Saturday Deluxe / 28 Nov 2015

As we enter December next week, you’d be forgiven for thinking all the new releases in terms of box sets and reissues must be done and dusted. Not so. In fact there’s lots of great music coming out on 4 December including highly anticipated super deluxe sets from Bruce Springsteen (The Ties That Bind: The River Collection) and Fleetwood Mac (Tusk).

Fans of eighties pop can enjoy Simple Minds’ second super deluxe of the year (Once Upon A Time) while Edsel put out a 31-disc celebration of the Stock Aitken Waterman years with the Say I’m Your Number One box. On top of that there is The Allman Brothers Band‘s Idlewild South (with 5.1 surround), Status Quo reissues and an impressive exploration of Roy Orbison‘s MGM Years.

A more detailed overview of the new releases will be published this Monday.

Peter Gabriel

A reminder that in two days, the winner of the Peter Gabriel competition will be announced. So this is the last reminder to enter! You might win the fabulous 12LP 45RPM vinyl bundle.

Enter the Peter Gabriel competition.

SDE ChartWatch

The brand new UK charts were announced yesterday. SDE takes a look at the movers and shakers with regards to reissues and box sets.

Adele is number one in the UK! Anyone surprised? Thought not. Last week I said “Adele will probably outsell the whole of the top 40 combined”. Well I was wrong, she outsold the next 86 albums combined (that’s according to the Official Charts Company). In total she sold 800,307 copies, 548,000 of those were physical sales.

Elvis may have been knocked off the top spot but he is still number two on physical sales in the UK, with the If I Can Dream album where his vocals have been fused with a Royal Philharmonic Orchestra backing.

I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention that I’m in New York at the moment and I’ve discovered that the this record has a much cooler cover over here. The moody black and white shot of The King is infinitely better than the the slightly naff photoshopped affair in Europe. Almost makes me want to buy it…

Accept No Substitute – The Definitive Status Quo is a new entry at number 19 on the physical chart, and Queen‘s new Night at the Odeon multi-format extravaganza breaks into the top 40 with a number 35 placing. Roger Waters-plays-Pink-Floyd (The Wall live) enters the chart at 47. Speaking of which, I have some of these two give away next week in another SDE competition, so stay tuned.

Duran Duran‘s Paper Gods is back in the chart. Hooray! It’s number 70 on physical sales in the UK, so it’s only what Adele sells when she sneezes, but even so, the only way is up, and all that!

I think this ‘success’ is down to a high profile appearance on UK TV’s The Graham Norton Show, which was broadcast on Friday 21st November. The band played what Norton described as their ‘new single’ What Are The Chances. Putting to one side the fact that a) I’m not sure it is their new single, and b) what difference does it make what the single is anyway?, it’s a very safe choice. I’d love to have seen them perform something with a bit of an ‘edge’ to it, specifically Only In Dreams. Oh well. The band have a habit of getting it wrong when it comes to singles, as any longtime fan will know. They stopped ‘The Wedding Album’ momentum in its tracks by releasing Too Much Information (ahead of None of the Above) and I’m still annoyed with them for not releasing Nice as a ‘proper’ third single from Astronaut.