Paul McCartney’s new album will be called The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, according to his brother Mike McCartney.
In a grammatically loose post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) Mike said “Josh saw this teaser for r kids new album ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ in Liverpool yestas. It was familiar to him as he had designed the Dungeon Lane(Speke) artwork for his Uncle”
Josh is Mike’s son, Paul’s nephew and “r kid” is an abbreviation of ‘Our Kid’ which is of course an affectionate term for a sibling, particularly a brother, in Liverpool.
Dungeon Lane is a road in Speke, a suburb of Liverpool near what is now Liverpool John Lennon Airport, about a 15 minute drive from Paul’s old house in Forthlin Road. The postcode area is L24
A website has also been set up, with the URL theboysofdungeonlane.com which currently displays the artwork.
The title suggests Paul’s new album, at least in part, will have a nostalgic element to it, perhaps with references to The Beatles in their early days (‘Early Days’ was actually a song on 2013’s New). With Paul turning 84 on his next birthday (in June) it is hardly surprising that he’s thinking about where it all began. The Boys Of Dungeon Lane will be Paul’s 19th solo studio album (20th if you include Ram, which technically isn’t a solo album) and his first since the ‘rockdown’ release of McCartney III in 2020.
With a teaser campaign in full flow, an official announcement cannot be far off and could happen as soon as Friday this week. Stay tuned for more info on SDE.
Queen release a 5CD+2LP super deluxe box set of their second album Queen II. It includes studio outtakes and demos, live gigs, BBC sessions and backing tracks to the 1974 original.
Neil Diamond will release Wild at Heart, a new studio album, in May.
The album is comprised of unreleased recordings from the sessions that delivered 2008’s Home Before Dark album, his second collaboration with Rick Rubin (the first being 2005’s 12 Songs).
The 10 songs on Wild at Heart Drawn include contributions Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers and this album becomes the third party of a Rubin trilogy.
It’s being released on CD and 140g black vinyl but for not much extra cash you can secure a 2CD version with a 10-track greatest hits selection on CD 2.
Wild at Heart will be released on 8 May 2026 via EMI.
The Who’s 2023 live performance at Cornwall’s Eden Project, will be released on CD and vinyl in May.
This new live album sees Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey deliver 24 tracks, including all the usual hits, with many backed by the Heart of England Philharmonic Orchestra.
It will be released as a 2CD set and across 3LP vinyl box on 29 May 2026, via Earmusic.
Kraftwerk have announced a 50th anniversary blu-ray edition of their 1975 album Radio-Activity.
Using the original 16-track master tapes, Kraftwerkfounder Ralf Hütter with engineer Fritz Hilpert have created a brand-new Dolby Atmos Mix which takes Kraftwerk’s first all-electronic album and brings vivid new shading, forensic detail and richly layered cinematic depth to the most boldly experimental album in the Kraftwerk catalogue. I heard the Atmos Mix at a playback event in London last week and they’ve done a very good job with this mix.
The blu-ray edition features the album in the following versions:
Dolby Atmos Mix
5.1 Mix (48/24 – rendered from the Atmos)
Stereo Mix (48/24) [2009 remastered audio]
This region-free blu-ray audio comes with a booklet in clear amaray packaging, and ships with an SDE exclusive slipcase.
As with Autobahn from last year, there’s also a special vinyl picture disc edition of Radio-Activity which comes in a die-cut sleeve.
Radio-Activity is released on 15 May 2026 via Parlophone. You can pre-order your copy with the exclusive slipcase from the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
Tracklisting
Radio-ActivityKraftwerk/Blu-ray with SDE exclusive slipcase
Eg and Alice were a short-lived duo who released just one album on WEA Records in 1991 called 24 Years Of Hunger.
A cult classic, a hidden masterpiece, an undiscovered gem… call it what you will, but the album – which has never been reissued – was influenced by Eg White and Alice Temple’s love of Prince, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and Curtis Mayfield.
SDE Records’s forthcoming 2CD deluxe reissue of 24 Years Of Hunger features the original album and a disc of unreleased songs and demos. It has already garnered four star reviews in Mojo and Classic Pop and a 9/10 review in Uncut who called it a “impeccable” and a “deluxe 2CD set of elegant, earnest, impassioned pop”
The 2CD set comes in DVD-sized hardcover bookpackaging with 36 pages of lyrics and track-by-track commentary by Eg and Alice themselves. In this exclusive extract, the pair discuss the first single from the album, ‘Indian’:
Eg White: ‘Indian’ came out as the first single. We hadn’t thought it was an important tune at all and then Rob Dickins at Warners [Chairman of Warner Music UK] said, “that’s the tune that we can make hay out of. That’s the one”. I’d seen The Neville Brothers and was inspired by their song ‘My Blood’, imposing a narrative of being an outsider, almost accidentally. And I think that’s why we got signed to Warners. Lots of people did want to sign us at that point, probably four or five labels, but Warners had made all the records we love: Prince, that whole West Coast tradition. We thought, “thank you very much”.
Alice Temple: We also went with Warners because they were offering us the least amount of money and, luckily, Eg understood that the less money we took, the less money we owed because I didn’t understand at all – I just thought they gave you free money! I never thought about the business side of music, but Eg understood all that.
Eg White: We couldn’t get ‘Indian’ right. We did seven versions of it and the verses just got sadder and sadder. In the end, Rob told us to go substantially back. But when I hear it now, it sounds so bad. My mum [Lucy White] played strings on it; mum and Juliet [Davey], her then girlfriend, and later, her wife. “Jack Malloy”, is actually Mark Malloy, but he didn’t go up to anyone [as the lyric suggests]. It was a kind of a piss take. Franke Madrid sang the backing vocals on it. He’d done backing vocals for Brother Beyond. I got Franke back, and he just smashed it, again.
Alice Temple: The only live stuff we did, which I get cold shivers even thinking about now, was ‘Indian’ on [UK TV chat show] ‘Wogan’. You’ve got to remember that I had never sung live before in my life. ‘Indian’ was my least favorite song, and then suddenly we had to do ‘Wogan’, and it was me singing live to playback. I’ll never forget it – I was in the BBC, and I was in the bathroom the entire time. Meanwhile, Eg and the rest of the band, they’re all having a laugh, because all they have to do is mime and I’m shitting myself, knowing I’ve got to sing live on ‘Wogan’. I was in a permanent state of just sheer panic.
Alice is, I think, very happy that this ‘Wogan’ performance of ‘Indian’ does not appear to be on YouTube! So I have never seen it!
This special 2CD physical deluxe edition is limited to 1,000 units worldwide and is an SDE exclusive available only from the SDE shop. It’s very close to selling out, so don’t miss out. You can secure your copy using this link or the button below.
24 Years Of Hunger, the 35th anniversary 2CD deluxe edition, will be released on 10 April 2026 via SDE Records.
Tracklisting
24 Years of HungerEg and Alice/2CD deluxe edition
CD 1: 24 Years of Hunger
Rockets
In A Cold Way
Mystery man
And I Have Seen Myself
So High, So Low
New Year’s Eve
Indian
Doesn’t Mean That Much To Me
Crosstown
IOU
I Wish
CD 2: Lonely Road: Demos & Remixes
Here Come The Rockets (Demo)*
Highway (Demo 1)*†
Lonely For Too Long (See What I Mean) (Demo)* †
Indian (Demo)*
Bobby & Holly
Shadow (Demo)* †
New Year’s Eve (Demo)*
Lazy Woman
Under My Spell (Demo)* †
Running To America (Demo)* †
Crazy Bastard (Demo)* †
Teenage Cinema Problem (Demo)* †
Highway (Demo 2)* †
It Doesn’t Mean That Much To Me (7” Version)
It Doesn’t Mean That Much To Me (Jesus Loves You Mix)
a-ha’s 2005 studio album, Analogue, will be released as a 2CD deluxe edition in April.
The band’s eighth album was produced by a-ha and Martin Terefe (mixed by Flood) and was notable for featuring ‘Analogue (All I Want)’, a song that returned a-ha to the top 10 of the UK singles charts after a 17 year drought. Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin was brought in to work his magic on a song called ‘Minor Key Sonata (Analogue)’ and it was transformed into ‘Analogue (All I Want)’.
Other singles from the album include ‘Celice’ (which wasn’t issued in the UK) and ‘Cosy Prisons’, which featured backing vocals from Graham Nash.
Unlike the RSD 2LP vinyl (which simply spreads the album across four sides of vinyl) this 2CD set offers 21 bonus tracks, 15 of which are previously unreleased.
Appended to the album on CD 1 is a-ha’s last ‘proper’ B-side, the excellent ‘Case Closed On Silver Shore’, the radio mix of ‘Cosy Prisons’ and edits of ‘Celice’ and ‘Analogue (All I Want)’.
CD 2 is where it gets really interesting with early/alternate/demo versions of every album track, including the embryonic ‘Minor Key Sonata’ (which featured on the UK CD single of ‘Analogue’) and even an early version of the aforementioned ‘Case Closed On Silver Shore’.
This disc also includes three unreleased outtakes from the Analogue sessions. ‘Slanted Floor’ and ‘With You-With Me’ were both written by Morten Harket and Ole Sverre Olsen and later re-recorded for Morten’s 2008 solo album Letter From Egypt. The third outtake, ‘Windfalls’, was written by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy.
The two-disc set features newly mastered audio and is presented as a digipak with notes by Kieron Tyler with new contributions from the band’s Paul Waaktar-Savoy and Magne Furuholmen.
This Analogue 2CD set will be reissued on 17 April 2026, via Rhino. The 2LP vinyl is out the next day for Record Store Day.
Zappa / Beefheart / Mothers/Bongo FuryCD, Vinyl, Box Set
The new 50th anniversary super deluxe of 1975’s Bongo Fury expands the original album to 5CD+blu-ray (which includes an Atmos Mix). 2LP vinyl also available.
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine / Straw Donkey: The Complete Singles
This 1995 Carter ‘best of’ is remastered and expanded with some extra promo singles. It also features a DVD of restored videos. The 2LP vinyl version features the CD 1 audio.
Jeff Buckley’s sublime debut album, Grace, is to be reissued on blu-ray audio next month.
Originally issued in August 1994 on Columbia Records, the album features a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ as well as ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’.
Grace has been mixed in immersive Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound by Steven Wilson for this special blu-ray audio release. SDE is fairly sure the disc will contain a hi-res stereo version of the album, but this has not yet been confirmed by Sony. Although not on the original album, the blu-ray also includes ‘Forget Her’ in Atmos and 5.1.
Grace is released on blu-ray on 24 April 2026, via Sony. Pre-order from the SDE shop using this link or the button below. Going by our allocation these are going to be very limited.
NOW Music continue their 12″80s series with ‘Part Two’ of the 1986 volume, which offers 45 extended versions across four CDs.
While there’s nothing necessarily rare, there’s some great stuff on this collection including long versions of Pet Shop Boys ‘West End Girls’ and ‘Love Comes Quickly’, the extended version of Belouis Some‘s ‘Imagination’ (which still sounds incredible to this day), the 12-inch mix of a-ha’s ‘Hunting High and Low’, Eurythmics’ ‘When Tomorrow Comes’ in extended form, along with many more.
There’s some great one-off tracks of the era such as Owen Paul‘s ‘You’re My Favourite Waste of Time’, Nick Kamen‘s ‘Each Time You Break My Heart’, Furniture‘s ‘Brilliant Mind’, It’s Immaterial‘s ‘Driving Away From Home’ and Nu Shooz‘s ‘I Can’t Wait’ – all in extended form, of course.
There’s plenty more including long versions from The Blow Monkeys, Simple Minds, Spandau Ballet, OMD, Falco, The Bangles, Steve Winwood, Arcadia, Cameo, James Brown, Cherrelle & Alexander O’Neal, New Order, Talk Talk and UB40. Full tracklisting is below.
NOW 12″80s: 1986 Part Two is released on 10 April 2026.
The pre-order for the Tori AmosIn Times Of Dragons SDE exclusive blu-ray ends today. It’s #61 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series and features the album in the following audio streams:
Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
Dolby Atmos Instrumental Mix (48/240
5.1 Surround Mix (48/24)
Stereo Mix (48/24)
Stereo Instrumental Mix (48/24)
The Atmos Mix and Dolby Atmos Mix is by Adrian Hall and Mark Hawley and the hi-res stereo version is mastered by Jon Astley. Additionally, this physical edition will offer unique instrumental versions of the full album in Atmos and Stereo.
The track listing for this album still has not been announced, but I can tell you that this is the full 17-track double album which runs for 80 minutes. You can preview ‘Stronger Together’, above.
In Times of Dragons is a metaphorical story about the fight for Democracy over Tyranny, reflecting the current abhorrent non accidental burning down of democracy in real time by the ‘Dictator believing Lizard Demons’ in their usurpation of America
Tori Amos
This In Times of Dragons SDE exclusiveblu-ray audio will be packaged similarly to previous editions (in a clear amaray case) and ships with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase.
The pre-order window closes today; availability cannot be guaranteed after that date. In Times Of Dragons blu-ray will be released on 1 May 2026, via Decca. Pre-order only from the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
A concert film of George Michael’s Faith Tour will be released later this year, alongside a live album.
Shot at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy during the European leg of the Faith Tour in 1988, George Michael: The Faith Tour has been restored from 35mm footage assembled from a 14-camera shoot captured over two nights. It has been directed by longtime collaborators Andy Morahan and David Austin.
The film will open with an original short film by Mary McCartney, titled ‘Finding Faith’, which offers “an intimate introduction contextualising the tour’s cultural significance, through a sensitive and cinematic lens”.
George Michael: The Faith Tour will receive a worldwide theatrical release and, significantly, will be accompanied by The Faith Tour, an 18-track live album of previously unreleased recordings featuring hits from George Michael’s Wham! and solo catalogues.
There are no further details in terms of release dates at this time, but we’ll keep you posted.
Midge Ure will release A Man Of Two Worlds, a new double album, in May.
His first album of new material in 12 years sees the former Ultravox frontman divide the offering into two parts. The first half, World One: Music, consists of eight instrumental pieces, while the second half, World Two: Songs, features eight ‘proper’ songs (with vocals).
This concept is said to be partly inspired by the time Midge spent during lockdown listening to instrumental music, and some of the work he heard whilst presenting THE SPACE on Scala Radio. He began writing what became a selection of instrumental pieces — “music shaped by reflection, uncertainty, and a strange kind of quiet”.
The eight vocal songs which form the second part of the album, are described as “incredibly sparse and meditative”, with some songs dealing with the frailty of the human condition, underlying many songs is a reflection of Midge’s concerns for the discord infecting world today. You can preview lead tracks ‘Just Words’, above.
Speaking about the album, Midge says: “Almost every album I’ve made over the past 40+ years has featured at least one instrumental track. For this album I wanted to explore this further, showing two sides of what I do”.
The album is available as a deluxe 2CD media book set with 20-page booklet and as a double vinyl pressing. The official Midge Ure shop offers exclusive ‘bone’ coloured vinyl limited to just 300 copies (boasting an alternate front cover) as well as various bundles.
A Man Of Two Worlds will be released on 8 May 2026 via Chrysalis.
Filmmaker Mike Christie has confirmed that he has directed a new feature length documentary about Wham!’s visit to China in 1985.
Wham! 10 Days In China is a 90-minute documentary that pieces together “the untold story” using newly restored footage alongside new and extensive, personal interviews from Andrew Ridgeley, members of the touring party, as well as some of the fans who made up the Chinese audiences whose experiences.
On his Instagram page, Christie says “It’s been a long haul to make, but a fascinating, very entertaining, and surprising film!”
On their famous 10-day visit to China in ’85, Wham! played two concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou (on 7th and 10th of April). The trip was documented by Palme D’Or winning film director Lindsay Anderson – best known for If (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973) – but his 77 minute cut, called If You Were There, was rejected by the band. Anderson was let go and the film was re-edited and released on VHS and laserdisc as Wham! In China: Foreign Skies. The original If You Were There got its first (and probably last) public screening at London’s BFI (British Film Theatre) in 2024 as part of its O Dreamland! Lindsay Anderson’s Dark British Cinema season.
Director Mike Christie has a history of music documentaries. He made 2018’s Suede: The Insatiable Ones film, New Order: Decades (also 2018) and last year’s Nick Cave: Veiled World. Wham! 10 Days In China follows Chris Smith’s highly enjoyable Wham! documentary from 2023, which also featured a high profile participation from Andrew Ridgeley.
More news on Wham! 10 Days In China when we get it.
Tears For Fears’ debut album The Hurting was released on this day in 1983. It’s a stunning album, cherished as much for brilliant album cuts such as ‘Memories Fade’, ‘Watch Me Bleed’ and the title track as for the superb UK hit singles, ‘Mad World’, ‘Pale Shelter’ and ‘Change’.
In 2023 Steven Wilson remixed the album in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 and Stereo for its 40th anniversary. He also mixed, in stereo, previously unheard early Mike Howlett-produced versions of ‘Mad World’ and ‘Watch Me Bleed’. All of this featured on a special SDE exclusive blu-ray audio alongside an instrumental version of the album (also mixed by Steven Wilson) and the original stereo mix.
Audio streams available on the SDE-exclusive The Hurting Blu-ray Audio:
The Hurting – Steven Wilson 2023 Dolby Atmos mix
The Hurting – Steven Wilson 2023 DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (96/24)
The Hurting – Original Mix in hi-res stereo (96/24)
The Hurting – Steven Wilson 2023 Instrumental mix in hi-res stereo (96/24)
And the two bonus tracks, both mixed to hi-res stereo (96/24) by Steven Wilson, are:
‘Mad World’ (Mike Howlett Version)
‘Watch Me Bleed’ (Mike Howlett Version)
Issued in 2023, this special blu-ray edition of The Hurting was #9 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series. A few weeks ago we announced that this blu-ray would be repressed in limited quantities, due to high demand. The blu-ray is identical to the previous edition and will ship with the same SDE slipcase.
The pre-order window CLOSES TODAY so to guarantee yourself a copy, place your pre-order now, if you haven’t already done so. Either visit the SDE shop using via this link, or use the button below. The blu-ray repress is released on 24 April 2026, via UMR.
Ringo Starr will release his new solo album, Long Long Road, next month.
The album is the 85-year-old’s second collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett, following last year’s Look Up, which hit No 1 on the UK Americana Albums and Country Albums charts.
Long Long Road will follow Look Up in harking back to Starr’s early love of country music, as made apparent by his vocal turn on Help’s ‘Act Naturally’ and his first solo foray into songwriting, ‘The White Album’s ‘Don’t Pass Me By’, not to mention one of his finest solo albums, 1970’s Beaucoups Of Blues.
“I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records,” says Starr. “After we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened.
“I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for Look Up, and now for this one, which I’m calling Long Long Road, because I’ve been on a long long road.”
As with Look Up, Starr has had a little help from his friends, with bluegrass singer Molly Tuttle and guitar hero Billy Strings among those returning. And there are a few new faces on board for Long Long Road, with St Vincent, Sheryl Crow and Sarah Jarosz providing back up (boogaloo to be confirmed). The first single from the album, ‘It’s Been Too Long’ (featuring Tuttle and Jarosz) is out now.
Long Long Road will be available on CD and vinyl LP is released on 24 April 2026, via UMR.
Sting has announced an expanded edition of his fifth studio album, Mercury Falling, to mark the record’s 30th anniversary, although sadly this is not a physical release.
The 1996 album features the UK top 40 hits ‘Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot’, ‘You Still Touch Me’ and ‘I Was Brought To My Senses’ and was Sting’s last album to feature the production talents of Hugh Padgham, which underlines the feeling that this record was the end of a certain phase in Sting’s solo career.
This digital deluxe offers 19 bonus tracks culled mostly from CD singles of the era, with eight new to streaming, including three tracks performed on UK TV show, TFI Friday. There’s the usual selection of club-oriented remixes which sound pretty dated these days, although I wasn’t a fan at the time. These include two versions of Nothing Like The Sun‘s ‘Sister Moon’. The track ‘Moonlight’ was from the soundtrack of 1995 romantic comedy, Sabrina.
It was notable that Mercury Falling was omitted when all of Stings solo albums from the last millennium were reissued physically in Japan, last year. Whether they will play ‘catch up’ and do this one in the near future remains to be seen.
Although this expanded edition of Mercury Falling isn’t being released physically, there a new live album called The Night Watch (Live at the Rijksmuseum) will be issued on vinyl and CD in June. This captures Sting in a “breathtakingly intimate performance surrounded by works from Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Judith Leyster” (!). With Dominic Miller and playing a 17th-century guitar crafted for Louis XIV (you couldn’t make this stuff up) he performs songs from The Last Ship alongside classics by The Police and his solo catalogue.
This digital-only expanded Mercury Falling is available on streaming platforms now and The Night Watch (Live at the Rijksmuseum) will be released on 26 June 2026 via Interscope.
UFO have announced an expanded reissue of their 1981 album The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent, out on 2CD and 3LP in May.
The metal pioneers’ ninth studio album is among their most highly regarded, a self-produced set with anthemic melodies to match the band’s hard rock heft. As the title suggests, frontman Phil Mogg was deep into a Bruce Springsteen phase, reflected in the twinkling piano into, doomed-romance lyrics and sax solo of nearly-hit single ‘Lonely Heart’. The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent reached No 19 in the UK and No 77 on the US Billboard 200, despite the slightly risqué cover being toned down for North American audiences.
Purists will be pleased to know that the original Hipgnosis cover is the one used for the album’s new deluxe edition. The first disc of the set features a 2026 remaster of the original album, with the CD version adding seven-inch edits of ‘Couldn’t Get It Right’ and ‘Lonely Heart’ and a previously unreleased alternative mix of ‘It’s Killing Me’. The remainder of the set (CD2 or LPs 2 & 3) is given over to the 11-track Live At Hammersmith Odeon, London, 29th January 1981, newly mixed by US producer Brian Kehew.
The 2CD edition comes in a three-panel digipak with a booklet including sleeve notes by Michael Hann (author of Denim And Leather: The Rise And Fall of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) featuring new interviews with Mogg and Andy Parker, as well as previously unseen photographs from the time. The 3LP set replicates the tracklisting of the CD edition (minus the seven-inch and alt mixes on CD1) and also includes the booklet.
The Hammersmith tracks are all apparently “previously unreleased”, but two of them – ‘Long Gone’ and ‘Lonely Heart’ – were included on the 2009 CD reissue of the album (and on the 2011 2LP edition), suggesting that the “previously unreleased” tag refers to the new mix. Meanwhile, ‘Mystery Train’ and (again) ‘Lonely Heart’ from the Hammersmith show were included in the 2013 4CD live set “Hot ’N’ Live” The Chrysalis Live Anthology 1974-1983.
The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent deluxe editionis out 1 May 2026 via Chrysalis.
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UFO
The Wild The Willing and The Innocent - 2CD deluxe
