ABBA‘s 1992 greatest hits album ABBA Gold will be reissued in April this year as part of the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
There have been various versions of this evergreen compilation over the years, including a 2CD edition and a CD+DVD offering. This new edition will actually be a three-CD set, presented in a digi-pack, and will feature the standard 19-track compilation on disc one, the More ABBA Gold set on disc two, and a third CD made up of B-sides (see full track listing below). Continue reading “ABBA Gold / 3CD anniversary set”
Gary Langan has enjoyed a successful 40-year career in the music industry as a recording engineer, producer, a mixer (and remixer) and is perhaps most celebrated as a founding member of the Art of Noise during the time when he was part of Trevor Horn’s studio team in the early 1980s. This period coincided with the formation of ZTT Records, indeed the Art of Noise were the label’s first official signing.
As part of our celebration of the 30th Anniversary of ZTT Records, we recently caught up with Gary and spoke at length about his career and in particular his time at ZTT and working with the Art of Noise.
SuperDeluxeEdition:Let’s talk about the old days. You first started working in the early days on some Queen records, didn’t you?
Gary Langan: Yes.
SDE:Did you always want to get into music? Were you always interested in working in recording studios?
GL: Yes, I did, from the age of 14, [I] always wanted to work in a recording studio. My father was a musician and used to do a lot of sessions for the BBC and I used to tag along with him in the summer holidays, so from an early age I was introduced to recording studios. He was a dance band musician, he wasn’t a rock musician. I sat on the piano stool from the age of seven and really hated it but still enjoyed music, so I saw this thing that I could be involved in music, but I didn’t necessarily have to be the guy playing it. Continue reading “#ZTT30: Gary Langan on ZTT and the Art Of Noise”
After much anticipation, Demon Music yesterday revealed the track listing for their five-disc Belinda CarlisleAnthology deluxe set.
One of the main talking points amongst fans, was whether In Your Wildest Dreams – a track was used on the 1987 film Mannequin – would be included as part of this release. Unfortunately, no master tape for this song could be located, despite the best efforts of Demon. The fact that the track has never had a commercial release makes the hunt for a master even trickier. Should anyone out there know where a master tape of In Your Wildest Dreams might be (without film sound effects over the top) then do get in touch! Continue reading “Belinda “Anthology” track listing”
The original founding members of influential avant-garde synthpop outfit the Art Of Noise are hoping to get back together and tour again, possibly in 2015.
Interviewed (separately) for this blog, Fairlight Programmer J.J. Jeczalik and Engineer/Producer Gary Langan both confirmed that there were ongoing “conversations” about hitting the road.
If you wanted to buy an ‘import’ CD or music release in London in 1985 there was only one place to go – Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus. A record store so cool that you didn’t have to leave the tube station to go shopping (there was an entrance within the station itself).
Gary Langan’s GRAMMY, photographed by Gary Langan for SDE
“I was persona non grata”
In an extract from an exclusive interview with SuperDeluxeEdition Art of Noise member Gary Langan recalls when the band were nominated for a GRAMMY award in 1987 for Peter Gunn. By this stage Gary had left the band and relations has soured to the extent that he wasn’t invited to the awards…
Gary Langan: “I was producing Spandau Ballet. I was doing “Through the Barricades” and I was in Munich in Germany. We’d been put up for a Grammy Continue reading “#ZTT30: Close (To The GRAMMY)”
Various Artists / The Art of the 12″, Volume Three
One of four ZTT releases this week, The Art of the 12″, Volume Three is probably the pick of the bunch with a fine selection of rare, obscure and new-to-CD remixes. The usual suspects (Frankie, Propaganda, Art of Noise) are joined by Sigue Sigue Sputnik, ABC, Nasty Rox Inc, and The Belle Stars, amongst others.
Neil Finn / Dizzy Heights
The Crowded House frontman’s first solo album from 13 years is produced by Dave Fridmann with Neil Finn opting for a more expansive and experimental sound.
Lisa Stansfield finally follows up 2004’s The Moment (produced by Trevor Horn and released on ZTT, fact fans) with Seven. Hubby and writing partner Ian Devaney is back producing and there is a deluxe edition which includes a bonus studio recording and two live tracks.
The excellent Frankie Said compilation is expanded into a Frankie Goes To Hollywood audio/visual experience thanks to the inclusion of a DVD which features videos and Top of the Pops performances.
Jaspa Jones (left) and Piet Blank (right) with an original Roland Jupiter 8 at work in their studio on their ZTT SoEighties project
DJs, producers, compilation curators and general eighties enthusiasts Blank & Jones are this year undertaking perhaps their most ambitious task to date.
The duo are working on a new volume of their well regarded SoEighties remix compilation series, but this one will be themed solely around ZTT releases from the classic era of the early eighties. What’s special about this project is that Trevor Horn has agreed to hand over the original multi-tracks and the pair have set about reconstructing new mixes with the self-imposed restriction of only using the original parts available from the original tapes. This will offer the freshness and excitement of a new reworking, coupled with the authenticity of a period remix. Continue reading “#ZTT30: Blank & Jones working on ambitious ZTT SoEighties set”
The Parlophone Label Group (now part of Warner Music) will issue a 40th Anniversary Stranglers box set called Giants and Gems: An Album Collection.
This set includes the six studios albums issued in the UA/Liberty Records era, plus live albums Live (X Cert) and Live at the Hope and Anchor. 1986 B-sides compilation Off The Beaten Track also makes an appearance with The Stranglers two most recent albums Suite XVI (2006) and Giants (2012) making up discs 10 and 11. Continue reading “The Stranglers / Giants and Gems 11CD anniversary box set”
Just in case anyone out there who wants the new BeatlesUS Albums box hasn’t picked one up yet, Amazon in the UK have just reduced it again by around £50 to£107. The last time they reduced the price similarly, it went back up to £150 after less than 24 hours.
A year after it was first announced, the Tabu box set will finally be released on 10 March 2014.
This is now a seven-disc set (6CD+DVD), or eight if you count the bonus seven-inch single, and features 93 tracks, some of which are on CD for the first time all “extensively re-mastered”. Continue reading “Tabu confirm box set tracklisting”
It seems that Snapper Music’s round packaging for their three-CD Fleetwood MacBoston set has not been universally popular with fans, some of whom have struggled to get the discs in and out of the box, aside from the issues of storing something that rolls, on a shelf.
The good news for FM fans is that Snapper will be putting out a version in more traditional clamshell box on 7 April 2014. More details on the original Boston release can be found here. We’ll let you know when the new version is available for pre-order.
In March 2014 Rhino will issue The Complete Studio Albums 1974-1986, a box set collecting the work of British hard rock band UFO.
This 10CD collection includes the albums Phenomenon (1974), Force It (1975), No Heavy Petting (1976), Lights Out (1977), Obsession (1978), No Place To Run (1980), The Wild, the Willing, and the Innocent (1981), Mechanix (1982), Making Contact (1983) and Misdemeanour (1985). Continue reading “UFO / The Complete Studio Albums 1974-1986 / 10CD box set”
Eagle Vision will next month issue Sensation: The Story of Tommy a documentary on the making of The Who‘s Tommy album that runs just shy of two hours.
We had the opportunity to see this late last year. It’s a superb film with Pete Townshend on typically candid form as he talks extensively on camera about the background, creation and impact of Tommy. Of course, Roger Daltrey contributes similarly and is interviewed separately. There is plenty of archive footage and this Blu-ray / DVD release includes a bonus 33-minute feature from the Germany TV Show Beat Club. Continue reading “The Who / Sensation: The Story of Tommy / Blu-ray and DVD”
Demon Music’s five-disc T Rex deluxe book set that combines new Visconti-remasters of Tanx and Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow is now available on Amazon in the UK and can therefore be ordered by fans in North America and Canada, who previously were unable to do so via the official T Rex store.
Each album is offered across two CDs and comes with an enormous amount of bonus material, including A-sides, B-sides, demos and outtakes. The DVD offers Top Of The Pops performances, promo films and other TV appearances. The 12″ x 12″ hardback book comes with new notes by Mark Paytress and Tony Visconti.
This Tanx and Zinc Alloy set will be released on 3 March 2014.
Having recently produced the really lavish Lee Hazlewood box set, US label Light In The Attic keep things relatively simple for this two-CD (and three-LP) exploration of the solo work of American musician and singer-songwriter Mark Lanegan.
Best known for the Screaming Trees and being in Queens Of The StoneAge, Lanegan has semi-regularly put out solo albums for over two decades starting in 1990 with The Winding Sheet which was issued on Sub Pop. This Anthology uses that record as a starting point and ends with 2004’s Bubblegum (issued on Beggars Banquet). That’s only half the story though, because the entire second disc in this set is previously unreleased. Many date of those tracks date from the late nineties and early noughties. Continue reading “Mark Lanegan / Has God Seen My Shadow? An Anthology 1989-2011”
