ABBA fans the world over are excitedly waiting for details on ‘ABBA Voyage’ a project which the band have been teasing on social media since Thursday.
This is of course undoubtedly about the so-called ‘Hologram Tour’ which has been years in development and which is expected to start in Stratford in East London in May. It’s not really a tour, more like a multi-year residency in one venue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YavN9MA9378
Then of course there is the matter of the new songs. As we all know, ABBA said in 2018 that they had recorded two new tracks (‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’) and that they would be released later that year. This didn’t happen, but fans’ disappointment was tempered by the fact that those two songs have grown into what is thought to be five new tracks. Not enough for a full album, which is a shame.
All will be revealed on Thursday 2 September when the big announcement will happen. You can register at the new ABBA Voyage website “to be first in line to hear more about ABBA Voyage”.
Press to Play at 35 is SDE’s unofficial collectors’ guide to Paul’s 1986 album
SDE on Paul McCartney’s Press to Play at 35
I’m delighted to share with you the news that SDE is marking the 35th anniversary of Paul McCartney‘s 1986 album Press to Play with a new collectors’ edition ‘keepsake’ booklet.
The 32-page book features an in-depth interview with the producer, Hugh Padgham, a 9,000-word SDE review with a track-by-track examination, an interview with John ‘Tokes’ Potoker (who remixed ‘Spies Like Us’ and ‘Pretty Little Head’) a look back at the reviews of the album at the time, newly commissioned illustrations and more!
We have produced a limited run of 1,000 numbered copies, which will be signed by myself. For extra collectibility, the first 500 out of those 1000 will also be signed by Hugh Padgham himself!
These will go on sale on Wednesday 1 September 2021 (when the album was released in the UK in 1986) and will ship almost immediately (starting 6th Sep).
We have also reprinted the long sold-out McCartney: 10 Years of ArchiveReissues SDE book for anyone who missed out. Unlike the original run of 1000 copies, these will not be numbered or signed. Bundles will be available with the Press to Play at 35 publication. Again, these will go on sale on Wednesday.
McCartney: 10 Years of Archive Reissues sold out in 2020 and was acclaimed
Cherry Red will release The Anthology 1972-1997 a new seven-CD box set of music from British soul group The Real Thing.
The band only ever issued four studio albums and this clamshell box contains expanded versions of all of them. They are: Real Thing (1976), 4 From 8 (1977), Step Into Our World (1978) and …Saints Or Sinners? (1980). It adds three bonus CDs which gather up A-sides, B-sides, seven-inch edits, extended versions, remixes and instrumentals. Many of these are new to CD.
The Anthology 1972-1997 features 109 tracks across seven CDs (click image to enlarge)
The 109 tracks within span multiple labels including EMI, Pye Records, RCA, Jive Records and a few independents. The box set includes a 24-page booklet with rare photos and words from Ed Piller.
The Anthology 1972-1997 will be released on 24 September 2021.
Sony will reissue a 25th anniversary 2LP coloured vinyl edition of Jamiroquai‘s third album, Travelling Without Moving, at the end of this year.
Originally released in September 1996, Travelling Without Moving was an enormous success with three singles (‘Virtual Insanity’, ‘Cosmic Girl’, ‘Alright’) all hitting the top ten in the UK. It has since sold over 8m copies worldwide.
This new edition is pressed across two 180g yellow vinyl records and the front cover has been updated with silver-blocked highlights. It also comes with a download code and new sleeve notes from Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay.
Travelling Without Moving is reissued on 2LP yellow vinyl (click image to enlarge)
This reissue is a double album (like the UK original) although we are given one extra bonus track, the fairly rare ‘Cosmic Girl (Dimitri From Paris Remix Radio Edit)’.
There is no CD version of this reissue. Sony put out two-CD deluxe editions of the first three Jamiroquai albums back in 2013. These aren’t bad at all and are still available at good prices.
The 25th anniversary 2LP yellow vinyl of Travelling Without Moving is released on 21 January 2022 (was 17 December 2021).
The last studio album that The Beatles released, 1970’s Let It Be, will be reissued in October as a belated 50th anniversary edition.
Recorded in early 1969, and documented in Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be film, one single from these sessions (‘Get Back’ b/w ‘Don’t Let Me Down’) emerged in April 1969 and attempts by Engineer Glyn Johns to knock the album (then called Get Back) into some kind of shape were in vain. His mix May 1969 mix was rejected and the tapes were mothballed (a second Johns mix was rejected again in January 1970).
The retitled Let It Be album was eventually issued in May 1970 after Phil Spector was given the task of creating an album from the many hours of tapes. By that point, The Beatles had already recorded and released Abbey Road, their final studio outing.
Paul McCartney was famously unhappy with Spector’s fiddling with his songs (‘The Long and Winding Road’, in particular), but in typically frank style, John Lennon defended Spector in his 1970s interview with Rolling Stone, saying “He was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit – and with a lousy feeling to it – ever”.
2003’s Let It Be Naked was largely seen as an attempt by Paul McCartney to correct a the ‘wrongs’ of the original record, although it wasn’t all about Paul since Lennon fans got to enjoy the superb non-album ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ on the record, since that was added to revised and remixed (by Allan Rouse) version of the album.
The new super deluxe 5CD+blu-ray super deluxe reissue of Let It Be doesn’t bother to repeat Let It Be Naked but, more surprisingly, also doesn’t include much from the 3 Savile Row rooftop concert. What it does offer is the 1969 Glyn Johns ‘Get Back LP’ mix, two CDs of alternate takes/jams, new mixes of the original Phil Spector version of the album (and a-sides/b-sides) and a new Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mix of Let It Be. With The BeatlesAnthology, and Let It Be Naked, it’s hard to keep track of what has been made available before and what hasn’t, but Apple/UMC say that in total, the super deluxe edition features 27 previously unreleased session recordings.
The 5CD+blu-ray super deluxe edition of Let It Be (click image to enlarge)
The content of the CD box set is as follows:
CD1 – New stereo mix (by Giles Martin) of the original album
CD 2 – Get Back – Apple Sessions: Various alternate takes
CD 3: Get Back: Rehearsals and Apple Jams
CD 4: Get Back LP: 1969 Glyn Johns Mix
CD 5: Let It Be EP: Two Glyn Johns Mixes from 1970 and new mixes of the single versions of Let It Be and Don’t Let Me Down
Blu-ray: Dolby Atmos Mix, 5.1 mix, hi-res stereo version of new mix
The super deluxe comes as a book with outer slipcase and a book is also included with the 5-record vinyl super deluxe edition which offers exactly the same audio as its CD counterpart across four LPs and one 4-track 12-inch EP. It doesn’t include the blu-ray with the surround mixes, however. The books are 100-page hardcover tomes with an introduction by Paul McCartney, extensive notes and track-by-track recording information and many previously unseen photos, personal notes, tape box images and more.
The five-record vinyl box set contains four LPs, a 4-track EP and a book (click image to enlarge)
The 2CD edition offers a 14-track ‘Outtake Highlights’ disc featuring tracks from CDs 2 and 3 in the box set. The notable exception is that this bonus disc does include the Glyn Johns 1970 Mix of ‘Across The Universe’ from CD 5 in the box (the Let It Be EP). Glyn’s 1969 Mix of the ‘Get Back LP’ is exclusive to the CD and vinyl box sets and is artworked up just as the bootlegs were, with the Please Please Me cover homage, featuring the four Beatles posing on EMI’s Manchester Square stairwell, now seven years older! This image was unused at the time but became the cover to the 1967-1970 compilation issued in 1973.
The two-CD edition of Let It Be offers a 14-track ‘Outtakes Highlights’ disc.
There is no 2LP vinyl edition, just a single LP version of Let It Be with Giles Martin and Sam Okell’s new stereo remix. To enjoy any bonus material, vinyl fans have one choice: The five-record super deluxe.
Talking of the remix, all the new Let It Be releases feature the new stereo mix of the album as guided by the original “reproduced for disc” version by Phil Spector and sourced directly from the original session and rooftop performance eight-track tapes. The 5.1 surround DTS and Dolby Atmos mixes are guided by the same original Phil Spector version of the album.
Let It Be will be reissued on 15 October 2021. The Beatles: Get Back book will be released on the same day and Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary will premiere on Disney+ in November.
This November Sony’s Legacy Recordings will release The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 a new Billy Joel box set that brings together his studio long-players from the 1970s and a couple of live albums.
The 9LP box features the albums Cold Spring Harbor (1971), Piano Man (1973), Streetlife Serenade (1974), Turnstiles (1976), The Stranger (1977) and 52nd Street (1978).
The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 is a 9LP Billy Joel box set (click image to enlarge)
The 1981 live album Songs in the Attic is also included, as is a previously unreleased live albumLive at the Great American Music Hall which will only be available in the box set and won’t be issued digitally. This is a 2LP set which is why the box is a 9LP collection.
The box includes a 50+ page booklet that highlights Joel’s early career through photos, quotes, and an essay. All titles have been “sourced from the original album tapes and prepared by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound”.
The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 is released on 5 November 2021.
Paul Weller‘s Days of Speed reissue has been officially confirmed and will be issued alongside a vinyl re-release of Paul’s sixth studio album Illumination.
Both album were originally released, in very low numbers, on the Independiente label. The live acoustic Days of Speed is from 2001 and Illumination dates from 2002. The latter was at the time his second solo number one album (after Stanley Road) and features the singles ‘It’s Written in the Stars’ and ‘Leafy Mysteries’ and features guest performances from Carleen Anderson, Jocelyn Brown, Kelly Jones and Noel Gallagher.
Illumination was originally issued in 2002. The bespoke packaging is recreated for the reissue (click image to enlarge).
These 2021 reissues recreate the original packaging. So Days of Speed has a gatefold jacket, printed inner sleeves and a one-page insert. Illumination has a gatefold jacket, printed inner sleeve and a 16-page booklet and most importantly has the rounded corners of the original for both outer and inner sleeves. Both albums were cut at London’s Metropolis Studios.
Days of Speed and Illumination will be released on 15 October 2021
The SDE Now Yearbook 83 competition is over and we have randomly selected five winners from the pool of entries for CD and vinyl.
Winners will be contacted separately via email, but here are the SDE users who are the lucky winners. Congratulations!
3LP coloured vinyl winners (SDE user display name):
spaced-out
Mark Gibson
fady
chrissquires
stphnmrrs
3CD deluxe edition winners (SDE user display name):
Chuck
Roland
noparlez
gwynogue
Marshall
Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter and if you aren’t a winner then better luck next time. In the next SDE giveaway one SDE reader will win the PrinceWelcome 2 America deluxe set! Stay tuned.
The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died at the age of 80, his publicist has confirmed. Watts was recently forced to pull out of the band’s upcoming tour of America and this news will be a devastating blow to his bandmates.
Watt’s London publicist Bernard Doherty confirmed the news in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.
“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also, as a member of The Rolling Stones, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.
“We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.’’
R.E.M.‘s 1996 album New Adventures In Hi-Fi will be reissued for its 25th anniversary in October across three physical formats.
This was the band’s final album with drummer Bill Berry and was mostly written and recorded on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour. Bassist Mike Mills recalls: “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road. The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”
The album was very successful, topping the charts in the UK, and many other countries, and peaked at number two in the USA. It’s home to some wonderful singles and songs such as ‘E-Bow The Letter’ (with Patti Smith), ‘Electrolite’, ‘Bittersweet Me’ and ‘How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us’.
The deluxe reissue is comprised of two CDs and a blu-ray. The album is of course remastered and the second CD offers 13 B-sides and rarities. The blu-ray offers hi-res stereo and 5.1 surround mixes. The latter is the same Elliot Scheiner mix found on the DVD-A issued in 2005). The blu-ray is also home to 64 mins of previously unreleased outdoor projection films (shown on buildings across five cities in 1996 to promote the album’s original release), a previously unreleased EPK (Electronic Press Kit) and five ‘HD-restored’ videos. The deluxe edition comes in a 52-page hardcover book with photos and new sleeve notes from Mark Blackwell and reflections from all four original band members, as well as from Patti Smith and producer Scott Litt.
The 2CD+blu-ray deluxe edition of New Adventures In Hi-Fi
A two-CD edition featuring the first two discs in the deluxe edition will also be available and comes with an exclusive 24” x 24” poster and four postcards.
A 2LP vinyl version of New Adventures In Hi-Fi, withlacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, will also be available on black vinyl, with a limited edition pressing on clear/black marbled vinyl available only via the R.E.M. store (this is limited to 1000 units).
New Adventures In Hi-Fi will be released on 29 October 2021, via Craft Recordings
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New Adventures in Hi-Fi - 2CD+blu-ray deluxe edition
Capitol Records/Universal Music explore The Beach Boys‘ 1969-1971 period with a new archive release called Feel Flows – The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971. Good luck snagging the five-CD set which is proving elusive, thanks to what appears to be a minuscule number produced and made available for distribution. Hey, it’s ONLY The Beach Boys after all…
For Stephen Duffy, The Hawks came between Duran Duran and TinTin. This Birmingham five-piece burned brightly for a very short period although released hardly any music. In 2019 Duffy met band guitarist Dave Kusworth and promised to issue the songs that had been languishing in his archive for nigh on 40 years. Kusworth sadly didn’t live to see this day, but the album that never was is finally remastered and issued in Kusworth’s memory.
Neil Youngkicks off his long-promised Official Bootleg Series with Carnegie Hall 1970. This is a recording of the early show on 4 December 1970, which unlike the later show, has evaded bootleggers over the years.
The show was recorded on analogue multi-track and therefore could be professionally mixed for this release (by Neil Young and Niko Bolas).
It features a fabulous, and generous, setlist with stripped-down versions of songs like ‘Down By the River’, ‘Helpless’, ‘Sugar Mountain’ plus the title track from the at the time only-just-issued After the Goldrush. ‘Bad Fog of Loneliness’, ‘Old Man” and “See the Sky About to Rain” hadn’t been released at all, at the time of this concert.
Carnegie Hall 1970 is released as a 2CD set, or double vinyl, and we can look forward to five further volumes in the Official Bootleg Series which are planned for 2022.
Carnegie Hall 1970 will be released on 1 October 2021.
Five physical formats including mammoth 7LP vinyl box
This October, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will follow-up 2005’s B-Sides & Rarities with another collection, B-Sides and Rarities Part II. Compiled by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, this new compilation features 27 rare and unreleased tracks from 2006-2020, including the first recordings of ‘Skeleton Tree’, ‘Girl In Amber’ and ‘Bright Horses’.
There are various editions of this new collection, including a 2LP vinyl edition, deluxe two-CD set (with enhanced ‘rigid slipcase’ packaging featuring exclusive photographs and sleeve notes by Sean O’Hagan) and a cheaper digi-pack of the same two-CD set.
At the risk of confusing you, B-Sides & RaritiesPart I is also being reissued. Since this was (and remains) a triple-CD set, ‘Part I’ of B-sides & Rarities consists of Volumes I, II and III. In total, this reissue of the 2005 set offers 56 tracks.
I always liked the original B-Sides & Rarities more than any of our other albums.It’s the only one I’d listen to willingly. It seems more relaxed, even a bit nonsensical in places, but with some beautiful songs throughout. There is something, too, about the smallness of certain songs that is closer to their original spirit.
Nick Cave
And there’s more! The original Part I was never issued on vinyl, so to correct this the label have put together a mammoth 7LP vinyl box set that brings together B-Sides & Rarities Part I and II. This offers 83 tracks (the original 56 and then new 27).
B-Sides & Rarities Part II, the reissue of B-Sides & Rarities Part I and the 7LP vinyl set that brings both together are all released on 22 October 2021.
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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
B-sides and rarities parts I and II - 7LP vinyl box set
Track listing for 7LP vinyl box. 83 tracks. Click image to enlarge, and again to enlarge further!B-Sides & Rarities Part II – 2CD set track listing with 27 tracks (click image to enlarge)B-Sides & Rarities Vol I is reissued as a 3CD set. Features 56 tracks. Click image to enlarge.
Shakespears Sisters debut album Sacred Heart is now available as a standalone two-CD deluxe edition and a pink vinyl pressing.
The 1989 album was initially included in the now out-of-print Our History box as a three-CD set and on black vinyl. If you missed out, or just didn’t fancy that big box, then now is your chance to obtain either the CD set (albeit reduced to two discs) and/or the now-coloured vinyl version, on their own.
Sacred Heart is reissued on pink vinyl and as a two-CD deluxe set
The track listing for the double-CD package is the same as the first two discs in the triple-CD set. The album has been remastered from original analogue tapes and the artwork has been restored and reproduced by original designer Lawrence Stevens.
This Sacred Heart reissue is out NOW although it’s only available via the band’s official store (for the time being).
The Rolling Stones‘ 1981 album Tattoo You will be reissued in October across six physical formats including a five-disc super deluxe edition.
The original album was put together mostly from studio outtakes from the 1970s and features well known singles such as Waiting On A Friend and the transatlantic top ten hit Start Me Up.
The album has been remastered (by Stephen Marcussen) and selected formats offer Lost & Found: Rarities a nine-track collection of previously unreleased songs from the period of the album’s original release, newly completed with additional vocals and guitar by the band. One of these tracks is called ‘Living In The Heart Of Love’ which you can listen to below.
Living In The Heart Of Love features on ‘Lost & Found: Rarities’
This bonus disc of rarites comes with the two-CD deluxe, and the 4CD+vinyl LP super deluxe edition. The latter also includes two additional CDs of live performance with Still Life – Wembley Stadium 1982, a memento of the band’s London show in June that year from the Tattoo You tour. The vinyl record in the super deluxe is a picture disc.
The Tattoo You super deluxe edition (click image to enlarge)
The box set features a special lenticular sleeve and comes with a 124-page book featuring over 200 rare photos from the recording sessions and world tour and includes interviews with producer Chris Kimsey & photographer Hubert Kretzscmar.
There are no less than three vinyl versions of the Tattoo You reissue: A single LP vinyl remaster, a 2LP vinyl deluxe with the nine bonus tracks and a 5LP vinyl box set which includes the album, bonus tracks and the Wembley gig. Note: the vinyl box also includes the 124-page book and lenticular artwork, just like the CD super deluxe!
When the Manic Street Preachers announced their new album The Ultra Vivid Lament, in May, there were some signed options available direct from the band’s store. They sold out reasonably quickly, but now Amazon in the UK are offering the two-CD deluxe edition of the new album with a signed insert.
One imagines the record label are keen to build up sales in the pre-order period in the hope of giving the band their first number one album in the UK since 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. They’ve certainly come frustratingly close in recent years, with four of the last eight records peaking at number two.
The Ultra Vivid Lament two-CD deluxe with signed insert
Sony’s ambitions are your gain, since Manics’ deluxe sets are always great, with hardcover book packaging and a disc of demos and of course getting a signed copy at no premium (even if it is an insert and not on the front cover) is a no-brainer. Please note, this offer is not available everywhere, although it does appear to be orderable from the USA!
The Ultra Vivid Lament is released on 3 September 2021.
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The Ultra Vivid Lament (Deluxe Edition 2CD - with Signed Insert) (Amazon Exclusive)
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The Ultra Vivid Lament - Amazon exclusive yellow vinyl
The Specials will release a new album next month called Protest Songs 1924-2012, and fans can secure an exclusive signed copy of the vinyl via Amazon in the UK. (now sold out).
The new album follows the band’s chart topping Encore from 2019 and features “twelve singular takes on specially chosen protest songs” across an almost 90-year span.
‘Freedom Highway’ from the new album
There is a deluxe CD edition, although it doesn’t have any bonus tracks but comes in a gatefold card presentation rather than the standard CD’s jewel case. Rough Trade in the UK are also offering a yellow vinyl edition.
Protest Songs 1924-2012 is out on 1 October 2021 (was 24 September).
Garbage will reissue a 20th anniversary edition of their third studio album, Beautiful Garbage, in October.
The album saw a slight departure for the band in terms of their sound and delivered four hit singles – ‘Androgny’, ‘Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)’, ‘Breaking Up The Gir’l and ‘Shut Your Mouth’. None of them got higher than number 20 in the UK singles chart (Version 2.0 had delivered three top ten hits in Britain).
The three-CD edition of Beautiful Garbage offers 35 bonus tracks (click image to enlarge)
The good news is that the band are reissuing the album as a three-CD deluxe edition (in a clamshell box) with a much more satisfying collection of bonus material when compared to the last two anniversary editions. The album itself is remastered and CD 2 offers B-sides and alternate versions with six previously unreleased selections. CD 3 is concerned with remixes and also features a couple of previously unreleased mixes.
The Rough Mix of ‘Androgny’, as featured on CD 2 of the three-CD set
There will be album-only 2LP sets, one as black vinyl and one as white vinyl. The deluxe box set edition, similar to before, features a 3LP set, with the bonus vinyl record featuring 10 B-sides. In addition there’s a selection of replica memorabilia.
Beautiful Garbage will be reissued on 5 November 2021 (was 1 October). This is also a good time to tell you that the 2LP pink vinyl reissue of Garbage’s debut has now been confirmed for National Album Day on 21 October (the black vinyl is out this Friday).
Madonna and Warner Music Group have announced a career-spanning partnership that will see a “multi-year catalog series” to launch next year which also happens to be the 40th anniversary of Madonna’s first single, ‘Everybody’.
The deal encompasses Madonna’s entire Sire/Maverick/Warner catalog and also includes her three most recent studio albums, MDNA, Rebel Heart, and Madame X, which will join the Warner catalog in 2025. All in all, the newly inked agreement includes 17 studio albums plus singles, soundtrack recordings, live albums, and compilations.
Of most interest to SDE readers is the fact that Madonna will “personally curate” (cue slight concern) expansive deluxe editions for many of her albums, as well as “introduce unique releases for special events” (e.g. Record Store Day) and more. These series of releases will be overseen by Warner Music’s catalog team, led by Kevin Gore, President of Global Catalog, Recorded Music, with the first release to be announced soon.
Madonna is one of a handful of major recording artists who has so far shunned physical expanded deluxe reissues, but all that is now set to change thanks to this new agreement.
Which of Madonna’s core studio albums should Madge and Warners tackle first? Offer your feedback via the poll below!
