Saturday Deluxe / 24 October 2015

Saturday Deluxe is the regular feature where SDE catches up on box set & reissue news. This week: a-ha, ChartWatch, and Roger Waters…

A-ha / Stay On These Roads deluxe: ‘memento’ booklet

If you pre-ordered the a-ha deluxe editions (released yesterday) you may have noticed something strange about the booklet in the Stay On These Roads two-disc set. The notes about the album by Kieron Tyler start at the back and work their way to the front!

It’s actually not strictly back-to-front because the notes ‘end’ in the middle and the first pages has some paragraphs completely disconnected from everything else. Meanwhile track listings and credits are slap bang in the centre. It’s what British writer and broadcaster It’s Alright On The Night‘s Denis Norden (with clipboard in hand) would call a ‘cock up’. Rhino have confirmed to this blog that they will be reprinted, but since many of these must have already been despatched, I’ll let you know when there are some details about how to go about claiming a reprinted and corrected booklet.

While on the subject of the a-ha reissues, I can confirm that the DVD included with East of the Sun West of the Moon (Live in South America) is NTSC, all region.

Read more about the a-ha deluxe reissues.

SDE ChartWatch

Great showing for the former Mr Charlotte Rampling, – Jean-Michel Jarre – this week as his collaborative Electronica / 1 – The Time Machine (so good they named it twice?) storms into the top ten of the UK physical chart, settling at number seven. In fact it’s number eight in the ‘proper’ album chart which is even more impressive.

The Kinks‘ hits collection Sunny Afternoon also performs creditably, stalling just one place short of the top ten. This success was helped no doubt by a wave of publicity and celebrity tweeting around the West End Musical of the same name, which celebrated its first birthday this week. I was invited to the celebrations and can confirm that it’s a fantastic show and well worth try to get to see (honest, guv).

Paul Simon‘s The Ultimate Collection still continues defy expectations, rising up to no. 22 after more than half a year on the chart, and I don’t think it’s going to stop there with the run-up to Christmas. This proves two things. You can’t keep a good songwriter down and you can never underestimate the public’s desire for a ‘greatest hits’.

Another Sony release, John Cooper Clarke‘s Anthologia is in at 55. The 3CD+DVD deluxe is a fine looking ‘book’ package and stay tuned for some photos soon on SDE.

Despite their appearance on Jools Holland on Tuesday, Duran Duran‘s Paper Gods has finally blown out of the top 100 and sad to report that a-ha‘s Cast in Steel has suffered the same fate. a-ha at least still have some presence thanks to the persistence of the Definitive Singles Collection which is hanging on at no. 90.

Reaction to Roger Waters super deluxe

After my less than complimentary post about Roger Waters newly announced The Wall super deluxe edition box set, the reaction from SDE readers was almost unanimously in agreement. There are almost 100 comments already, with some of you wondering if the $500 box was “an ironic statement on the nature of consumerism” and others rightly shocked that the “box set is not even numbered and signed“. Alan Fenwick pointed out that British fans get an even worse deal: “total price for UK customers including shipping, vat, customs costs etc…… just under £500″. Confirmation that Roger is literally making a ‘monkey’ out of fans in Blighty (apologies go to international SDE readers for the cockney rhyming slang gag).

Read more about Roger Waters / The Wall super deluxe edition.