

From the image we can see that this tape was created 32 years ago (almost to the day!) and is a copy, rather than the very original master tape.

The Who / My Generation mono CD is out on 19 November 2012 and is available to pre-order (in the UK) for only £5.00.

• UK Pre-order: My Generation (Mono) 
• USA Pre-order: My Generation (Mono)
• CANADA Pre-order: My Generation (Mono)
• GERMANY Pre-order: My Generation (Mono)