Author: Paul Sinclair

The Clash / Sound System box set

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

The Clash / Sound System 12 disc box set

Sony / Columbia will release Sound System a new 12-disc career-spanning box set from The Clash on 9 September 2013.

The set will contain all the albums, newly remastered, across eight CDs, plus a further three discs of demos, non-album singles, B-sides and rarities. Additionally Sound System comes with a DVD which features all of the band’s videos and unseen footage from the archives of Julien Temple and Don Letts.

The boombox packaging is designed by Paul Simonon and houses memorabilia including Clash Fanzines, poster, dog tags, stickers and badges.

A new 2CD set The Clash – Hits Back will also be released on the same day.

Sound System box set contains eight CDs (below) to cover the normal albums and a further four bonus discs with rarities – giving a total of 12 discs in this set.

  • 1. The Clash
  • 2. Give ‘Em Enough Rope (1 CD)
  • 3. London Calling (double album, 2 CDs)
  • 4. Sandinista! (triple album, 3 CDs)
  • 5. Combat Rock (1 CD)

All newly remastered by The Clash with award-winning engineer Tim Young.

Sound System Extra CDs Full track listing:
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The Allman Brothers / Brothers and Sisters 4CD box set due in June

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bands

Universal Music  will issue a four-CD box set of The Allman Brothers‘ album Brothers and Sisters on 17 June 2013.

The 1973 LP – the first recorded after the death of Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley – is expanded to a super deluxe four-disc edition for its 40th anniversary (a 2CD version is also available). It includes the album remastered, a disc of outtakes, rehersals and jam sessions, and two discs of live material offering a complete 1973 concert recorded at The Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

Disc: 1

  • 1. Wasted Words
  • 2. Ramblin’ Man
  • 3. Come And Go Blues
  • 4. Jelly Jelly
  • 5. Southbound
  • 6. Jessica
  • 7. Pony Boy

Disc: 2

  • 1. Wasted Words
  • 2. Trouble No More
  • 3. Southbound
  • 4. One Way Out
  • 5. I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
  • 6. Done Somebody Wrong
  • 7. Double Cross – Gregg Allman, The Allman Brothers Band
  • 8. Early Morning Blues – The Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman
  • 9. A Minor Jam

Disc: 3

  • 1. Introduction by Bill Graham
  • 2. Wasted Words
  • 3. Done Somebody Wrong
  • 4. One Way Out
  • 5. Stormy Monday
  • 6. Midnight Rider
  • 7. Ramblin’ Man
  • 8. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
  • 9. Satesboro Blues
  • 10. Come And Go Blues

Disc: 4

  • 1. Southbound
  • 2. Jessica
  • 3. You Don’t Love Me / Amazing Grace
  • 4. Les Brers In A Minor
  • 5. Blue Sky
  • 6. Trouble No More
  • 7. Whipping Post

ZTT prepare for anniversary with three autumn releases

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

ZTT Logo

ZTT will release their new compilation Zambient One in a few weeks, but what you may not be aware of is the fact that they are set to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary with a trio of further releases (via Salvo Music) in September 2013.

The third volume of their popular Art Of The 12″ series will finally see the light of day, a full 18 months on from the previous issue. One track we know this will feature is Watching The Wildlife (Movement 2), because this was mentioned when it was included it on the Japanese Edition of Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilation Frankie Said.

Speaking of Frankie, the second release will be a deluxe edition of the standard European version of Frankie Said. No track listings are available at this stage, although we could see the selection repeating the Japanese issue (this was a 2CD set) or ZTT might possibly come up with something completely new.

Most intriguing is the final set, called The Organisation Of Pop. This phrase has been used in various ZTT settings over the last few years, so there is some logic to giving a music release this title. No details on this whatsoever – other than the name – but some kind of multi-disc anthology might be likely.

All three releases are due out on 12 September 2013.

The Complete Motown Singles Vol 12A: 1972 / 5CD box set

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The Complete Motown Singles Vol 12A: 1972

A new volume of the long-running Complete Motown Singles series will be issued in June or early July 2013 (depending on the territory).

The five-CD set contains 113 remastered tracks, from the company’s output during the first half of 1972, and will have a limited production run of 7,500. It comes complete with 130-page book within LP style packaging, and includes a bonus seven-inch vinyl single featuring two songs by the Blackberries that were never actually issued as a 45.

The book features contributions by Russ and Ralph Terrana, two key members of the Motown engineering staff, and Susan Whitall, a longtime writer for The Detroit News. It will also include detailed track-by-track histories by co-producers Keith Hughes and Harry Weinger, and Bill Dah.

Full track listing:
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Second Hand News / May 2013

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

It’s that time of the month… we’ve been shopping for records (to be honest, we’re never really not shopping for records). This month you will find lots of vinyl and a fair amount of eighties pop. 

Most items here were bought for only a pound or two, and they were all found in charity (or thrift) shops or some of our favourite cheap used record stores.

ttd1ttd2

Terence Trent D’Arby / Neither Fish Nor Flesh LP (1989)

The pick of this month is Terence Trent D’Arby‘s Neither Fish Nor Flesh on vinyl. This fantastic, rather misunderstood record was his follow-up to the from 1989 contains some of his best work, including This Side Of Love, To Know Someone Deeply Is To Know Someone Softly and Roly Poly.

The packaging is tremendous, with a lavish full-size booklet with lyrics, and photos and decent anti-static protection for the vinyl. This was all in near mint condition and despite Terence’s claim in the CD booklet that he intended the album “to be heard as a continual segue of moods and atmospheres” and how “it is unfortunately the cassette and record buyer who are deprived of this intention”, we think we can live with having to flip the LP over.

TTD is now known as Sananda Maitreya and releases new music online.

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Wet Wet Wet / Wishing I Was Lucky Limited Edition 12″ Double-pack (1987)

Blank & Jones recently included the ‘long version’ of Wet Wet Wet‘s debut Wishing I Was Lucky on their rather good So Eighties Volume 8 triple CD set, but for our money the ‘Metal Mix’ found on this limited edition double pack is by far the more interesting remix (“additional production and mix by Walter Turbitt”). Just to confuse, the running times for both mixes are 5.40 but the metal mix manages to be very busy and creative without ruining the flow of the song. The standard ‘long version’ is a little more ‘traditional’ but it’s on this set too, just not labelled as such. Side 4 is blank with no grooves on it at all!

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The Moody Blues / “Timeless Fight” 17-disc set: unboxing video

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Timeless Flight, Universal’s mammoth Moody Blues 17-disc box set is out on 3 June. Check out this ‘unboxing’ video which gives you a very good idea of how the set is configured.
 

ZZ Top / The Studio Albums 1970 –1990 box set with original mixes

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ZZ Top / The Studio Albums 1970-1990 box set with original mixes

Rhino will release a 10CD ZZ Top box set on 10th June 2013.

The Studio Albums 1970-1990 comes in the familiar Rhino clamshell box packaging (see The Eagles and Chicago) and each album will come in vinyl replica card wallets, with Tres Hombres and Tejas replicating the original gatefolds.

Most importantly, this set presents, for the first time on CD, the original mixes for ZZ Top’s First Album, Rio Grande Mud and Tejas. Tres Hombres and Fandango will also use the original mixes, although expanded versions of those albums that used those mixes were issued back in 2006.

This set is looking like a no-brainer for fans, especially since it will be priced competitively.

Track Listing:
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Nilsson / The RCA Albums Collection

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Nilsson / The RCA Albums Collection box set

Sony Legacy are set to release a big box set of all Nilsson‘s RCA albums on 29 July 2013.

One might be the loneliest number, but this 17 CD collection should banish any blues with three additional CDs featuring 58-tracks of single-only releases and outtakes, half of which is previously unreleased. There will also be bonus tracks on the individual albums – a total of 65 in all. The packaging looks similar to the recent Cheap Trick box set with a large clam-shell box and simple vinyl replica jackets.

Those in the US might want to check out the amazon UK price (below). Significantly cheaper (at the time of writing), even with shipping.

Nilsson / The RCA Albums Collection box set


Full and detailed track listing for Nilsson: The RCA Albums Collection:

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Vinny Vero (Part 2)

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Vinny-March-Stockholm-3-ver-II

Part two of our interview with remixer, DJ, songwriter and reissue producer, Vinny Vero. If you haven’t read the first part, you might want to do that first!

SuperDeluxeEdition: One of our pet hates is when the names of remixes change over the years. Really, whatever it’s called on the original twelve-inch single, that should probably remain the name of it. But even with the artists themselves, sometimes tracks just get labelled as the ’12” mix’ and it morphs into something else. Very irritating!

Vinny Vero: That irritates me. I always do what you suggest. I always go to the original twelve-inch, but what really bugs me, and this happened on Basia [Vinny is producing the reissue of Time and Tide]  is when the labels say one thing, and the sleeves say another. One will say ‘extended remix’ and the other might say ‘extended mix’.  I tend to go with what’s on the label. With Breathe, which was such a strange project, Jonah was released twice as a single. The first time it was released with just one mix, which echoed the album, the second time it was released as a single, Paul Staveley O’Duffy did a seven-inch single mix, but he didn’t do a twelve-inch mix. However, there is an extended version of it on that second issue of that single, but it’s the same version as was on the first issue of the twelve-inch – (laughs) can you tell how crazy this is?
Continue reading “INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Vinny Vero (Part 2)”

Japanese CD of the Day / Crowded House: Weather With You

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Crowded House / Weather With You / Japanese CD single
Click to enlarge

Crowded House‘s third single from 1991’s Woodface, would hit the UK top ten in February 1992. Alongside the evergreen Don’t Dream It’s Over, it would become something of a signature tune for the band (outside the US) in the years and decades that followed.

This five-track Japanese CD single release (TOCP-7157) features the 4:02 radio edit of Weather With You and includes quite an early live version of Don’t Dream It’s Over (recorded at The Roxy in LA on 7 April 1987).

Another single from the first album, Something So Strong, is also featured – again from 1987 – but this time from a gig at The Trocadero in Philadelphia.

Roger McGuinn joins the band for a performance of Mr. Tambourine Man (recorded in 1989), but perhaps the most interesting bonus track on this single, is live version of Walking On The Spot performed at London’s Town And Country Club in November 1991. At the time unreleased, this track would end up on 1993’s masterpiece Together Alone, with some extra instrumentation (notable an accordion). The live version on this disc is more straightforward, but still charming. Its structure is virtually identical to the studio master recording.

Most, if not all of these tracks ended up dispersed on various CD singles around the world, but this Japanese CD is effectively a ‘highlights’ disc from all the different Weather With You formats.

The Beatles: All These Years / Vol one of biography announced

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The Beatles / All These Years / Tune In biography

Mark Lewisohn – generally acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost Beatles historians – releases volume one of a three part fab four biography in autumn 2013.

The series is titled All These Years and the first book is being called Tune In. This volume will examine the formative pre-fame years, the teenage years, the Liverpool and Hamburg years.

The publishers, Little Brown, claim that Lewisohn’s work is “certain to become the lasting word” on the band. This remains to be seen, but Beatles fanatics will already own some of his work, such as The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, which is a superlative reference guide, and fairly much a Beatles ‘bible’ to many fans.

You can keep up to date with the lastest news at thebeatlesbiography.com

Standard version

Extended Hardcover Special Edition

FIRST PICTURES / Nick Drake: Bryter Layter remastered vinyl box set

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

Nick Drake / Bryter Layter vinyl box set

Nick Drake‘s 1970 album Bryter Layter was issued last week as a special vinyl box set, in the same way Pink Moon was last year.

This new reissue comes in a rigid lift-off lid box with a slightly bizarre front image of a sealed version of the album complete with a ‘Record Tape & Video Exchange’ sticker on the front (not an actual sticker).
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Scared To Get Happy: A Story Of Indie Pop / 5CD box set

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scaredtogethappy - final

Scared To Get Happy – A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989 is a five CD set we first told you about back in February. At that point the track listing was still a work in progress, but we can now confirm the running order (see below).

The mammoth 134-track set features music from all the key indie labels of the period (Creation, Factory, Rough Trade, Kitchenware, et al) and features many bands who would later taste mainstream success including Primal Scream, Aztec Camera, Stone Roses, Pulp, the Wonder Stuff, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Prefab Sprout, etc.

Many tracks see their CD debut on this set, while some selections have never officially been released before at all. Scared To Get Happy comes complete with a 54-page booklet, with lengthy sleeve-notes and illustrations of the records and bands involved.

Scared To Get Happy is out on 24 June 2013 from Cherry Red.

Scared To Get Happy – full track listing:
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Vinny Vero (Part 1)

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Vinny Vero / Industry Spotlight

Vinny Vero is a busy man. As well as producing deluxe releases for Cherry Red Records, he regularly remixes other artists’ work (just finished one for OMD), and is a songwriter, producer and DJ. We caught up with him recently to talk about his career in music and his most recent work on the Breathe, Basia and Julia Fordham reissues.

SuperDeluxeEdition: How did you get involved in the music business?

Vinny Vero: I was at university and wound up getting the opportunity to work in one of the biggest radio stations here in New York. Because I showed tremendous passion for music, they put me right into the music department. I was in charge of contacting – at that point by phone – retail outlets to find out what was selling, what wasn’t selling, to see if the plays on the radio were having any impact. So that was really interesting, and it also gave me exposure to record labels, coming in every week promoting there new singles. So within, I guess, a year and a half, I got the opportunity to then go and work at EMI. I started out as an assistant, and through a series of situations where I was put in front of artists, I started getting a reputation for being really ‘into it’, and they [the artists] really liked that because it was somebody at a label that they felt they could connect with. Within a year, I was a Marketing Manager, which was exactly what I wanted to do, and within six months of that they didn’t have anybody to work their catalogue, so they said, well we’ve got these five or six acts, why don’t you do their catalogue.
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Top 10: Deluxe Editions of the 1990s

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For your pleasure, a look back to some special CD releases from the 1990s. Yes, we have dug out of the SuperDeluxeEdition archive some interesting 2CD sets. Deluxe editions before we even called them ‘deluxe editions’. Some were very limited, others less so, but all were issued in addition to a standard single CD version. How many have you got?

George Michael / Older & Upper deluxe edition
Click to enlarge

George Michael / Older & Upper 2CD (1997)

George Michael‘s third solo album Older was a phenomenal seller in the UK. Six singles were released from the record and all of them reached the UK top three (two number ones, three number twos and a sole number three). This special edition came with a six track bonus disc called Upper which contained a couple of remixes, two radio edits and the new studio recordings issued with the Spinning The Wheel single, namely Safe and You Know That I Want To. The bonus disc also contains ‘interative elements’ which means pixelated videos to Jesus To A Child, Fastlove, and Spinning The Wheel that require ‘Quicktime 2.5’. The bonus disc comes in a simple card sleeve, which slots into a special slip-case with the standard album.

Echo & The Bunnymen / Evergreen deluxe edition
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Echo & The Bunnymen  / Evergreen 2CD (1997)

The 1997 Echo & The Bunnymen ‘comeback’ album featured UK top ten hit Nothing Lasts Forever. This 2CD special edition featured ten Peel Session tracks culled from 1979 (Villiers Terrace, Read It In Books), 1980, 1982, 1983 (Seven Seas, Ocean Rain) and 1997.
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Out This Week / 29 April 2013

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Nick Drake / Bryter Later audiophile vinyl box set

Nick Drake / Bryter Layter vinyl box set

This boxed vinyl edition of Drake’s 1970 album has a completely new analogue remaster, supervised by original recording engineer John Wood,  and is pressed onto 180gsm audiophile vinyl. The set includes reproduction of textured sleeve and inner bag, poster and facsimile of handwritten set list. Comes with three digital downloads, MP3, hi-res and ‘dubbed from disc’. Read more

Continue reading “Out This Week / 29 April 2013”

Halfway to Heaven: Blow Monkeys triple-set hits collection on the way

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The Blow Monkeys / Halfway to Heaven

29/04/13 Update: Sony informed us today that Track 3 “You Don’t Own Me” will not be featuring on this compilation, due to clearance issues.

Sony music will release a Blow Monkeys three-disc set on 17 June 2013 that comprises a single disc ‘best of’, a further CD compiling highlights of frontman Dr. Robert‘s solo career, and a final disc that features a remastered recording of The Blow Monkeys’ 1984 Hammersmith Palais concert in its entirety.

The best of is brought right up to date by the inclusion of Chained, a track from the new album Feels Like A New Morning, and fans will be pleased that You Don’t Own Me from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack also finds a place here.

Halfway To Heaven continues the fertile release schedule for Blow Monkeys-related product. Last year saw early albums Limping For A Generation and Animal Magic reissued as two-CD deluxe editions and in 2013 we have Feels Like A New Morning and this new collection. It doesn’t stop there either. Cherry Red will carry on with the archive releases, with the now-topical She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter next on the list.

Halfway To Heaven track listing:
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Robert Palmer / “Sneakin’ Sally” bonus cuts emerge on new reissue

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Robert Palmer / Sneaking Sally Through The Alley reissue
1974’s “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley” saw Palmer backed by The Meters and Lowell George of Little Feat

Robert Palmer‘s classic debut, 1974’s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley is the lastest in a line of Palmer reissues from the Culture Factory record label.

The same company have already tackled albums such as Secrets (1979), Clues (1980) and Double Fun (1978) in the last few years, but apart from rather nice mini-LP CD vinyl replica sleeves, none of those releases have come with any bonus material.

The eight-track Sneakin’ Sally will buck this trend, and comes with four additional bonus tracks: a single mix of Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, Epidemic (Sneakin’ Sally B-side) and alternate takes of album tracks Blackmail and Get Outside.

Fans have long been frustrated by how Palmer’s eight studio albums for Island Records have been neglected, in terms of expanded deluxe reissues, and it is not particularly clear why or how Culture Factory have managed to negotiate access to this bonus material when none of the other albums have got the same treatment. The hit-laden Riptide from 1985 is also being reissued at the same time as Sneakin’ Sally, but features nothing extra.

Both Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley and Riptide will be issued on 21 May in the US but Sneakin’ Sally is available next week in France.

Robert Palmer / Sneaking Sally Through The Alley reissue
OBI-style strip confirms the track listing for the Sneakin’ Sally reissue from Culture Factory (France)

 

Johnny Hates Jazz / Magnetized

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Johnny Hates Jazz / Magnetized review

Johnny Hates Jazz are back!

It’s been over 25 years since Clark Datchler, Mike Nocito and Calvin Hayes released Turn Back The Clock, a rather underrated and forgotten slice of well-crafted pop. A decent career beckoned, particularly since unlike some of their contemporaries (Wet Wet Wet), the band had ‘cracked’ America, with lead single Shattered Dreams peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1988.
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Record Store Day: The aftermath

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Waiting outside Flashback in north London on Record Store Day
Waiting outside Flashback in north London on Record Store Day

Record Store Day can be a little like Christmas. Lots of build-up and anticipation as you get excited about what you might ‘get’ and then a slight anti-climatic feeling when it’s all over, mixed with a small dose of resentment about how everyone else ended up with better ‘presents’ than you.

This year was a more satisfying experience for us than 2012. Back then, the shop we were in didn’t have any Kate Bush Lake Tahoe 10-inch picture discs at all, the David Bowie Starman picture disc was also not available, and Paul McCartney’s Another Day / Oh Woman Oh Why – the RAM promoting seven-inch – was US only.
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