Author: Paul Sinclair

Prince / “Sign ‘O’ The Times” Japanese blu-ray box set video review

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

 

Massive thanks to SDE reader and Prince fan Simon Thornhill. Simon read about the Sign ‘O’ The Times Japanese blu-ray box set on this blog and not only ordered it, but has put together this really illuminating video review to show everyone exactly what the box and its contents are like. Great job, Simon!

Sign O’ The Times Japanese HD Remastered Edition blu-ray box set is out now.

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The Beatles / Japanese limited edition blu-ray of “A Hard Days Night”

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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As reported by Roger Stormo’s excellent Beatles blog, there is yet another variation of the 50th Anniversary blu-ray of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, this time a Japanese edition.
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Out This Week / 23 June 2014

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Peter Gabriel / Back To Front: Live in London

Peter Gabriel’s So-celebrating concert is issued on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as four-disc deluxe sets of both formats that include two CDs. Read more

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David Bowie / Diamond Dogs picture disc

This 40th Anniversary David Bowie seven-inch picture disc has the best image so far and features the David Live version of 1984 on the B-side . Read more
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Jethro Tull / A Passion Play

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Pack shot of the reissue of Jethro Tull‘s A Passion Play which is due out in just over a week’s time.

This set has the subtitle ‘An Extended Performance’ because as well as a new stereo mix and 5.1 mix of the album proper by Steven Wilson, the earlier abandoned sessions that the band recorded in  Chateau d’Herouville in France, get the same treatment – new stereo mixes and 5.1 surround mixes!
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Queen: Live at the Rainbow 1974

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Queen are to release a 40th anniversary celebration of two gigs at London’s Rainbow Theatre later this year, across a multitude of audio and video formats.

Recorded by Roy Thomas Baker, the band’s 31 March 1974 show at the Rainbow was so good, it was touted as a live follow-up to Queen II for a while, before this idea was eventually shelved and Sheer Heart Attack became the third album. When that record was a massive success (along with single Killer Queen) Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor returned to the venue in November 1974 for two further dates.
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The Blow Monkeys / She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter deluxe reviewed

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

Blow Monkeys / "She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter" 2CD track listing

An unheard demo of The Blow Monkey’s 1987 hit It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way is one of the highlights of a new two-CD deluxe edition of third album She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter released by Cherry Red later this month.
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Steely Dan / Pretzel Logic: Japanese mini-LP SHM-SACD / CD reissues

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Pretzel Logic, Steely Dan’s 1974 studio album, has already celebrated its 40th birthday this year, which may or may not be related to the fact that Universal Music Japan will reissue the album in three formats this later this summer.
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The Beatles / Analogue mastered Mono Vinyl Box coming in Sep

Posted on by Paul Sinclair
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Mono Vinyl Box: “Mastered with out the use of digital technology”

Apple/ Universal will release The Beatles in Mono, a limited 14LP vinyl box set in September with all the music within being newly mastered for vinyl from quarter-inch master tapes at Abbey Road Studios.

The CD Mono box from 2009 was created from digital remasters but this time around these new vinyl versions have been cut without the use of any digital technology.
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The Average White Band / “All The Pieces”: career-spanning 19CD box

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Demon Music are set to issue an Average White Band anthology that celebrates the Scottish soul/funk band’s entire career across a mammoth 19 CDs.
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Morrissey / Vauxhall And I: 20th Anniversary definitive master

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

Morrissey / "Vauxhall and I": 20th Anniversary Definitive Master

Rob Puricelli reviews Morrissey’s 2CD ‘Definitive Remaster’ of Vauxhall And I

In the interests of full disclosure, I am not a Morrissey fan.

But it’s not as simple as that, I’m afraid. You see, I was always appreciative of The Smiths. So many great tunes, tapping into the more angst-ridden aspects of my psyche. And as lead singer of said band, Morrissey was one quarter of the collective and whilst he had his outspoken moments, the band were the most important thing. After the split, Morrissey became numero uno and he seemed – to me anyway – to become increasingly vocal and patronising on a great many things. To hear his rants and raves, surly political faux pas and general pomposity, simply put me off giving any of his musical endeavours the time of day.
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The Allman Brothers Band / The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings box

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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A massively expanded version of The Allman Brothers Band’s 1971 live album At Fillmore East, will be released in July.

The new set is called The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings and will be available as a six-CD box, a three-blu-ray audio collection or a four-LP vinyl package and will feature 14 previously unreleased tracks from various March 1971 shows, with the venue’s closing gig of 27 June that same year being included in its entirety (along with an introduction by venue owner Bill Graham, that is also unreleased).
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Signed Simply Red reissues

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We told you about Demon Music’s Simply Red reissues last month and while no one would argue that these albums represent the band at their zenith, the packages do look excellent in terms of what you get for your money. The prices have gone up a bit on Amazon now, but Demon are selling some decently-priced bundles through the Simply Red MyPlay store, and they are also doing a special promotion which kicks off at tomorrow morning at 9am (UK time).
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Around the world in A Hard Days Night: blu-ray cover variations!

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

The world’s designers continue to wrestle with the problem of how the new 50th Anniversary blu-ray of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night will look in their area of the world, so we thought we’d take a look at some of the different designs.

To recap, in America the always cool Criterion Collection have gone with this slightly Saul Bass-inspired design:

buy5The Beatles / A Hard Day's Night blu-ray with new 5.1 soundtrack

This is brilliant; loads of energy, it’s in black and white which is appropriate for the movie, and it’s nice and ‘arty’.

Here’s what the good old UK have gone for:

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Oh dear. I’ve seen photofit mug shots more accurate than this hideous cover, with those awful colour tints. But hang on? Have studio Second Sight read the not too complimentary feedback left by SDE readers? It looks like they have, because now Amazon are showing a new cover image:
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Roy Orbison / “Mystery Girl” deluxe

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Mystery Girl Unravelled, a fascinating and often moving documentary about the making of Roy Orbison‘s posthumous album Mystery Girl (released in 1989), is one of the highlights of a charming new CD+DVD deluxe edition from Sony Music/Legacy Recordings.

The film steps through the record track-by-track, aided by old home video footage and new interviews with the likes of Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bono and ‘Roy’s Boys’ – Alex, Roy Jnr, and Wesley.
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The Beatles / “Meet The Beatles!” 50th Anniversary Japan Box

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Following on from January’s US Albums box set, the Japanese are having their own Fab Four fiftieth celebration with Meet The Beatles!, a five-disc box set that contains the Japanese versions of Meet The Beatles, The Beatles’ Second Album, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles No. 5 and Help! for the first time ever on CD.

These will all be presented in the usually pin-point accurate Japanese mini-LP CD vinyl replica sleeves and unlike the discs in the US Albums box, the individual titles all come with OBIs replicating the original designs.
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