Saturday Deluxe / 10 February 2024

Peter Gabriel delays

The release date of Peter Gabriel’s i/o box set has been pushed back. Originally scheduled for next month, it’s now gone back to 26 April (same day that the Pet Shop Boys album comes out).

Although it definitely looks good, this box simply gathers together all the formats that have been made available separately: 2CDs, four vinyl LPs and a blu-ray. It does include a casebound book with expanded sleeve notes and a poster, but apart from enjoying the object, it’s hard to get too excited. PG has shared some photos of the actual box (see above).

It’s still a great record though and you can read the SDE review here!

Wham!

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Wham! SDE-exclusive blu-rays and to everyone who has so far pre-ordered. They were a year in the making and obviously I’m thrilled to be able to deliver these exclusive products to the marketplace, especially an album as iconic as Make It Big!

I was always sad that ‘Careless Whisper’ wasn’t part of the Echoes From The Edge of Heaven campaign, so it’s fantastic (pun intended) to have both the album/12-inch version and the single version in Atmos on the Make It Big blu-ray. Including the Wexler Mix of ‘Careless Whisper’ would have been the icing on the cake, but sadly George did not have a high opinion of that version (as made clear in the recent Wham! Netflix documentary) so you can guess why it hasn’t made an appearance!

But putting that to one side, I’ve done my best to bring together all the appropriate bonus material including a smattering of rarities, and together the blu-rays come very close to offering a complete discography of 1983-1986. I’d love to do the same for George Michael’s solo albums. No promises of course, but if these do well that obviously increases the chances, so if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to place your order via the SDE shop!