Thanks for all the enthusiasm for the forthcoming Bronski BeatThe Age of Consent SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio, number 26 in the SDE Surround Series. The pre-order window officially closes this weekend, so this is your last chance to guarantee a copy of this fantastic release.
As a reminder, the exclusive blu-ray audio features the following content:
The Age of Consent
Bonus remixes from 2024
Hundreds & Thousands (The Age of Consent remix album from 1985)
Bonus rarities from 1984-5
That’s 26 tracks in total and all of them will be available in the following seven audio streams, with David Wrench handling the Atmos Mixes (along with the new stereo and 5.1 mixes):
Dolby Atmos [48/24]
5.1 Surround [48/24]
2024 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Original 1984 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Dolby Atmos Instrumental [48/24]
5.1 Surround Instrumental [48/24]
2024 Stereo Instrumental [96/24]
Don’t miss out! The blu-ray audio will ship with a free and collectible SDE slipcase and is exclusively available via the SDE shop using this link. Don’t forget we have a fantastic bundle available that pairs the blu-ray with the 4CD+DVD deluxe (tracklisting below) and includes a free a limited edition ‘I Feel Love’ CD single which includes some unreleased rarities.
The Age of Consent will be reissued on 18 October 2024, via London Records.
Tracklisting
The Age of Consent Bronski Beat/40th anniversary
ALL tracks in the following audio streams:
Dolby Atmos [48/24]
5.1 Surround [48/24]
2024 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Original Stereo Mix [96/24]
Dolby Atmos Instrumental [48/24]
5.1 Surround Instrumental [48/24]
2024 Stereo Instrumental [96/24]
The Age Of Consent
Why?
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Screaming
No More War
Love & Money
Smalltown Boy
Heatwave
Junk
Need A Man Blues
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me
Bonus 2024 Remixes
Smalltown Boy (Absolute. Rework)
Smalltown Boy (Planningtorock’s ‘The Love That You Need’ Rework)
Why? (Superchumbo Mix ft Neil Tennant)
Smalltown Boy (Dave Audé vs Tall Paul Remix)
Smalltown Boy (The Knocks & Bronski Beat ft Perfume Genius)
Hundreds & Thousands (original remix album from 1985)
Heatwave (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Why? (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Run From Love (Dominic Maita Remix)
Hard Rain (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Smalltown Boy (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Junk (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Bonus Tracks
Love And Money (Hundreds & Thousands Remix)
Infatuation / Memories
Close To The Edge
I Feel Love (Medley)
Cadillac Car
CD 1: The Age of Consent Plus
Why?
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Screaming
No More Way
Love & Money
Smalltown Boy
Heatwave
Junk
Need a Man Blues
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me
Bonus tracks
Smalltown Boy (DJ 7” edit)
Why? (Remix)
It Ain’t Necessarily So (7” version)
I Feel Love (7” version) with Marc Almond
Run From Love (radio version)
Hard Rain (NME 7” version)
CD 2: Hundreds & Thousands: The Remix Album Plus
Heatwave (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
WHY(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Run From Love (Dominic Maita Remix)
Hard Rain(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Smalltown Boy(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Junk(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Bonus tracks
Love and Money (Hundreds & Thousands Remix)*
Infatuation / Memories
Close to the Edge
I Feel Love (Cake Mix) with Marc Almond
Cadillac Car (Extended)
* Previously unreleased
CD 3: Consent Extended: The 12″ Mixes Plus
Smalltown Boy (12” Version)
Why? (12” version)
It Ain’t Necessarily So (12” version)
I Feel Love (12” version) with Marc Almond
Run From Love (US Club Remix ‘85)*
Smalltown Boy (US Club Remix ‘84)*
Red Dance
The Potato Field
Puit D’Amour
Signs (and Wonders)
I Feel Love (Fruit Mix)
* Previously unreleased
CD 4: Ignore at Your Peril: The Rarities Plus
Smalltown Boy (Capital Radio Session, May ‘84)*
Heatwave (Capital Radio Session, MAY ‘84)*
Hard Rain(Capital Radio Session, MAY ‘84 )*
Why?(Early version, March ’84)*
Crazy Maraquitta (Studio Session)*
It Ain’t Necessarily So (Early Version)*
Upside Down (Studio Session)*
Screaming (Early Version, March ‘84)*
The Power of the Gold (Studio Session)*
Love and Money (Early Version)*
First Church (Feel Love) (Studio Session)*
Junk (Early Version 2)*
Walking(Studio Session)*
No More War (Early Version)*
Go (You & Me) (Studio Session)*
Close to the Edge (Early Alternate Extended)*
Heatwave (Early Version)*
The Other Side of the Tracks (Studio Session)*
Smalltown Boy (Early Version, March ‘84)*
* Previously unreleased
DVD: The First Chapter: The Videos Plus
Restored Promos
Smalltown Boy (Restored Promo)
Why?(Restored Promo))
It Ain’t Necessarily So(Restored Promo)
I Feel Love with Marc Almond (Restored Promo)
Top of the Pops Performances
Smalltown Boy (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, June ‘84)
Why? (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, September ‘84)
It Aint’ Necessarily So (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, December ‘84)
I Feel Love with Marc Almond (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, APRIL ‘85)
Original TV Adverts
The Age of Consent – TV Advert #1 (December ‘84) *
The Age of Consent – TV Advert #2 (January ‘85) *
* Previously unreleased
I Feel Love CD single
I Feel Love (Cake Mix) Bronski Beat with Marc Almond 8’25”
I Feel Love (Fruit Mix) Bronski Beat 8’16″
I Feel Love (Early Version, March ’84) 6’17” * Bronski Beat
I Feel Love (DJ Edit) 4’33” * Bronski Beat with Marc Almond
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me (Rough Edit) 5’49” Bronski Beat
Neil Young will releases Vol III of his ongoing Archives series, in September.
This box set has content that spans the period 1976to1987 and is a 17CD set in standard form but is also available as a limited edition 17CD + 5 x blu-ray deluxe edition. Both feature 198 tracks on the CDs with 121 previously unreleased versions of live, studio, mixes, or edits, and 15 previously unreleased songs.
The deluxe edition of Vol III comes in the same packaging as the previous deluxe versions (if you aren’t sure of the difference, see the Vol II SDE unboxing comparison video below) which is the massive ‘vertical’ box which comes with a 160-page book and a fold-out archives poster.
The five blu-rays are exclusive to the deluxe edition and contain 11 full length films (over 14 hours of material) and include the previously unreleased Across The Water, Boarding House, Trans and Catalyst. Plus rare films Muddy Track, In A Rusted Out Garage, Solo Trans, Human Highway and A Treasure.
The standard 17CD box set omits the blu-rays and swaps the 160-page book for a a 36-page booklet. It will feature much reduced packaging, consistent with the standard editions of I and II.
The 17 CDs in both sets come in 11 ‘soft-paks’ (presumably the gatefold card sleeves that NY has used for a long time) while the five blu-rays in the deluxe edition come in three ‘soft-paks’.
The deluxe editions are limited to 5,000 units worldwide and they are ONLY shipping from USA and Canada. Anyone outside USA and Canada has to order from the US Greedy Hand shop, which unfortunately means we have to worry about extra import duties on top of the $450 retail price (although you do get free international shipping). If you recall, the 3,000 copies of the deluxe of Vol II sold out in a matter of days.
The standard 17CD version should be widely available, and by way of comparison is currently $240 on Amazon.com.
The standard edition 17CD box set of Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III (click image to enlarge)
As well as the two versions of the box set there’s a ‘highlights’ 2LP set called Archives Vol. III Takes. This 16-track compilation features one track from 16 out of the 17 CDs and therefore includes three unreleased songs and 12 previously unreleased versions (there’s nothing on this 2LP set that’s not in the box).
The deluxe edition from Neil’s Greedy Hand shop ships with an exclusive CD version of Takes, however redundant that may seem, and you also get a NYA pin badge and a free hi-res digital audio download code.
The deluxe edition of Archives Vol. III will be available soon on NY’s shop (early access ‘pre-sale’ emails have gone out to some fans) and the standard CD box and vinyl Takes are available as below.
Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III and Takes will be released on 6 September 2024 via Warner Records.
Who legend Pete Townshend’s solo career mostly spanned the 1980s and crept into the early 90s, with 1993’s Psychoderelict being his last studio outing. Throughout this period Townshend played live as a solo artist infrequently, but some rare performances are now documented in a new CD box set: Live In Concert 1985-2001. Pete recently sat down to discuss the box set, and this era, with SDE, and also talks about the next Who box set, his thoughts on reissues in general and immersive audio (and the work of Steven Wilson).
SDE: Universal Music have been focusing on your solo career recently, Pete, because they’ve been doing the half speed vinyl remasters, and now we’ve got this live box set. Are you pleased to see the spotlight fall on some of your solo work after so many Who reissues over the years?
Pete Townshend: When you put it like that, I suppose, yes. It’s interesting because my relationship with Universal is a good one. I really love everybody in the company from the top down. And they acquired The Who catalogue a while ago, and they acquired my catalogue subsequently. And in that acquisition, in the contract, they insisted on including some of the demos or some unreleased material, but certainly all released material that had been included in Eel Pie releases, or whether it was released online, or whatever. And I thought, that will just be because they want to put it in a shed and keep it, just in case it ever gets used in a movie, but in fact they’ve actually supported it, which means, of course, that it has more chance of getting used in a movie. So I’m really pleased about it. But it’s been a bit of a surprise.
How involved do you get in a project like this? Has this been on the go for a few years?
I can’t remember when I wrote the liner notes [Pete contributes an introduction] but I only got the box set a couple of days ago and I was surprised, reading Matt Kent’s writing [in the booklet] where it’s quite clear that I’ve done an absolutely huge amount of solo things. But that because I’m old… And in the first 35 years of my career, I did quite a lot of solo bits and pieces, especially charity stuff.
What was interesting with my notes – and I’ve obviously written those recently, [although] I can’t remember when – but that is very much where I am at the moment, I’m in two minds about my creative process, I’m in two mind about The Who’s final years, I’m in two minds about what I do with my time as I get older, you know, whether I spend it on charity, or social issues… I’m staying away from politics. It’s interesting, though, when you get involved in social issues, you know, whether it’s homelessness or, or, or domestic violence, or whatever it is, you get drawn into politics. But I’m trying to balance out where I am in my creative life, principally, and I think in the liner notes, I talk a little bit about not having been a particularly willing and happy performer. When you look at some other stuff that I’ve produced, such as the Deep End concert and the Hammersmith concert, I seem to be having fun, but I think I’ve always found a way of looking like I’m enjoying the job, when in actual fact it’s always felt like work, it has always felt like a job. And so for me now I’m kind of looking at how to get back to that place of, of creativity being principally play. I don’t want to over-egg this, but I do think it’s important and I’m almost at the point of starting an Instagram feed about ‘creativity is play’ because so many musicians make music and they struggle now with the fact that it’s almost inevitable that they’re never gonna make any money out of it. So they have to do it for love. So it has to be fulfilling, it doesn’t have to be fun, but it has to be fulfilling.
I read your notes and found them fascinating. They were very, very honest. And this whole idea of you not needing the adulation; the crowd cheering you on, and all that, that is very much the opposite of how people view your average rock star or musician. Where do you think that comes from? You make reference to your father being a musician in the notes…
I can only look at my childhood and my time with my dad being in a band and maybe getting a bit blase, I don’t know. But I think there’s more to it than… I think I’m in the wrong job. It’s a good job; it’s well paid, and I’m good at it, but it’s the wrong job. I should have stayed at art college. And then of course, once I was in The Who, I should have fucking stayed in The Who and not fucked around for 11 years, although I spent some of that time working at [UK book publisher] Faber and Faber [Townshend took the role of Acquisitions Editor in 1983], but I just feel I’m eccentric in this respect. I can remember Bob Geldof saying to me, before we went on stage at Live Aid that eight billion people were watching and I just remember saying to him, “Bob, I feel nothing” [laughs].
These CDs in this new box were out before, weren’t they? You sold the product directly through your website around 20 years ago, which is quite an interesting thing to do in the relatively early days of the internet. Did you did you enjoy that direct connection with fans and selling directly, without having a record company in the middle?
Yeah, I did. I liked the idea of having a website, I was the first, or one of the first to have a personal website, which I wrote on and posted notes on. And then my now wife, Rachel, started In The Attic [an early webcast/streaming show] and we started to do the first webcast shows. But you know, Paul, the thing was, the audience was really small. And so one of the things about it was that not just at the bandwidth limited it, but it was limited by the fact that it was just a core group of obsessive Who fans and fans of mine. And it became quite clear over a period of time that I was spending a lot of time and energy communicating with, and serving a very small group of people.
My experience with online stuff was ‘how do I fucking get this stuff that I’ve got here, out?’ So I decided just to make it myself. What the record company wanted from me, was a new dedicated solo album, and I think I was out of contract, right? I think my last album with Warner Brothers was Ironman, and then I was out of contract? And Ironman was a flop…
My solo career was a mistake, I shouldn’t have done it.
Pete Townsend
Those albums in the early 80s, such as Empty Glass… Did you not feel a sense of duty to get out on the road and play the songs to people so the album would have the best chance of commercial success?
Put like that, it sounds like a real fucking job, Jesus. Duty to go out and perform in order to make more money for the record company?
Well not make more money necessarily, but…
That’s what it is, you know. They’ve given me a big advance to take a chance on making a record hoping that it will sell lots of copies… But no, the record company, were pissed off that I didn’t tour particularly with White City [from 1984]. Rob Dickens [Chairman of Warner Music UK at the time] dropped me, dropped the album, because I wouldn’t tour with the band. I just didn’t fucking want to, you know, it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. And my solo career was a mistake, I shouldn’t have done it. I couldn’t support The Who at the time, with compositions, so what the fuck was I doing? You know, at one point, I had two contracts, to make seven albums over five years, and that was the kind of place that Phil Collins was in at the same time, and he managed it. But I was working for a group who didn’t write any material, so I had to… anyway, blah, blah, blah. It’s not a ‘poor me’ story, it’s just the fact that the reality of it was impossible. And I wasn’t in very good shape. I was drinking a lot; my marriage was breaking up; I was overworked; and I had diversified my life too much. So around the time that The Who were making their last album, and I was working on Empty Glass, that album got the benefit of me being at the beginning of that piece of work, but very quickly, I ran out of inspiration. So the idea of touring on top of that, if I’d had to tour every album that I made in that period, there wouldn’t have been enough days…
It sounds like you did enjoy the process of having an outlet to write [non Who] songs and record them, but all the other stuff that goes with it, you weren’t really willing to sign up to?
It wasn’t so much of an unwillingness to sign up to it, I just think it was the fact that it was impossible to do – I didn’t have time to do it. I took on too much. I think Phil Collins’ situation was very similar. His career is a bit of a lesson, isn’t it? You know, at the height of his career, he was doing solo work and getting number one records and he was still touring with Genesis, and he was still doing recording sessions, playing with anybody that called him up. And he was anxious. He was the first kind of Dave Grohl model of ‘I will fucking never stop’, you know. And what’s interesting is watching some of the big artists at the moment, like Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen… I can’t quite work out what the fuck they’re doing; why they’re doing it? So that’s me. If I was interviewing them, I’d say listen, it’s all very well what you’re doing and it’s lovely to see how successful you are… but why?
I think maybe Paul McCartney is the opposite of you, Pete. He needs the adulation, he needs to be out there to be Paul McCartney.
Well, that’s a bit simplistic. I’m just going a bit deeper. I’m a friend of Macca’s and I adore him and I appreciate what’s going on with Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift and other people like them, like Dave Grohl, who’s a friend and I love what he does, but I don’t understand.
It’s a bit like, watching somebody like Jeff Bezos. What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK? What are they doing? What do they do for fun? I’ve got a boat in the south of France, and I went to pick up a friend in Nice, in the harbour. And I think my boat is big. You know, I’m going in and I go into the harbour and we need special space. And his [Jeff Bezos’] number one yacht is in. It’s as big as a cruise ship. It takes up the whole of the commercial Harbour. And he’s not aboard! It’s got 45 people on board getting huge salaries just to make it ready for when he wakes up one day and persuades his new girlfriend, ‘shall we go to my yacht in Nice?’ Can we be arsed to charter a flight and sit on a plane so we can go and sit on a boat somewhere else which can only birth or anchor in a commercial Harbour? You know, with cranes and noise and everything else? What the fuck? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
Bruce Springsteen is about the fact that he loves his job. For me, with this box set, looking back at it, so many of the driving forces behind doing the work were a different kind of duty. It wasn’t a duty to the record company, it was a duty to the audience and to charities. About half of them are charity gigs – certainly, I never made any money.
Everyone can understand why people want to do things for charity, but you did it a lot, whether it’s Prince’s Trust or Rock for Jobs, etc. You didn’t make a big thing about turning up to do these things. That’s obviously been really important to you over the years.
Yeah, obviously. On the other hand, I could just be a girl who can’t say no.
When you have put on the shows, despite your reticence, they’re quite ambitious, such as the Psychoderelict tour and the Deep End band… I mean, that band wasn’t really around for long, but it must have taken a lot of work to put that together and rehearse for those shows?
Yeah, and that part of it was good. It was fulfilling. And I think without getting into… My tendency, as you probably know is to try to find answers to my own questions; that sort of self-analysis. I’ve been in therapy and I’ve done analysis and they haven’t come up with the answers that are required.
And you know if I’m going to ask that question of Bruce and David Grohl and Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift, I have to ask myself why would I even consider now doing another tour with Roger Daltrey – and I am considering it – why would I do that? What is in it for me, if it’s not about the money – and it’s not. There’s a sense that I might do it for the greater good. And in my case, I’m not saying it will make the world a better place [laughs], I’m saying that my friends are road crew, my guitar tech, my driver, my security guy… My family love to bring their friends to Who shows; it’s when I get to see my buddies because when The Who are performing, it’s well known that we’re there and people pop out of the woodwork of my past, and come to the shows and I get to see old friends. So that ‘greater good’ is a big pull for me. So I think when I’ve done stuff for charity, it will be because it’s the fabric of those charities have supported my emotional, private life.
With the Psychoderelict shows you played the whole record live and you had all the actors speaking on stage and all the rest of it. Why did you decide to take that on at that time?
I’d worked with Des McAnuff on the theatrical version of Tommy, which went on Broadway then [in 1993] and I felt that, through my time at Faber, I had a grasp of musical theatre, and so I was thinking about trying to make something that would be a definitive rock theatre musical, but in a sort of a noir way. It turned out to be quite comedic, because I got my friend Richard Barnes to come and help me polish the script and he put loads of jokes in there. Prior to that, it was a pretty dark story.
I don’t find it hard working with The Who, because I don’t do very much
Pete Townshend
And when it came to putting the album out, I was really highly visible in America because of the success of Tommy in 1993. I was a visible face in New York, I had a new girlfriend and I was partying all the time. When you have a show on Broadway, you have a home, because you have theatre you can go to, you can invite people in the company backstage and you provide people with work.
When I delivered my demos to Doug Morris, who was my record chief at Atlantic at the time, he said Psychoderelict would be my biggest album ever – he was wrong, but that’s what he said. And so I thought, ‘I’ll try to do some shows’. And I started to rehearse it and it got very, very exciting. It was fun. It was really fun. It was fun, because I ended up with a company, with actors, with stage designers and projectionists and stuff. The same projectionists that did the Tommy show did my projections.
One show that I did Jones Beach [in Nassau County, New York State] was three hours long, it was one of the best shows that I’ve ever done. I remember coming back to New York the next day and a few people that saw it said ‘that was better than a Bruce Springsteen show. It’s the best rock show that I’ve ever seen in my life’ so I felt ‘this is great, this is really, really good’ but I only did 13 or 14 shows and by the 14th show [laughs] I was fucking dead meat. I think what’s interesting for me is that I don’t find it hard working with The Who, because I don’t do very much. All my work is done in the studio before – when I go out [on stage] I just play the guitar and every now and again I do something stupid but I don’t do very much. Meanwhile Roger is out there, sometimes dying just to get the notes out. Going to surgery having his throat burned with an acetylene flame; being silent for four months before he comes back… just to sing fucking ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ or ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. So suddenly I’m there doing three hour shows, singing all the way through, playing the guitar, jumping about and and then I’m doing all that support stuff for the company that I was touring with. And I found it absolutely exhausting. It’s not ‘is this something that I do or do not want to do?’ it was just ‘I just can’t fucking do it’. It was just too hard.
1993 was probably the best year of my life. I had an incredibly good time and lots of sex
Pete Townshend
Does that mean that run was cut short? Or was it always planned to be 14 shows?
It was definitely cut short. I had plans to bring it to Europe, because I’d only done one short one-man show for the press in London, just on my own, of Psychoderelict, then I went to New York and I did a bunch of shows in America, Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, a couple of other places. And my intention was to bring it back. But the other problem I had was that I’d already committed to develop the Iron Man show at the Young Vic. I was developing that at the same time. I did three Tommy shows that year [1993], the Broadway show, the A-Class tour, and the and the beginning of the Canada show. And I did Psychoderelict and Ironman. So I did five productions: casting, support, PR. I think I did 250 interviews. So by the end of the year, I was ready for AA. In January 1994, I check myself in and I think that saved my life. In the #MeToo era it’s probably wrong to use the the Fawlty Towers joke of ‘I’m just a girl who can’t say no’ [Polly sings a couple of lines from this Rogers/Hammerstein song (‘I Cain’t Say No’) in the Gourmet Night episode] but I do think I have difficulty with knowing when to stop committing to projects. That’s a good example of overworking, but on the other hand, 1993 was probably the best year of my life, with its ups and downs and ins and outs. I had an incredibly good time… and lots of sex [laughs].
You didn’t make any more solo albums after that…
I was dropped.
I’m sure it wouldn’t have been too difficult for you to get signed somewhere else, if you’d wanted to.
That’s probably true, yeah. But, you know, I decided to spend a couple of years doing the AA thing and getting myself sorted out. And also, I was trying to rebuild my family, which eventually failed, but I put a lot of effort into it.
Over the years, we’ve had vinyl, eight-track cartridges, cassettes, CDs, MP3s, back to LPs and now we’ve got streaming dominating. Are you bothered by the medium that delivers your music?
I think in one respect, yes. I’m bothered about the fact that we are now missing ‘things’. And I think it’s a bigger philosophical, sociological question beyond just album notes or like you, having a collection of stuff behind you [Pete can see my CDs via the Zoom call] which is like a library that reminds you where you’ve been and your highs and lows in life.
It’s about the fact that we were all living this virtual life where so much of our things are data, even to the extent where we will allow us to have our whole personal life in a journal online or all of our contacts online, all of our calendars online, our personal organisers online… and what people probably aren’t aware of is that the data banks around the world are full. They’re full, they’re at maximum now. So stuff is falling off the ends of them; somebody else is deciding what data is going to get dumped off the data, and your data might start to get dumped as well…
I remember when my son was about 14, and he had all his music online in what was then iTunes and his computer crashed. And I remember rushing to see him thinking that he would be shaking with anxiety, but he said “I can just download it again”. I’m still locked in the old ways of wanting things. But the ‘things’ thing is interesting, because it’s also completely fucking meaningless. Your display of CDs could could be go up in a fire next week. We as human beings, we’re acquisitive, we collect and we like the idea that we’re supported by data, but what’s happened with Spotify, in particular, is that it’s like entering a nightmare. If I go looking let’s say for ambient music – which is a passion of mine, electronic ambient music, Berlin stuff in particular – I just get deluged. I don’t know where to begin.
The other thing that’s happened is in recent years is spatial audio, Dolby Atmos and of course Steven Wilson did the Atmos Mix for Who’s Next. Obviously, we used to have 5.1 Surround now we’ve got Dolby Atmos. Is that something you’re interested in?
No. You know, going back to Life House in ’71, I wanted that to be a surround sound project and quickly got into trouble… technology wasn’t keeping up and then in Quadrophenia, I wanted to do that where the four speaker system was part of the storytelling and that didn’t work out, either.
I have mixed stuff in 5.1 myself, and I’ve commissioned early 5.1 mixes of Quadrophenia, Tommy, Who’s Next and various other Who albums, which I did with Bob Pridden [and Richard Whittaker], The Who’s sound man. Steven Wilson’s work is obviously very good, everybody raves about him and he’s always trying to get me to pop up to what he calls northwest London, to listen to his mixes, but I’m not interested.
Back in the the late 60s, early 70s, I invented the first Walkman
Pete Townshend
I quite like spatial audio with cans [headphones]. In my old house, which I’ve now sold, I had a surround speaker system set-up but what’s interesting about it is you have to sit in one position but it’s not what we’re used to now, as music as part of our daily life.
Back in the the late 60s, early 70s, I invented the first Walkman. I got a small cassette player with two separate speakers, and I wired a battery powered box, about six inches by eight. I bought them for all my friends and wired high powered earphones into this cassette system. And you could travel with it on aeroplanes and you could you use it in your car, and you could use it when you were gardening. It was a very bulky thing to carry around, it wasn’t as small as a Walkman, but it was the beginning of the Walkman experience. Just moving around with music was a huge novelty. You can make your own accompaniment to a walk in the park, you know, it was a huge thing. Of course, everybody is used to that now. You see lots and lots of people in London walking around with earbuds and it’s part of the uniform.
I think the thing for me, still, is that if I want to listen to something, what vinyl does for me, is makes me get back into the ‘thing’ experience. Finding the record, put it on a deck, sit down and listen to it. I think the same is true of CDs, although I find CDs a bit hard to access.
But I love what Steven Wilson does. I love his enthusiasm. I met him at a party recently and we didn’t have much time together, but he’s a very special guy. And of course, the Porcupine Tree stuff is so neglected, so inventive. He’s a big fan of mine. And I’m so privileged to have him working on these remixes. Apparently, the remixes he’s just done on the Who Are You album are just spectacular. So I’m looking forward to hearing them.
I was going to ask you about that. There has clearly been loads of Who box sets over the years and I’ve noticed you personally get quite involved. You often write long essays in the books and don’t necessarily ask a third party to do that work. Do you enjoy the process of reissuing and looking back at your albums?
Yeah, I do. I enjoy the writing. I enjoy telling the truth, you know, some of this was good, and some of it was bad. I love telling my own story. When Matt Kent does notes, he tends to look at dates; it’s all chronological. And he also looks at factual accuracy, which I don’t have to bother with! [laughs]
Some people just like to put a positive sheen on everything and not talk about the not so good stuff…
I just write. I love writing. I think if I wasn’t in the music business, I would either be an artist or a journalist and I might actually have ended up writing about art rather than music. My dad wanted me to be a journalist. He thought that I didn’t have a musical career ahead of me and but he encouraged me with my writing and and I really enjoy it. I really enjoy writing about stuff that I know about but I also journal a lot so I empty my head and my heart on paper every day and it helps me get into a frame of mind where I can possibly be creative.
What can we expect from the Who Are You reissue?
I’m not 100 percent sure. I’m not even sure when it’s coming out, but I know Steven has just finished the immersive mix. John Astley, our mastering engineer, went up to his place to hear it – I was supposed to go, but I, I couldn’t – but he said it’s fantastic. That’s all I know, right now, I know that Matt Kent has gone off to the seaside in his in his camper bus to write the liner notes! [laughs].
There was a brief mention in the booklet in live box set about a companion studio albums CD box of your solo records. Is that Is that coming anytime soon?
I don’t know. I wish I was able to be more helpful. What’s interesting is that when I say I really loved the people at Universal, before they bought the catalogues they was they were constantly coming at me to get extra material to add to box sets for reissues. They were enthusiastic, they were positive and supportive and they finance that stuff as well. You know, let’s say I give them 10 demos that were unreleased for the Who’s Next album, they would give me a chunk of money for each track – not life changing, but it felt like business to me. And now they’re in a position where they can pretty much just do what they wish, as long as we support it, emotionally. I don’t think Roger cares that much about what they do. But for me, I am really, really interested in it and I’m really committed to it.
You seem to have an inexhaustible amount of demos. Every time there’s a reissue, you find some new demos that have never come out before. You must be like running out of them by now, surely?
I’m running out of good stuff. But I’ve got lots of rubbish.
You were quite advanced with your home studio recording setup, back in the day, weren’t you? So you were way ahead of what other people were doing…
I was first person to have a professional studio in my house. It didn’t fit, but I had it anyway. I’m thinking seriously about doing a not a box set as it were, but some volume of what I call ‘collateral’; something which would be interesting, not so much to fans, but to people that are interested in the creative process. I must have about about 400 pieces of music of various levels of quality that have never been heard by anybody.
Thanks to Pete Townshend who was talking to Paul Sinclair for SDE. The Live in Concert 1985-2001 is released on 26 July 2024.
The next NOWYearbook will be 1987 and will be released at the end of August.
This will feature 80 tracks on the 4CD editions (deluxe hardcover book and standard card sleeve) and 49 tracks on the 3LP orange vinyl.
It’s a strong collection, featuring two tracks from George Michael (‘Faith’ and his Aretha Franklin duet I Know You (Were Waiting)), a pair from Pet Shop Boys (‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ and ‘Always On My Mind’), and a couple from a-ha (‘The Living Daylights’ and ‘Cry Wolf’).
It also includes the New Order classic ‘True Faith’ and sees Eurythmics go all experimental (again) with the brilliant-but-bonkers ‘(I Love To) Listen to Beethoven’.
The deluxe 4CD hardcover book edition of NOW Yearbook 1987
Other tracks of note include Rosie Vela’s Steely Dan-assisted ‘Magic Smile’, Paul McCartney’s last solo UK top 10 single (‘Once Upon A Long Ago), Alexander O’Neal’s ‘Criticize’, another appearance from George Michael (albeit ‘unofficial’) via Boogie Box High’s cover of the Bee Gees’ ‘Jive Talkin”, the first single from Sting’s second solo album Nothing Like The Sun (‘We’ll Be Together), Bruce Springsteen’s brilliant ‘Brilliant Disguise’ (also a lead single from his Tunnel of Love album) and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s swansong, ‘Watching The Wildlife’.
Dotted around these are loads of other great tracks, including Hue and Cry’s ‘Labour of Love’, The Blow Monkeys’ ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way’, The Cure’s ‘Why Can’t I Be You’ and the none-more-80s instrumental that is Jan Hammer’s ‘Crockett’s Theme’. Full tracklistings are below,
NOW Yearbook 1987 will be released on 30 August 2024.
Paul McCartney’sfirst five post-Beatles albums are being issued as limited edition Japanese mini-LP SHM-CDs (compatible with all CD players).
These are sometimes called ‘paper sleeve’ editions and and each are presented as vinyl replica CDs with the usual exacting standards from Japan including OBI-strip, extra booklet with Japanese lyrics, ‘rice paper’ sleeve for disc protection and re-sealable outer clear sleeve. The albums in question are:
Paul McCartney / McCartney (1970)
Paul & Linda McCartney / Ram (1971)
Wings / Wildlife (1971)
Paul McCartney and Wings / Red Rose Speedway (1973)
Paul McCartney and Wings / Band on the Run (1973)
These editions really normally are incredible and match the originals in amazing detail, so Ram and Red Rose Speedway will both be gatefolds, Band on the Run includes the poster, Red Rose Speedway includes the original booklet and so on.
Masterings are all as per the original Archive Collection releases, so 2010 for Band on the Run, 2011 for McCartney, 2012 for Ram, and 2018 for Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. Band on the Run features the 9-track UK version of the album (no ‘Helen Wheels’) and all the albums are ‘album-only’ with no bonus tracks.
These are extremely limited, but the SDE shop has secured a guaranteed allocation and is offering them only as a 5CD bundle, which you can order via this link or the buttons below. Strictly one bundle per customer please (multiple orders will be cancelled).
All five are released on 20 September 2024.
Tracklisting
McCartneyPaul McCartney /
The Lovely Linda
That Would Be Something
Valentine Day
Every Night
Hot as Sun/Glasses
Junk
Man We Was Lonely
Oo You
Momma Miss America
Teddy Boy
Singalong Junk
Maybe I’m Amazed
Kreen-Akrore
Tracklisting
RamPaul and Linda McCartney /
Too Many People
3 Legs
Ram On
Dear Boy
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Smile Away
Heart of the Country
Monkberry Moon Delight
Eat at Home
Long Haired Lady
Ram On (Reprise)
The Back Seat
Tracklisting
Wild LifeWings/
Mumbo
Bip Bop
Love Is Strange
Wild Life
Some People Never Know
I Am Your Singer
Bip Bop (Link
Tomorrow
Dear Friend
Mumbo (Link
Tracklisting
Red Rose SpeedwayPaul McCartney and Wings/
Big Barn Bed
My Love
Get on the Right Thing
One More Kiss
Little Lamb Dragonfly
Single Pigeon
When the Night
Loup (1st Indian on the Moon
Medley: Hold Me Tight / Lazy Dynamite / Hands of Love / Power Cut
The Brand New Heavies‘ 1994 album Brother Sister will be reissued for its 30 year anniversary in September.
This album by the Acid Jazz/funk group featured N’Dea Davenport as lead vocalist and included some of the band’s biggest hits to that point, including ‘Dream On Dreamer’ and ‘Midnight at the Oasis’, both top 20 singles in the UK.
The album has been newly remastered and is available as a 2LP coloured (black and white) vinyl edition, with three bonus tracks (‘Los Burritos’, ‘Baby Don’t Use Me’, ‘Touch of Your Love’).
A 2CD deluxe edition features the same three tracks above and classic remixes from the likes of David Morales, Roger Sanchez and a newly commissioned rework of ‘Back To Love’ by Luke Mornay. There are also two demos, ‘Pocketful of Bass’ and an alternate demo of ‘Put Yourself In My Shoes’, with vocals by N’dea Davenport.
If ordered via the official Brand New Heavies shop, both 2CD and 2LP vinyl sets are SIGNED by band members Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy
Brother Sister will be reissued on 27 September via London Records.
Universal Music will release Rory Gallagher The BBC Collectionin October, a 20-disc set (18 CDs & 2 blu-rays) described as “the definitive collection of Rory Gallagher’s recorded performances at the BBC”.
The Irish guitarist and songwriter was one of the most recorded musicians of the 1970s by the BBC and this new box was created from tapes in the Beeb’s archives along with Rory Gallagher’s own transcription discs and off-air cassette recordings. Over three quarters of the audio recordings are previously unreleased.
The BBC Collection is an 18CD + 2 x blu-ray box set (click image to enlarge)
The BBC Collection takes in 16 years of Gallagher’s career (1971-1986) and highlights include the 1977 television and radio broadcast ‘Sight & Sound’ concert, Rory’s headlining set at the Reading Festival in 1980 and the ‘At Midnight’ concert live from the Ulster Hall in Belfast, 1984. The blu-rays offer BBC TV concerts and studio performances from 1973 to 1984.
In addition to the massive box, there’s ‘highlights’ editions called The Best of Rory Gallagher at the BBC available as 2CD and 3LP variants. The big box includes a booklet with a 5,000+ word essay , written by Colin Harper, featuring new interviews with BBC producer Jeff Griffin, Rory’s long-time bassist Gerry McAvoy, and 70s peers Andy Roberts (Plainsong, Liverpool Scene etc.), Barry Devlin (Horslips), Jake Burns (SLF) and Dave McLarnon (Shock Treatment). The ‘best of’ editions include a 2,000-word edit of that essay.
All formats are released on 11 October 2024 via UMR.
As reported on SDE back in April, The Cardigans will release a B-sides/rarities compilation – in two volumes – called The Rest of the Best.
These covers some of the bands recordings released as B-sides on singles, soundtracks and as bonus tracks on Japanese, French and UK versions of their albums between 1994 – 2006.
We are delighted to release these compilations. Songs that for various reasons were left out of our studio albums. Now our audience can listen through all B sides in chronological order and it’s a pure joy to reminisce all the way back to 1993. It’s almost like a forgotten record, or rather four. We hope you’ll enjoy the 13 year ride!
The Cardigans
These collections have been compiled by the band themselves and remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. There are separate 2LP sets and also separate single CD editions (one 2CD set might have made more sense, but that’s just my opinion).
The artwork is created based on photos taken by the photographer Martin Bogren, who worked with the band from the very beginning.
Both volumes of The Rest of the Best will be released on 6 September 2024, via UMR.
Rhino are to release Faces At The BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973 a new 8CD+blu-ray box set of the Faces‘ BBC concerts and surviving studio sessions.
Much of this new collection is previously unreleased. Many of the band’s BBC recordings were thought lost but have been recovered from the Faces’own archives and private collections (only one BBC session of three songs remains missing).
The eight CDs include a massive 88 tracks and explores the era which included four Faces studio albums (First Step, Long Player, A Nod Is As Good As A Wink…To A Blind Horse…, and Ooh La La) as well as several solo albums that Rod Stewart recorded with most of the band (Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells A Story, Never A Dull Moment, and Smiler).
Amongst the many rarities is a stereo mix of the May 13, 1971, Paris Cinema concert, which was only broadcast in mono, and a February 1973 show that was never aired due to the BBC’s concerns over the band’s on-stage banter with the rowdy audience (!). All audio has been remastered with the full participation of band members Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones.
The Blu-ray includes newly restored footage of the Faces’ April 1972 appearance on Sounds for Saturday (check out ‘Stay With Me’, below).
This large format set comes with a 48-page booklet with new commentary from surviving band members and archival quotes from Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and BBC broadcaster John Peel, the latter of whom was very important, as the band acknowledge:
Rod Stewartsays, “If it wasn’t for John Peel, the Faces would never have broken through”. Ronnie Woodconcurs, “He gave the Faces our first break” as does Kenney Jones:“John Peel helped the Faces so much in England, in the press and on his show.”
It is therefore appropriate that John Peel’s Christmas Carol Concert rounds out the collection. Originally broadcast on Boxing Day 1970, this unique holiday performance features Stewart singing “Away In A Manger” and a Christmas carol medley sung by a choir that includes the Faces, their roadies, John Peel, Marc Bolan of T-Rex, and others.
Faces At The BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973 will be released on 6 September 2024, via Rhino.
Compare prices and pre-order
Faces
Faces at the BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings (1970-1973)
The Age Of Consent + Bonus Tracks all in Atmos • Quick Pre-order
London Records are reissuing Bronski Beat’s classic 1984 debut The Age of Consent for its 40th anniversary and formats will include an SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio with the album and plenty of bonus material, all in mixed in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround and available in instrumental form. This will be #26 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series.
Other anniversary editions include a 4CD+DVD deluxe that offers 22 previously unreleased tracks and video content along with 2CD and 2LP variants.
Bronski Beat were Steve Bronski, Larry Steinbachek and Jimmy Somerville and this album (the only proper studio album to feature Jimmy) was released in October 1984, hitting the top 10 across Europe as well as in Canada and New Zealand. Three of its four singles made the UK 10, including ‘Why?‘ and the enduring classic ‘Smalltown Boy’.
The SDE exclusive blu-ray of The Age of Consent (click image to enlarge)
The SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio features the following content
The Age of Consent
Bonus remixes from 2024
Hundreds & Thousands (The Age of Consent remix album from 1985)
Bonus rarities from 1984-5
That’s 26 tracks in total and all of them will be available in the following seven audio streams, with David Wrench handling the Atmos Mixes (along with the new stereo and 5.1 mixes):
Dolby Atmos [48/24]
5.1 Surround [48/24]
2024 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Original 1984 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Dolby Atmos Instrumental [48/24]
5.1 Surround Instrumental [48/24]
2024 Stereo Instrumental [96/24]
The 4CD+DVD deluxe edition comes in 7″ style casebound book packaging and features both The Age of Consent, Hundreds and Thousandsand 41 bonus tracks including original 12-inch mixes, B-sides and 22 previously unreleased rarities including Capital Radio sessions, early versions, an original US Club Remix of ‘Smalltown Boy’ and a Hundreds & Thousands version of ‘Love and Money’. The DVD includes restored promo videos, Top of the Pops performances (SDE fact: I was actually in the TOTP studio audience for the Oct 84 performance of ‘Why’!) and even some original TV ads!
The 40th anniversary 4CD+DVD deluxe edition of The Age of Consent (click to enlarge)
The blu-ray audio will ship with a free and collectible SDE slipcase and is exclusively available via the SDE shop using this link or the buttons below.
If you purchase the blu-ray + 4CD+DVD bundle from the SDE shop you will receive a limited edition ‘I Feel Love’ CD single for free, while stocks last. This features six tracks, four that are not in the deluxe and two which are previously unreleased (see tracklisting below).
The blu-ray audio is a limited edition. The pre-order window will close in 10 days on 27 July 2024.
The Age of Consent will be reissued on 18 October 2024, via London Records.
Tracklisting
The Age of Consent Bronski Beat/40th anniversary
ALL tracks in the following audio streams:
Dolby Atmos [48/24]
5.1 Surround [48/24]
2024 Stereo Mix [96/24]
Original Stereo Mix [96/24]
Dolby Atmos Instrumental [48/24]
5.1 Surround Instrumental [48/24]
2024 Stereo Instrumental [96/24]
The Age Of Consent
Why?
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Screaming
No More War
Love & Money
Smalltown Boy
Heatwave
Junk
Need A Man Blues
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me
Bonus 2024 Remixes
Smalltown Boy (Absolute. Rework)
Smalltown Boy (Planningtorock’s ‘The Love That You Need’ Rework)
Why? (Superchumbo Mix ft Neil Tennant)
Smalltown Boy (Dave Audé vs Tall Paul Remix)
Smalltown Boy (The Knocks & Bronski Beat ft Perfume Genius)
Hundreds & Thousands (original remix album from 1985)
Heatwave (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Why? (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Run From Love (Dominic Maita Remix)
Hard Rain (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Smalltown Boy (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Junk (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Bonus Tracks
Love And Money (Hundreds & Thousands Remix)
Infatuation / Memories
Close To The Edge
I Feel Love (Medley)
Cadillac Car
CD 1: The Age of Consent Plus
Why?
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Screaming
No More Way
Love & Money
Smalltown Boy
Heatwave
Junk
Need a Man Blues
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me
Bonus tracks
Smalltown Boy (DJ 7” edit)
Why? (Remix)
It Ain’t Necessarily So (7” version)
I Feel Love (7” version) with Marc Almond
Run From Love (radio version)
Hard Rain (NME 7” version)
CD 2: Hundreds & Thousands: The Remix Album Plus
Heatwave (Harvey Goldberg Remix)
WHY(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Run From Love (Dominic Maita Remix)
Hard Rain(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Smalltown Boy(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Junk(Harvey Goldberg Remix)
Bonus tracks
Love and Money (Hundreds & Thousands Remix)*
Infatuation / Memories
Close to the Edge
I Feel Love (Cake Mix) with Marc Almond
Cadillac Car (Extended)
* Previously unreleased
CD 3: Consent Extended: The 12″ Mixes Plus
Smalltown Boy (12” Version)
Why? (12” version)
It Ain’t Necessarily So (12” version)
I Feel Love (12” version) with Marc Almond
Run From Love (US Club Remix ‘85)*
Smalltown Boy (US Club Remix ‘84)*
Red Dance
The Potato Field
Puit D’Amour
Signs (and Wonders)
I Feel Love (Fruit Mix)
* Previously unreleased
CD 4: Ignore at Your Peril: The Rarities Plus
Smalltown Boy (Capital Radio Session, May ‘84)*
Heatwave (Capital Radio Session, MAY ‘84)*
Hard Rain(Capital Radio Session, MAY ‘84 )*
Why?(Early version, March ’84)*
Crazy Maraquitta (Studio Session)*
It Ain’t Necessarily So (Early Version)*
Upside Down (Studio Session)*
Screaming (Early Version, March ‘84)*
The Power of the Gold (Studio Session)*
Love and Money (Early Version)*
First Church (Feel Love) (Studio Session)*
Junk (Early Version 2)*
Walking(Studio Session)*
No More War (Early Version)*
Go (You & Me) (Studio Session)*
Close to the Edge (Early Alternate Extended)*
Heatwave (Early Version)*
The Other Side of the Tracks (Studio Session)*
Smalltown Boy (Early Version, March ‘84)*
* Previously unreleased
DVD: The First Chapter: The Videos Plus
Restored Promos
Smalltown Boy (Restored Promo)
Why?(Restored Promo))
It Ain’t Necessarily So(Restored Promo)
I Feel Love with Marc Almond (Restored Promo)
Top of the Pops Performances
Smalltown Boy (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, June ‘84)
Why? (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, September ‘84)
It Aint’ Necessarily So (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, December ‘84)
I Feel Love with Marc Almond (BBC ‘Top of the Pops’, APRIL ‘85)
Original TV Adverts
The Age of Consent – TV Advert #1 (December ‘84) *
The Age of Consent – TV Advert #2 (January ‘85) *
* Previously unreleased
I Feel Love CD single
I Feel Love (Cake Mix) Bronski Beat with Marc Almond 8’25”
I Feel Love (Fruit Mix) Bronski Beat 8’16″
I Feel Love (Early Version, March ’84) 6’17” * Bronski Beat
I Feel Love (DJ Edit) 4’33” * Bronski Beat with Marc Almond
I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me (Rough Edit) 5’49” Bronski Beat
Primal Scream will release a new studio album called Come Ahead, in November.
The 11-track album is produced by David Holmes and the during the songwriting process Bobby Gillespie found himself writing alone, using an acoustic guitar, with lyrics coming before the music, for the first time. You can preview Love Insurrection, below
The album artwork features a photograph of Bobby’s late father, Robert Gillespie Snr, and was created by artist Jim Lambie.
I’m very excited about this album in a way that you would be making your first record. If there was an overall theme to Come Ahead it might be one of conflict, whether inner or outer. The title is a Glaswegian term. If someone threatens to fight you, you say, ‘come ahead!’ It’s redolent of the indomitable spirit of the Glaswegian, and the album itself shares that aggressive attitude and confidence. They have a word for this up there, gallus. Come Ahead’s quite a cheeky title too.
Bobby Gillespie.
Described as featuring “some of the most personal songwriting of the band’s career” the sessions were completed between Belfast, London and Los Angeles with guitarist Andrew Innes and Holmes.
Come Ahead will be released on 8 November, via BMG.
Suede’s second album Dog Man Star will be reissued for its 30 anniversary later this year.
The band’s 1994 long-player would be the last to feature guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler and includes the singles ‘We Are The Pigs’, ‘The Wild Ones’ and ‘New Generation’.
Sadly, there’s no SDE blu-ray edition, which we did last year for the band’s debut, but there will be a brand-new half-speed master in 2LP gatefold packaging and a 3CD deluxe edition seven-inch packaging.
The 3CD set includes B-sides and the full-length version of the non-album single ‘Stay Together’ and other bonus tracks and rarities from the period.
The reissue features revised cover art, with design undertaken for Suede’s by official designer and photographer Paul Khera. There’s also new sleeve notes by Simon Price.
Dog Man Star will be reissued on 4 October 2024 via Demon Music. A seven-inch picture disc of ‘We Are The Pigs’ will also be issued on 13 September.
Three prime-era Level 42 albums will be reissued as 2CD deluxe sets in October.
The records in question are 1983’s Standing in the Light, 1985’s World Machine and 1987’s Running in the Family. Between them these delivered six UK top 10 singles including ‘The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)’, ‘Something About You’, ‘Lessons in Love’ and ‘Running in the Family’. ‘Something About You’ also reached number seven in the US Hot 100 singles chart.
Each double-CD package features a bonus disc with a selection of 7” edits, 12” extended versions, remixes and B-sides. All this ground has been covered relatively recently by the Complete Polydor Years box sets, but I guess if you’d prefer to cherry-pick albums, then these might be for you. If you own the box sets and are actively looking for reasons to buy any of these, it seems the World Machine deluxe does have a shorter dub version of its title track which appears on CD for the first time!
All the 2CD sets come in seven-inch style packaging and include album lyrics, and a foreword by Simon Carson and Paul Waller, both of who were involved in the box sets (with the latter being the author of the book LEVEL 42: a Worldwide Visual Discography).
All three albums are reissued on 25 October 2024, via Demon Music.
=1 is the new album from Deep Purple. The 13-track record has been produced by Bob Ezrin. The CD+DVD edition includes a 60min documentary called ‘Access All Areas’, while the big box set includes the 2LP vinyl, the CD+DVD, three exclusive 10-inch vinyl records (with live recordings) plus T-shirt, art print etc.
Phil Collins’ 1993 album Both Sides will be reissued as Both Sides (All The Sides) a new 5LP deluxe vinyl edition in September.
This expanded set is the features the original artwork (not the ‘Take A Look at Me Now’ 2016 updated version) and a remastered version of the album, cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road.
The other three vinyl records feature early demos, rarities from singles and live recordings from the era, including from Collins’ MTV Unplugged performance.
There are 20 bonus tracks in total. All 10 from CD 2 of the 2016 deluxe edition are included, plus these:
Both Sides of the Demo (Early Demo) [from ‘Both Sides of the Story’ CD single]
Everyday (Early Demo) [from ‘Everyday’ CD single]
Don’t Call Me Ashley [from ‘Everyday’ CD single]
Rad Dudeski [from ‘Both Sides of the Story’ CD single]
For a Friend [from ‘We Wait and Wonder’ CD single)
Hang in Long Enough (Live)
Hand in Hand (Live)
Doesn’t Anybody Stay Together Anymore (Live) [from ‘Everyday’ CD single]
Always (Live) [‘from Both Sides of the Story’ CD single]
Stevies Blues (There’s a Place for Us Instrumental) [from ‘We Wait and Wonder’ CD single)
Some of these are new to vinyl, but nothing appears unreleased, and as you can see by the above list they are mostly pulled from CD singles at the time. Why these are okay for a vinyl reissue but not the CD reissue back in 2016 is a fair question and fans should be aware that there’s no CD edition this time around. The vinyl records are housed in a slipcase and come with a 16-page booklet with sleeve notes by Michael Hann.
Additionally, Live From the Board: Official Bootleg gets a standalone 10-inch release for this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day. This four-track EP was originally a bonus CD included as part of the 1995 Gold Souvenir Tour Edition of the album. It features the tracks ‘Sussudio’, ‘Easy Lover’, ‘Separate Lives’ and ‘My Girl’.
Both Sides (All The Sides) will be released on 20 September 2024. It’s the first Collins’ reissue since he sold his rights to his solo material to Concord in September 2022.
#25 in the Series • Limited to 2,500 units • Quick pre-order
Tori Amos’ 2014 album Unrepentant Geraldines is is being reissued for its 10th anniversary and is #25 in the SDE Surround Series of blu-ray audios with Dolby Atmos Mixes.
The album was well received at the time and regarded as something of a return to form, with Tori making heavy use of the piano and delivering some sprightly pop arrangements. Amos produced the album, working with a small team including her husband Mark Hawley (who played guitar as ‘Mac Aladdin’) and Marcel van Limbeek. In short, there was a feeling that ‘classic’ Tori had returned, after a period of dense, conceptual ‘song-cycles’, orchestral projects and so on.
Album highlights include opener ‘America‘, the title track with its rocky, driving chorus; the beautiful piano ballads ‘Weatherman‘ and ‘Oysters‘; the Americana-vibed ‘Trouble’s Lament‘ (the lead promo single at the time) and ‘Wedding Day‘. Tori also duets with her daughter on the inter-generational reflections of ‘Promise‘ and addresses the subject of ageing on ‘16 Shades of Blue‘ as Tori discussed at the time:
“I turned 50 this year – and certain people really helped me to see it in a different way and grab it with both hands. The song ‘16 Shades of Blue’ talks about aging from many points of view. And as I started to dive into it, I started to learn from women of all ages that age was a difficult thing for them”
Tori Amos speaking in 2014
The SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio of Unrepentant Geraldines is packed with content. It includes the 14 album tracks, plus all three bonus songs which were available via different methods at the time (only one being available physically). They are:
Dixie (Amazon download bonus track)
White Telephone To God (iTunes bonus track)
Forest Of Glass (deluxe CD bonus track)
All 17 tracks are on the blu-ray and are available in Dolby Atmos, and exclusively in 5.1 and as instrumentals. There’s also a hi-res stereo version. The Atmos Mix was created by Adrian Hall, who did the Atmos Mix of Tori’s last album Ocean to Ocean (available on streaming services). Here’s a summary of the content:
Unrepentant Geraldines + bonus tracks in Dolby Atmos (48/24)
Unrepentant Geraldines + bonus tracks in 5.1 Surround Sound (48/24)
SDE can confirm that this album was originally mastered at 24/44.1 so there is no higher quality version available. Any 24/96 digital files available now or at the time would have been upsampled.
The blu-ray is region-free and will ship with a free collectible SDE slipcase. In terms of the other formats, there’s a 2LP vinyl edition and a new CD version. Both feature the album plus the three bonus tracks, in stereo.
SDE editor Paul Sinclair on #25 in the SDE Surround Series
The SDE-exclusive blu-ray is limited to 2500 units worldwide. It’s exclusive to the SDE shop and is available to pre-order now, via this link or the buttons below.
Unrepentant Geraldines is released on 13 September 2024 (was 6 Sep), via Decca.
This 3CD companion set features 57 tracks from 1993 including Pet Shop Boys ‘I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing’, New Order’s ‘Ruined In A Day’, Duran Duran’s ‘Too Much Information’, Annie Lennox’s ‘Little Bird’, Sting’s ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith In You’, R.E.M.’s ‘Nightswimming’ and many more.
Terence Trent D’Arby (now Sananda Maitreya) is represented by two tracks – ‘Let Her Down Easy’ and ‘Do You Love Me Like You Say?’ (both from the brilliant Symphony or Damn album) and there’s many other numbers from the likes of Paul Weller, Nick Heyward, Saint Etienne, Sade, Go West, SNAP!, M People, Stereo MCs and others.
NOW Yearbook 1993 – Extra will be released on 9 August 2024.
417 previously unreleased live performances! • “Very limited”
Sony are to release The 1974 Live Recordings a massive 27-disc box set that features all professionally recorded shows from Bob Dylan and The Band’s 1974 tour.
The box set offers fans 417 previously unreleased live tracks – including 133 recordings newly mixed from 16-track tape, and every single surviving soundboard recording.
In 1974 Dylan toured live for the first time in eight years and reunited with The Band, who since they last performed live together (in 1966) had released six albums and played Woodstock and recorded with Bob (The Basement Tapes, Planet Waves).
The 1974 Live Recordings (click image to enlarge)
Dylan and The Band performed 30 dates in 42 days (often playing two sets per day) and recordings were captured on a stereo soundboard mix, on both quarter-inch tape and cassette. By tour’s end, Asylum Records’ David Geffen had commissioned recordings on multi-track tape, for eventual release on Before the Flood. The 1974 Live Recordings includes it all of these and the shows that were recorded on 16-track tape are newly-mixed for this box set, which comes with with new sleeve notes by Elizabeth Nelson.
There’s no standard vinyl version, but Third Man Records are doing a special 3LP+7″ green vinyl package with souvenir tour programme. The catch is that it’s only available via their ‘Vault’ subscription programme, so you need to sign up to receive this.
The 1974 Live Recordings will be released on 20 September 2024, via Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings
In a new video feature, SDE editor Paul Sinclair takes you through some recent – and future – box sets and reissues, including The PoliceSynchronicity, Paul McCartney’sOne Hand Clapping, Pete Townshend’sLive in Concert CD box, The Alan Parsons Project’sPyramid super deluxe and more…