Simple Minds will release, Live in the City of Diamonds, a new live album, in April.
The performance was recorded at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, and songs include ‘Waterfront’, ‘Love Song’, ‘New Gold Dream’, ‘Promised You A Miracle’, ‘Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)’, ‘Alive and Kicking’, ‘Sanctify Yourself’ and, inevitably, ‘(Don’t You) Forget About Me’.
This release is available as a 2CD set in deluxe hardcover ‘mediabook’ packaging (24 tracks) or as a 2LP vinyl package (black and ‘clear-with-glitter’ options) which has 18 tracks.
Live in the City of Diamonds will be released on 25 April 2025, via BMG.
The 50th anniversary reissue of Genesis’ 1974 album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, is now delayed until June.
Two super deluxe editions are available for pre-order: a 5LP+blu-ray and 4CD+blu-ray. Both feature a brand-new remaster by Miles Showell at Abbey Road of the original album mix from the 1974 tapes and a Dolby Atmos Mix (and a 96/24 hi-res stereo mix) of the album by Bob Mackenzie, under the supervision of Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. The box sets also include The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway live at the Shrine Auditorium, 1975 – in full.
No reason has been given for the delay, but The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway will now be reissued on 13 June 2025, via Rhino.
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Genesis
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - 4CD+blu-ray super deluxe
The pre-order window for the Roxy MusicAvalon SDE-exclusive blu-ray is about to close.
The blu-ray audio – #36 in the ongoing SDE Suround Series – will feature the Grammy-nominated Dolby Atmos Mix created by Bob Clearmountain, the 5.1 Surround Sound Mix from the now very-hard-to-get-hold-of Super Audio CD (SACD) released in 2003 (also by Bob Clearmountain) and the original 1982 stereo mix.
Audio streams on the Avalon SDE exclusive blu-ray:
Avalon 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
Avalon 2003 DTS-HD 5.1 Mix (96/24)
Avalon 1982 Original Stereo Mix (96/24)
The new Atmos Mix was overseen by Bryan Ferry and the album’s co-producer Rhett Davies and approved by Roxy Music. The blu-ray comes packaged in the same deluxe hardcover mediabook packaging used for the Bryan Ferry Retrospective.
When Bob Clearmountain heard that Avalon was coming out on blu-ray, he threw his arms up and said, ‘fantastic!, because at least people get to hear it in its true quality’.
Rhett Davies, Avalon co-producer
The Immersive Audio Album website, in a review of the new Avalon Atmos Mix, said “Going up against arguably one of the best-ever 5.1 remixes of a classic album is an unenviable task, but Clearmountain and Davies have amazingly managed to outdo their past work”.
The blu-ray audio is region-free and will ship with a free and collectible SDE slipcase and is exclusively available via the SDE shop using this link or the buttons below.
The pre-order window closes tomorrow, on Friday 21 February and is the last point you can guarantee a copy of this release, although there may be some availability due to cancellations/contingency stock much nearer to the release date (which is 9 May 2025).
All of the releases of the last four months (Bryan Ferry, Simple Minds, Elton John, The Who etc.) are now out-of-print, so do not miss out!
In a surprising turn of events, Madonna has announced that her 1994 album Bedtime Stories will be reissued at some point in the near future.
Released in October 1994, the album features the singles ‘Secret’, ‘Take A Bow’, ‘Bedtime Story’ and ‘Human Nature’. ‘Take A Bow’ spoiled Madonna’s run of consecutive top 10 UK hit singles (she’d had 32 at that point) by peaking at No 16, although in America that song was an enormous hit, reaching No 1 and staying there for seven weeks. The album was perceived as a return to form, or perhaps more a return to the mainstream, after the raunch-fest that was 1992’s Erotica. That album was very successful (in the UK all five singles went top 10) but it was her first studio album since her debut not to have a single that reached number one in the US or the UK. As mentioned, normal service was resumed with Take A Bow in America.
There is no official announcement or press release from the label, but Madonna herself has broken the news on her social channels. On X she said “Bedtime Stories Re -release and Vinyl coming soon !” and on Instagram, in a now deleted post, she offered more details with a graphic depicting the album with alternative artwork and the heading ‘The Untold Chapter’. Underneath is the text: “A vinyl EP featuring a never before heard story, early demos from the main manuscript and more. Pre-orders coming soon!“
There’s no real clarity over what is happening, other than the fact that something is happening. It feels like it could be interesting, but not comprehensive. Let’s reserve judgement, although I wouldn’t go expecting a 4CD+blu-ray super deluxe, with Atmos, demos, all the remixes etc.
The reason I say that it’s a surprising turn of events is that it has been four and a half years since Warner Music announced its “multi-year catalog series” of Madonna’s output. Since that time they’ve missed the opportunity to release 40th anniversary editions of Madonna’s debut album and Like A Virgin. In fact no studio albums have been reissued at all. The Finally Enough Love compilation has been the most significant activity (see SDE review, here).
Good though Bedtime Stories is, starting this campaign, nearly half a decade down the line, with a record that is only about her eighth best-selling studio album simply demonstrates that Madonna herself is in control and one suspects there’s some frustrated executives within Warners right now wondering what they’ve got themselves into. Madonna is also in the middle of recording her new record with Stuart Price that she’s hash-tagging as “Confessions Part 2”.
Neil Young’s ‘lost’ album Oceanside Countryside was announced on vinyl at the beginning of the year and is released in early March. There was an assumption that this wouldn’t surface on CD since it’s similar – although not the same – to CD 4 in last year’s Archives Vol III, but Reprise have just announced a CD edition, due in April.
As a reminder, the album was recorded in 1977 and features songs such as ‘Lost in Space’, ‘Captain Kennedy’ and ‘The Old Homestead’ (that ended up on Hawks and Doves, in 1980) and ‘Sail Away’, ‘Goin’ Back’, ‘Human Highway’, ‘It Might Have Been’ and ‘Pocohontas’ which are the same as on Archives Vol III. Other tracks, such as ‘Field of Opportunity’ and ‘Dance Dance Dance’ are unique in that they are slightly different to the versions of Archives Vol III (on these versions Young is on backing vocals, rather than Nicolette Larson).
Young stresses that “These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings”. The Oceanside element (side one) was recorded in Florida and Malibu with NY singing and playing (most of) the instruments. Countryside (side two) features songs recorded in Nashville with Ben Keith, Joe Osborn and a few others.
The CD edition features the same 10 tracks at the vinyl, so quite why the label split the announcements and release dates of both formats is unclear. Perhaps they had no plans for a CD version until Neil Young intervened?
Oceanside Countryside will be issued on CD on 25 April 2025 via Reprise Records. The vinyl is out on 7 March.
Last month Snow Patrol announced an Extended Edition – on CD – of their 2024 album, The Forest Is The Path, which features five new songs and a remix. Fans understandably grumbled about having to buy the album again to get the new songs, something which, as it turns out, vinyl aficionados will not have to do.
That’s because the same six tracks are being issued as a standalone vinyl EP called The Forest Is The Path: Onwards To The Endless. This is being released on ‘Coke Bottle’ clear 12-inch vinyl.
On the face of it, this is annoying for CD fans, although if you want to put a positive spin on it, the 18-track Extended Edition of the album on CD is £12.99, while the six tracks on the vinyl EP will set you back £24!
The Forest Is The Path: Onwards To The Endless will be released on 30 May 2025, via Polydor. The Extended Edition of the album on CD is still scheduled for a 14 March release.
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Snow Patrol
The Forest Is The Path - Onwards To The Endless - vinyl EP
A new Mike + the Mechanics compilation, Looking Back – Living The Years, will be released in March.
The collection spans 40 years of music and includes tracks from seven of the band’s nine studio albums (1999’s Mike and the Mechanics aka ‘M6’ and 2004’s Rewired are not represented).
Hits include ‘Silent Running’, ‘All I Need is a Miracle’ (in ’96 guise), ‘Living Years’, and ‘Over My Shoulder’, and the compilation features vocals from all Mike + The Mechanics singers through the years: Paul Young (not that one), Paul Carrack, Andrew Roachford, and Tim Howar.
Looking Back – Living The Years will be released on CD on 14 March 2025, via Concord. A double vinyl LP edition follows on 4 April. If you order a 2LP+CD bundle from the official shop, it comes with a signed print.
Released by Warner Music Spain back in, you guessed it, 2003, the album was a re-recording of the 1973 original, released to mark its 30th anniversary. John Cleese replaced Viv Stanshall as Master of Ceremonies (Stanshall died in 1995 in a house fire, in London).
Tubular Bells related projects top and tailed Oldfield’s 20+ year tenure at Warners, since the Trevor Horn produced Tubular Bells II had been Mike’s first album with the label back in 1992, and the self-produced Tubular Bells 2003 was his last (Tubular Bells III was released in ’98).
For this reissue the album is simply issued on CD and as a blue vinyl pressing. No real frills and certainly no bonus material (or even talk of remastering).
Tubular Bells 2003 will be released on 23 May 2025, via Warner Music Spain
Tangerine Dream’s fifth studio album, Phaedra, is being reissued as a 50th anniversary 5CD+blu-ray box set, in April.
The album was the German electronic group’s first for Virgin Records and was recorded in November 1973 at The Manor Studios (about six months after Mike Oldfield completed Tubular Bells at the same studio). It was released in February 1974 (so this is technically a 51st anniversary reissue) and spent 15 weeks on the UK album chart, peaking at No 15.
The new box set includes a remastered version of the album (I suspect this is actually the same as the version from 2019), previously released outtakes, the complete Victoria Palace Theatre concert from June 1974 (the band’s live debut in the UK) and a blu-ray with Steven Wilson’s 5.1 mix of the album (of which two out of the four tracks are Penteo upmixes, due to the master tapes being unavailable).
All of the content was previously available on the In Search of Hades 1973-1979 box set from 2019, which contained 16 CDs and two blu-rays, but that is long out-of-print. The new Phaedra box also features an illustrated book with a new essay by Tangerine Dream authority Wouter Bessels.
Phaedra will be reissued on 18 April 2025, via UMR.
Better late than never! The MCA Years is a 10CD+DVD box set is definitely out this week and offers a complete overview of Nik Kershaw’s time with the label in the 1980s. Some extra tracks have been added since the original announcement last year.
Voice of the Beehive’s second album, Honey Lingers, will be reissued and expanded in April.
The band’s 1991 long-player was released three years after their debut (Let It Bee) and saw them build further on their signature mix of jangly guitars and melodic pop hooks. It was another top 20 success, delivering three top 40 UK singles including the #17 hit ‘Monsters and Angels’ and the Don Was-produced cover of The Partridge Family hit ‘I Think I Love You’.
“I played Honey Lingers the other day for the first time in years and I have to admit that not only do I love it, but I prefer it to Let It Bee…” writes vocalist Tracey Bryn in the album’s sleeve notes.”To me, it’s like a psychotic melodic patchwork of every single emotion we were having… It spits, cries, shags, and dances and that was what we felt like we were doing as we toured, did television, press and general promotion all over the globe.”
Honey Lingers is reissued and remastered on pink vinyl and as an expanded 2CD deluxe edition, with the latter uncovering a host of previously unheard alternate versions, single B-sides (some new to CD) and live tracks taken from their show at Kentish Town and Country Club (which was recorded for Radio One).
The 2CD deluxe edition of Honey Lingers
The 2CD version also includes Voice Of The Beehive’s version of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’, recorded with Jimmy Somerville in 1993 for an EP raising funds for the ‘Putting Our House in Order’ homeless initiative. In total, the double CD edition expands the original album’s 10 tracks to an impressive 39, with 19 of the 29 bonus tracks previously unreleased.
Honey Lingers is released on 4 April 2025 via London Records.
The Alan Parsons Project’s debut album Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe will be re-issued next month, across a number of formats.
A new 2LP vinyl edition of the 1976 album features the 2016 remaster and is cut at half-speed at 45RPM (by Miles Showell). This features three bonus tracks (single versions) and comes in a gatefold sleeve with OBI-strip and includes a replica of the original album eight-page booklet, plus insert. Limited to 2,000 copies this is pressed at Optimal.
Also available is a single LP, clear vinyl edition, without the bonus tracks. This is a 33RPM pressing but is also cut at half speed.
CD fans aren’t been left out because there’s also a new CD edition which features four bonus tracks. Whereas the 2LP gets single versions, the CD edition offers early versions.
These are available from The Alan Parsons Project Official Shop and the first 500 vinyl orders (either edition) come with a limited edition numbered print (not signed). It’s not clear how many are left at the time of writing.
There is no reissue of the original blu-ray audio with the 5.1 and hi-res stereo mix but that is still available via the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
The vinyl and CD editions of Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe are reissued on 21 March 2025 via Cooking Vinyl.
INXS‘ 1985 album Listen Like Thieves will be reissued for its 40th anniversary as an SDE exclusive blu-ray, #37 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series. It will also be available as 3CD+vinyl LP box set and on other formats.
Originally produced by Chris Thomas (who went on to do Kick and X), the album features the top 5 US hit ‘What You Need’. Other singles included the title track, ‘This Time’ and ‘Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)’.
“Listen Like Thieves was an important moment for us,” vows Andrew Farriss, keyboardist, multi-instrumentalist and co-composer of much of the album with frontman Michael Hutchence. “It stepped up what was possible, and also Chris Thomas stepped up what was possible as a record producer for us.”
Back in 2017, Kick was the first rock/pop album get to a physical release on blu-ray in Dolby Atmos (via the 2CD+blu-ray Kick 30 deluxe set) and now, finally, almost eight years later, another INXS studio album gets the immersive Atmos treatment and thanks to the SDE exclusive blu-ray you can also enjoy this as a limited edition physical product!
As with Kick, Giles Martin has mixed Listen Like Thieves in Dolby Atmos, but this time around there is also a brand new 2025 stereo mix of the album (by Giles Martin and Paul Hicks), with both being available on the SDE exclusive blu-ray. They went back to the original masters and built these mixes from the ground up.
Additionally, the SDE exclusive blu-ray offers 15 stereo bonus tracks including extended mixes, B-sides and eight live tracks from a previously unreleased 1986 concert from London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The limited edition 3CD+LP deluxe edition includes the new stereo remix of the album (on CD and vinyl), 19 unreleased demos (CD 2) and outtakes and the previously unreleased 14-track performance, Live from Royal Albert Hall – recorded by the BBC on the 24th June 1986 (CD 3). A 2CD version includes the new stereo mix on CD 1 and the same 15 bonus tracks that are on the SDE-exclusive blu-ray on the second disc. The single black vinyl LP features the new stereo remix (the original mix is not included on any format).
This Listen Like Thieves [region-free] blu-ray audio is #37 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series and will be packaged in a clear amaray case and ships with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase.
Do not miss out. This product is a limited edition and has a 12 day pre-order window, which closes on Monday 24 February 2025. Availability cannot be guaranteed after that date. The blu-ray is available only via the SDE shop. You can pre-order via the shop website via this link or by using the buttons below.
IMPORTANT: If you have pre-ordered the #36 and #37 Bundle from the SDE shop (which is no longer available), you have already pre-ordered the INXS Listen Like Thieves blu-ray! Roxy Music’s Avalon is still available to pre-order if you have been waiting.
This INXS Listen Like Thieves blu-ray is released on 13 June 2025 (was 9 May) via Petrol / UMe.
Tracklisting
Listen Like ThievesINXS /40th anniversary
Listen Like Thieves: 2025 Giles Martin Stereo Mix & 2025 Giles Martin Dolby Atmos Mix
What You Need
Listen Like Thieves
Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)
Shine Like It Does
Good + Bad Times
Biting Bullets
This Time
Three Sisters
Same Direction
One x One
Red Red Sun
Bonus Stereo Audio: Remixes, B-sides and Live
Listen Like Thieves (Extended Remix)
Begotten
What You Need (Nick Launay Remix)
I’m Over You
Sweet As Sin
Six Knots
Listen Like Thieves (Instrumental Remix)
Same Direction (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Kiss The Dirt (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Biting Bullets (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Shine Like it Does (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Listen Like Thieves (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
One X One (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
What You Need (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Red Red Sun (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Tracklisting
Listen Like ThievesINXS /40th anniversary
CD 1: Listen Like Thieves (2025 Giles Martin Mix)
What You Need
Listen Like Thieves
Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)
Shine Like It Does
Good + Bad Times
Biting Bullets
This Time
Three Sisters
Same Direction
One x One
Red Red Sun
CD 2: Demos & Outtakes
“We’re rolling, it’s 1985” – Studio Dialogue
Funk Song #11 – Take 2 / Working Title of What You Need (Alternate Take)
“Press the blue and red button” – Studio Dialogue
Kiss The Dirt (Studio Demo)
Meaning of the song “Listen Like Thieves” – Interview Excerpt
Listen Like Thieves (Studio Demo)
INXS SA FM Radio Spot
One X One (Studio Demo)
This Time (Studio Demo)
Shine Like It Does (Studio Demo)
Good and Bad Times (Alternate Take)
Red Red Sun (Studio Jam)
Red Red Sun (Alternate Take)
Recording of Same Direction
Funk Song #9 (Working title of Same Direction)
What You Need (Studio Demo)
Shine Like It Does (Home Demo)
Listen Like Thieves (Home Demo)
Kiss the Dirt (Home Demo)
CD 3: Live from Royal Albert Hall – 24 June 1986
Introduction by Pete Drummond (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Same Direction (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Soul Mistake (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Kiss The Dirt (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Biting Bullets (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Burn For You (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Do Wot You Do (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Original Sin (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Different World (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Shine Like it Does (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Listen Like Thieves (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
One X One (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
What You Need (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Red Red Sun (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Vinyl LP: Listen Like Thieves (2025 Giles Martin Mix)
What You Need
Listen Like Thieves
Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)
Shine Like It Does
Good + Bad Times
Biting Bullets
This Time
Three Sisters
Same Direction
One x One
Red Red Sun
Tracklisting
Listen Like ThievesINXS /40th anniversary
CD 1: Listen Like Thieves (2025 Giles Martin Mix)
What You Need
Listen Like Thieves
Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)
Shine Like It Does
Good + Bad Times
Biting Bullets
This Time
Three Sisters
Same Direction
One x One
Red Red Sun
CD 2: Remixes, B-sides and Live
Listen Like Thieves (Extended Remix)
Begotten
What You Need (Nick Launay Remix)
I’m Over You
Sweet As Sin
Six Knots
Listen Like Thieves (Instrumental Remix)
Same Direction (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Kiss The Dirt (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Biting Bullets (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Shine Like it Does (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Listen Like Thieves (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
One X One (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
What You Need (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
Red Red Sun (Live from Royal Albert Hall 1986 – London, UK)
It’s here! SDEtv takes a first look at Nik Kershaw’sThe MCA Years, a 10CD+DVD box set that brings together audio and video from 1983 to 1989, including all four albums, B-sides, remixes and more.
Drive was sadly Robert Palmer’s last studio album, released a few months before his untimely death in 2003. It’s now available on vinyl for the first time. This is released alongside 1998’s Rhythm & Blues and Live at the Apollo New York City, a live album recorded in 1988, released on CD in 2001 and now on vinyl in 2025!
Roxy Music’s classic 1982 album, Avalon, will be the next release in the SDE Surround Series of blu-ray audios with Dolby Atmos mixes.
The band’s swan song, Avalon was recorded between 1981 and 1982 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas,andfeatures the Roxy Music’s final UK top 10 UK single, ‘More Than This‘. Title track ‘Avalon‘ was a top 20 single a few months later and the final single from the album was ‘Take a Chance With Me‘ which reached #26. Avalon topped the UK album charts for three consecutive weeks and sold a million copies in America.
When Bob Clearmountain heard that Avalon was coming out on blu-ray, he threw his arms up and said, ‘fantastic!, because at least people get to hear it in its true quality’.
Rhett Davies, Avalon co-producer
The blu-ray audio – #36 in the ongoing SDE Suround Series – will feature the Grammy-nominated Dolby Atmos Mix created by Bob Clearmountain, the 5.1 Surround Sound Mix from the now very-hard-to-get-hold-of Super Audio CD (SACD) released in 2003 (also by Bob Clearmountain) and the original 1982 stereo mix.
Audio streams on the Avalon SDE exclusive blu-ray:
Avalon 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
Avalon 2003 DTS-HD 5.1 Mix (96/24)
Avalon 1982 Original Stereo Mix (96/24)
The new Atmos Mix was overseen by Bryan Ferry and the album’s co-producer Rhett Davies and approved by Roxy Music. The blu-ray comes packaged in the same deluxe hardcover mediabook packaging used for the Bryan Ferry Retrospective and Thompson Twins Into The Gap releases. As ever, Avalon ships with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase.
The old 5.1 mix of Avalon is widely regarded by connoisseurs as one of the best surround mixes of a pop-rock ever created and now its architect, Bob Clearmountain, has gone one step further with an incredibly immersive Dolby Atmos Mix that has been available on streaming for a few months. However, there’s no comparison to the physical version, underlined by what Rhett Davies told me when I spoke to him and Bryan Ferry recently, “When Bob Clearmountain heard that Avalon was coming out on blu-ray, he threw his arms up and said, ‘fantastic!, because at least people get to hear it in its true quality”. What Bob is referring to here is the compression and difference in bandwidth. The Dolby Atmos version on a Blu-ray is encoded in Dolby TrueHD Atmos and has a bit rate 10 times higher (up to 8000 kbits/s) compared to streaming’s Dolby Digital Plus (768 kbits/s). It’s worth also noting that the multi-track tapes for the ‘India’ were located so it’s not an upmix in Atmos as it was on the 5.1 mix.
The Immersive Audio Album website, in a review of the new Avalon Atmos Mix, said “Going up against arguably one of the best-ever 5.1 remixes of a classic album is an unenviable task, but Clearmountain and Davies have amazingly managed to outdo their past work”.
The Avalon blu-ray is a limited edition and has a 14 day pre-order window, which closes on Friday 21 February 2025. Availability cannot be guaranteed after that date. The blu-ray is available only via the SDE shop. You can pre-order via the shop website using this link or by using the buttons below.
This Avalon blu-ray is released on 9 May 2025 via UMR.
Simple Minds/New Gold Dream & Sparkle in the RainBlu-ray
Simple Minds‘ sublime 1982 album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and its follow up, 1984’s chart-topping Sparkle in the Rain, are reissued as SDE exclusive blu-rays. New Gold Dream has SOLD OUT in the pre-order period, such was the demand. A few copies of Sparkle in the Rain left.
Retrospective SDE exclusive blu-ray out today • New Bryan Ferry album, Loose Talk, coming in March
SDE recently sat down with Roxy Music legend Bryan Ferry to discuss his Retrospective compilation and his 50+ years in music. Bryan was joined by his longtime friend and producer Rhett Davies as we discussed their working relationship, mixing in Dolby Atmos and Bryan’s new collaborative album, LooseTalk, which was announced today.
SDE: Bryan, who came up with the idea of doing this Retrospective compilation, and what was the goal?
Bryan: Somebody at BMG thought it’d be a good idea. And we’d just done the 50 year live celebration of Roxy, so we were in an archive place and we thought, well sure, there’s never been a really comprehensive collection of the solo work; it’s been kind of undersold in many ways. And somebody at BMG had the very good idea of doing it in in categories. I thought that was a really cool way to do it; it made it more curatorial. So I got involved with Rhett here and the whole team. The first disc was fairly easy to do, because that’s the well-known songs, the singles and hits, and so it’s essentially just that. Then they fit it into these different categories of self-written songs, covers, the rarer things, the unheard things and then the jazz stuff. We thought it’d be good to do a selection of the jazz stuff that we’ve done. I think it all fitted together very well in the end.
How did you feel looking back over 50 years of output? It’s a long time!
Bryan: I was sweating. And looking back at various periods, it made me think why I did so many records in that year, or why did I do so little in another year? Because I do like to work and I like to be productive. It took much more time to do it properly than I imagined it would. And we researched the photographs and archives and had to get all those permissions. It was a slog, but it’s worth in the end.
I know the presentation side of things is always very important to you, isn’t it? So I imagine you were involved quite a bit in that side of it?
Bryan: Oh, a lot. But it’s better that way than not caring.
Rhett, I noticed on the on the main compilation, the 20-track first disc of this particular package, there’s quite a few 2023 edits. Was that something you got involved in? Was that a case of trying to squeeze it all in?
Rhett: No, it was just a question of mixing it with Bob [Clearmountain], and Bryan was listening: “that goes on too long!” [laughs]
Bryan: [At times] I thought, “why didn’t we edit it at the time? It repeats the chorus there too many times…”
That’s interesting. I thought it would have been just for timing reasons you had to do that, but it was more artistic than that.
Rhett: It was artistic reasons. I think Bob even suggested one or two.
1973 was a really prolific year for me
Bryan Ferry
I guess that does offer the advantage of some exclusive versions for fans! Bryan, you released your solo albums quite regularly. Do you have favourite eras or albums?
Bryan: Well, I do. I like the beginning. ‘73 was a good year. We’d made the first album the previous year and we’d had a taste of it, I’m talking about Roxy here, but the first album was really just a case of playing all the music we’d rehearsed, and we played around in a few tiny venues. We went into Command Studios with Pete Sinfield [who produced the Roxy Music album], who was delegated to us from his management – who was also our management – because he was with [King] Crimson, and Pete just kind of supervised us recording. But the second album is a different thing, where we suddenly thought, “oh this is really interesting, we’re making a record, and how can we do this?” And we got much more involved from that point. And that year was really prolific for me. The other really important thing was the Flesh + Blood, Avalon and Boys and Girls period when I was working very closely with Rhett and we were using drum machines in coordination together with real drummers and sketching things out with drum grooves.
Rhett: They were studio albums, rather than band albums
Bryan: And I relished that. Once again I love being in the studio
Rhett: Can’t get him out of there!
‘These Foolish Things’ was the title track of Bryan’s debut solo album in 1973
Those albums you mentioned Bryan, they’re great sounding records because they’ve got the layered sophistication and the production, but they haven’t dated in the way that a lot of 80s production has. And I’m just wondering, Rhett, what the secret was at the time, because they’re still very fresh sounding.
Rhett: I think it was Colin Good, who I’d been working with and he said the one thing that’s great about that period is that none of the synth sounds sound dated; we used very mellow-y, sophisticated sounds. I mean, there was so much synth stuff going on in the 80s that I hated, but I think our approach helped to keep it timeless.
Bryan: Just as a matter of interest, 10 minutes ago we were playing an outtake, a few rough mixes from the Boys and Girls album and the 18-year-old intern who’s in the other room, she thought it was new work. And she was thinking, it sounds so fresh. And we said it’s 40 years old! It’s always good to have that reinforced by somebody now.
Would the two of you kind of sit down and have an intellectual discussion, before you started work on a particular album, about the kind of sounds you wanted? What was the approach with the two of you when you were starting a new project?
Rhett: No, I think we [just] went into the studio. Bryan would have sketches from his house on his piano. And if I was driving into work that day and we were going to do a session, I’d be listening to the radio, and I might think, “hey, that Talking Heads rhythm sounds good”. So I’d go in and try and get a Talking Heads rhythm going, and Bryan would come in and say, “what’s that?” And he’d have his little sequence that he had from home that he brought in. So it’d be [a case of] “let’s try this with this”. I don’t think we had a master plan.
Bryan: No, we stumbled towards everything!
Comparing the Girls and Boys album to Avalon – obviously, one was a Roxy Music record, one was a Bryan Ferry album. What difference did that make to you, Bryan? Did you feel a bit freer because it was your record and you could do what you wanted?
Bryan: I did. Going back to ‘76 or ’77, I’d first of all worked with couple of American musicians, really good session players, and it opened my eyes a bit to a different way of playing. I still think that album [‘The Bride Stripped Bare’], by the way, was really good, and it was a combination of these great English players and these American guys. It was a very interesting combination of attitudes and skills. And that opened the drawer to me thinking about working with American people, spending more time in America, and through Bob Clearmountain, we met Nile Rogers and then Fonzi Thornton and all the top session singers in New York, and [saxophonist] David Sanborn and Neil Jason, the bass player. I brought in one or two people into the Roxy orbit, but there was a limit to how much one could do that because Phil [Manzanera] and Andy [Mackay] wanted to be on the record, obviously. But with Boys and Girls, it was a step further in that direction of having an open book of who you could call. And we’d say, “well, let’s call this guy”. And so many great specialists were available in New York, and we loved doing it there. We would begin tracks here in England, and then in New York we would like develop them and ultimately mix them there. We put a lot of hours in, nothing was too much trouble.
How do you know when to stop though, Bryan?
Bryan: When you get fed up with it. And you reach the point where you think, any change I make now will just make it different rather than make it better. And that’s hard to find that point. And sometimes I’m still not very good at it…
Rhett: A deadline helps! You need a deadline to actually finish it.
The record company would be giving you that deadline presumably?
Rhett: Or maybe if Bryan was booked on a tour or something then that was the deadline
With different people working on different tracks, you obviously you don’t want too many cooks spoiling the broth. How did that work?
Bryan: At that point we couldn’t have enough cooks. We would use one phrase from one guitarist and then another one from another. And just now we were listening, going “who was that?” And we couldn’t quite figure it out
Rhett: it was a melting pot.
Bryan: It was like an orchestra of rock players!
And was money no object in those days?
Bryan: We just had our heads down and wanted to make a great record. I suppose I wanted to have a hit, I wanted to have a single and we did sort of have it with ‘Slave to Love’ and ‘Don’t Stop the Dance’ as well. Although my favourite track is probably ‘Windswept’.
‘Windswept’ is Bryan’s favourite track off Boys and Girls
So when that album [Boys and Girls] was commercially successful, you must, must have felt very, very satisfied?
Bryan: I was too worn out to be satisfied.
Rhett: I was so worn out I retired!
I was going to come on to that, actually, but Bryan, obviously you worked with other producers, Patrick Leonard and Robin Trower and people like that, but so much of your work in the last 25 years or so has been with Rhett. What’s special about the relationship and how was it for you when you had to work with other people?
Bryan: Well with Rhett, for a start, we have quite a good sense of humour together. We laugh at things. And I think Rhett finds my antics quite amusing and I like his wisecracks. And also, I know Rhett is solid in the sense of, I know what he likes. And if I bounce the ball off his wall, I know it’s going to come back as a true bounce. That’s the interesting thing. I might want to do something and he’d say, “Oh no, I don’t think you should do that” and I’ll just be belligerent, until one day I might admit he was right, or I might say, “Oh, I think I was right in this particular case”, but I know where I’m coming from, so it’s based on trust and honesty of approach.
Rhett: The annoying thing, from my point of view, is that 99 times out of 100, when we might disagree, he’s right! [hearty laugh, from Bryan at this point]. I always used to come into the studio every day – and still do – and think, okay, what are the five curveballs going to be when I walk in the door? Because Bryan will definitely have been up all night or thinking about something, and he’ll throw curveballs at me.
Bryan: I think we both enjoy the process of record making. We’re both appreciators of music. I first met Rhett when he was a tape operator at Basing street [Studios, which later become SARM West] in his first studio job. And that was on the Another Time, Another Place album back in 1974. So it goes [back] a long way.
I wanted to have a hit
Bryan Ferry
Rhett, how was it, when you were listening to some of the albums that you didn’t work on? That must have been an interesting experience?
Rhett: Very interesting. Yeah. I mean, I love the Mamouna album [produced by Bryan and Robin Trower]. I think it’s really good album. And Bête Noire [co-produced with Patrick Leonard] has its tracks.
Bryan: It was a bit of a mess. It was turbulent.
Rhett: ‘Limbo’ is great. And now with the Dolby Atmos mix we’ve just done with Bob [Clearmountain]. It was Bob’s favourite, and he did an outstanding job on it [it’s on the SDE blu-ray of Retrospective].
Bryan, you worked with Dave Stewart, didn’t you? What was he like as a collaborator?
Oh, he’s great. But more as a kind of ‘getting the ball rolling’ type person. He likes starting things, but he’s not so much of a finisher. Dave always has several plates spinning. “Oh, I’ve got to go next door I’m working on a movie”, or then he’ll say something [crazy] like “Oh, I’ve got a Lemonade company”. He’s a real character. But he’s very throw away in his approach… whereas I want to get it finished. When we did ‘You Can Dance’, it started off as a country and western kind of track and I turned it into something with a different feel altogether. But he’s so enthusiastic, Dave, and a nice guy, and he’s a Geordie, from Sunderland… only a couple miles down the road from me [Bryan grew up in Washington, County Durham].
With Olympia I preferred working with infinite possibilities rather than the same guys.
Bryan Ferry
That album, the Olympia album, you can correct me if I’m wrong on this, but my understanding was that that record was initially thought of as maybe a new Roxy Music record, but ended up being a solo album of yours. Is that how it happened?
Bryan: I can’t remember the dates but it might have done. But then I wasn’t feeling it really, and I just preferred my other way of working with infinite possibilities rather than the same guys. I wasn’t getting the energy that I wanted.
Even though, commercially, it being a Roxy album would probably have been quite a good thing, that didn’t tempt you?
Bryan: I felt it would have been too much hard work. I’m trying to cast my mind back to be honest. I think Phil is great. He gets incredible guitar sounds and he’s a one off, and so is Andy. I love the oboe you see. And Andy’s oboe playing when he’s on, it’s really beautiful. And his sax playing. He plays with feeling and he has a particular tone and a great sense of humor.
Rhett: Phil has a good energy as well.
Bryan: Yes, Phil has a very good energy.
I love your cover of ‘Johnny and Mary’, the Robert Palmer song on this record. It’s such a fantastic song. What attracted you to doing that cover version?
Bryan: Isaac, my son, is a friend of [Norwegian DJ and songwriter] Todd Terje and wanted us to do something together. And I said “how about doing this song?” And it was mainly his work, actually. I was on a bit, but he’s really good. A great talent, a pretty prodigious talent. And I love the song. I met Robert Palmer only once when I was at Compass Point [Studios, in Nassau in The Bahamas] where he was living. I remember he came running in the studio, and said “Oh, I love that” – ‘Limbo’ it was. But he said, you should call it ‘Down in Limbo’. And I went “Hmm, I don’t know, I think I like ‘Limbo’ better” [laughs].
Bryan [to Rhett]: Did you work with Robert?
Rhett: Yeah, I worked with Robert, I was assistant engineer on Sneaking Sally Through The Alley
Oh, wow, that’s going back.
Rhett: That was great. Every time I was out at Compass Point, either with B-52’s or Talking Heads, I’d bump into him.
He was brilliant. He had a very eclectic taste and very great musical knowledge as well, didn’t he?
Bryan: He was a friend of John Porter, who is a great friend of mine, and a bit of an unsung hero kind of character. He was at college with me, and he kind of joined Roxy. He played on For Your Pleasure, and helped me produce the first solo album. So he’s a really important figure in my development. And he was a great friend of Palmer and Little Feat, who they had in common. Richie Hayward, the drummer, was a great friend of John, and John didn’t really want to join Roxy as the bass player, because he wanted to be in Little Feat. That was more John’s thing. And he’s still alive. He played with me this year. I like to have continuity sometimes, but also young talent. I like to get a balance of the two.
Let’s talk about Dolby Atmos then, because that’s something I’m personally very interested in. Bryan what do you make of this new immersive audio? Have you got a set up there in your studio where you can listen to it?
Bryan: Funny you should say that. We just got one last Friday. We’re in the process of setting it up. In fact, we went downstairs and it turned itself on, for some weird reason. It seems to have a life of its own! But it’s nice to have the opportunity to be with Bob [Clearmountain] again and work with him again – to watch him at work and be part of it and make comments. I’ve never been into surround sound, particularly, but when he played me Avalon, it sounded incredible. And I thought, wow! And [to Rhett] we’re gradually doing the catalogue now, aren’t we?
When Bob Clearmountain was mixing the Avalon album in stereo, he said “I haven’t got enough speakers for all of this stuff”, and it’s true!
Rhett Davies
Rhett, Retrospective must have been a challenge for you and Bob, because it’s not just one album like Avalon. It straddles a whole decade’s worth of albums. So, tell me a little bit about the challenge of getting tapes together and preparing all that, with Bob?
Rhett: Bryan has staff here [Bryan’s West London HQ]. There’s a guy called Miller who is absolutely excellent at archiving, finding and putting all of that together. So when I got over here, the finding of the tapes, that was all mostly sorted. Bob absolutely loves the format. He’s so in love with Dolby Atmos. He always said when he was mixing the Avalon album in stereo, “I haven’t got enough speakers for all of this stuff”, and it’s true! So to be able to hear all of that in Dolby Atmos is just breathtaking. Getting together some of the tapes was difficult. Finding some of the things, we couldn’t find ‘A Waste Land’ [for Boys and Girls]. But we eventually found it in the middle of ‘Valentine’. But it’s a fascinating process to go through and to watch Bob do it is just incredible, to help him put it together. And he’s got a way of working in the studio where he’s listening to the record. He knows the record so well, but then suddenly he’ll just flick a switch and it’s magic.
Of course, congratulations are in order, because the Avalon Atmos mix has been nominated for a Grammy, hasn’t it?
Rhett: Fingers crossed. Although everyone seems to be convinced we won’t win it. Bob says “I never win these things”.
Bryan, do you still buy physical music? Or have you converted to streaming and listening to stuff online?
Bryan: I still play vinyl sometimes, but not regularly. The trouble is if you’re doing music all day for a job, at night I like to go to dinner and eat and so I don’t really listen or I might watch American football and just switch off from music. But I like looking at my records.
That’s a very common pastime… people love looking at their records!
Bryan: So I still like physical products and the new record, which is not what we’re here to talk about, but which I’m very excited about, we’re doing that as a record, and we’ve also done a Dolby Atmos mix. I’m excited about that.
One of the things I wanted to ask you, Bryan, was what does age offer the musician and songwriter like yourself, being an older gentleman these days, and what does it take away, if indeed it takes away if anything? What are the pros and cons of getting older and still making music?
Bryan: Well, the cons are that you’re going to die soon, so worrying that you’re not going to finish certain projects. I’m working in some ways harder than ever to try and catch up for lost time. I still have lots of music, bits and pieces that I’ve filed away, which nobody’s ever heard, and which I want people to hear. Some of these bits are in the new work that I’ve been doing.
I’m working in some ways harder than ever to try and catch up for lost time
Bryan Ferry
And it also helps if you work with younger people. My collaborator on this [new] album [Loose Talk] is a young girl [Amelia Barratt], in early 30s, working as a writer, and it’s been a really great new development. It’s the first time I’ve worked with anybody else’s words apart from covers of songs. She’s a great writer, and she performs the words, but its my music. It’s a different thing to anything I’ve done before and that’s exciting to find something new. To find something new is important. My engineer, James, he’s been here eight years, since he was a teenager, and he’s really great, totally on it and does all the things that young people do with computers. What I offer is experience and a certain taste in music.
Rhett: I don’t think your work ethic has changed, though, in all the years that I’ve known you. You are a workaholic. You love being in the studio, and you love controlling everything and exploring every possible avenue. Again, it’s just part of your DNA.
Bryan: It’s nice to feel you’re being adventurous. Trying things that you haven’t tried yourself, or nobody else has tried.
Are you in the studio most days then, Bryan?
Bryan: Monday to Friday
Do you have a team there with you?
Bryan: Well, Rhett comes in. He comes in for special critiques and on certain things he’ll help us with mastering, or maybe a mix that’s having a problem. Or with Bob, to do the Atmos mixes. We’re going over again in April to do some with him [since this interview, Bob Clearmountain’s studio sadly burnt down in the Californian wild fires]. It’s a great team here. And then there’s three guys downstairs, that we got out of music school, or rather production school.
Do you think you’ll go out on the road again, Bryan, or have you retired from live performance?
Bryan: Very doubtful. We’ll see how this new album goes. We could do some live presentations, but I’m not sure.
So this new album, do you sing on it as well?
Bryan: Not really. You might hear me in the background on a couple of things. But no.
One final question. The first Roxy Music album came out as a deluxe box set back in 2017 and everyone was delighted with that. But I think fans are waiting for For Your Pleasure and I’m just wondering whether that’s going to happen at any time soon. Do you know?
Bryan: Well, we were hoping to do it, but then they take so much time and effort.
Rhett: it’s time will come.
Thanks to Bryan Ferry and Rhett Davies who were interviewed by Paul Sinclair for SDE. The SDE exclusive blu-ray audio of Retrospective (with a Dolby Atmos Mix) is out today and there’s only a few copies left at the SDE shop. You can read more about the Loose Talk album, here.
Tracklisting
RetrospectiveBryan Ferry/SDE exclusive blu-ray audio
Dolby Atmos Mix (by Bob Clearmountain). 5.1 Mix (by Bob Clearmountain). Original Stereo Mix
3CD+blu-ray • Both albums in 5.1 and hi-res stereo • New album of unreleased material
Andy Summers and Robert Fripp’s two collaborative albums from the early 1980s will be brought together – along with a third ‘new’ album made up of unreleased material – and presented as a 3CD+blu-ray set called The Complete Recordings 1981-1984.
Both albums, I Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984) are presented on CD and on the blu-ray in 5.1 surround and hi-res (24/96) stereo.
The new album assembled from previously unreleased / recently discovered recordings is called Mother Hold The Candle Steady and this is on CD 3 and again, on the blu-ray in 5.1 and hi-res stereo.
Additionally, even more treasures and mixes from Fripp’s sessions/ tapes can be found in an audio documentary called ‘Can We Record Tony’. This is available in edited form at the end of the third CD and in full on the blu-ray.
This 4-disc set is packaged in a 10-panel book-sized digisleeve with 16-page booklet including new sleeve notes by Sid Smith and notes on the recordings by King Crimson producer David Singleton.
The Complete Recordings 1981-1984 will be released on 11 April 2025 (was 28 March) via DGMLive and can be pre-ordered via the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
Tracklisting
The Complete Recordings 1981-1984Andy Summers and Robert Fripp/3CD+blu-ray deluxe set
CD 1: CD 1 – I ADVANCE MASKED
I ADVANCE MASKED
UNDER BRIDGES OF SILENCE
CHINA – YELLOW LEADER
IN THE CLOUD FOREST
NEW MARIMBA
GIRL ON A SWING
HARDY COUNTRY
THE TRUTH OF SKIES
PAINTING AND DANCE
STILL POINT
LAKELAND / AQUARELLE
SEVEN ON SEVEN
STULTIFIED
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:
BRAINSTORM
NEW MARIMBA (EARLY MIX)
BALINESE
SEVEN ON SEVEN (REPRISE)
CD 2: BEWITCHED
PARADE
WHAT KIND OF MAN READS
PLAYBOY
BEGIN THE DAY
TRAIN
BEWITCHED
TRIBE
MAQUILLAGE
GUIDE
FORGOTTEN STEPS
IMAGE AND LIKENESS
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:
TRIBE (ORIGINAL VERSION)
MAQUILLAGE (ALT ORIGINAL MIX)
CD 3: MOTHER HOLD THE CANDLE STEADY (Previously Unreleased)
Snow Patrol are to issue what they are calling an ‘Extended Edition’ of their 2024 album The Forest is the Path on CD, in March.
The band went back into the studio with producer Fraser T Smith in final weeks of 2024 and recorded a number of brand new songs. Rather than sit on them, they’ve decided to put them on this new expanded version of the album (although of course issuing them as a standalone EP was also an option!).
The 12-track long-player, which topped the UK album charts, now grows to an 18-track version with the additional songs including ‘This Is The Silence’, ‘What’s Left In The Light’ and ‘Waking Up Now’. There’s also a remix of ‘This Is The Sound Of Your Voice’.
This new Extended Edition of the album will be released on 14 March 2025, via Polydor. For the time being at least, there’s only a CD version.
