Saturday Deluxe / 4 March 2017

A Handsome evening at the Union Chapel

I’m a relatively recent convert to the ‘alt country’ group The Handsome Family, so I was very pleased to get the opportunity to see them this week as they played London’s Union Chapel as part of their UK tour (in support of their recent album Unseen).

I picked up a compilation called Strange Country from a charity shop a couple of years ago and which featured their brilliant song So Much Wine. This lead to me exploring more of their output.

Anyway, I like the band even more having seen the live show. A fantastic and relaxed experience. Wonderful songs and great banter between husband and wife Brett and Rennie Sparks. You know you’re watching a quality band when you don’t know half the output but still REALLY enjoy it. If you watched the first series of True Detective (aka ‘the good series’) you’ll know their song Far From Any Road, since it was used over the opening credits.

The new album is great, and the green vinyl edition is still available.

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The Handsome Family

unseen green vinyl

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   30.85 Order Amazon de   35.4 Order Amazon usa   37.78 Order Amazon fr   38.08 Order Amazon it   39.5 Order Amazon es   35.59 Order Amazon ca   56.32 Order JPC de   27.99 Order

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Purple Rain picture disc?

We all know by now that that Prince‘s Purple Rain will be reissued in June. That was confirmed by Warner Bros Music a few weeks back. One would have thought that an official announcement detailing the contents is due in the next 4-6 weeks, but while we wait for that, a Purple Rain limited edition vinyl picture disc surfaced on a few retailers this week, supposedly to be issued in April. On the Amazon UK this product quickly became ‘currently unavailable’ and was then pulled completely but it’s still order able elsewhere, such as on JPC in Germany or Amazon in Italy.

Perhaps a picture disc was always part of the plans for the June reissue and this has accidentally come to light now. Alternatively, it could be planned as a Record Store Day release (although SDE is expecting various Prince 12-inches to be issued for RSD, not this). Should stress that this is all speculation at this stage, although retailers don’t invent this stuff for the fun of it…

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Prince and the Revolution

Purple Rain [VINYL]

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   31.73 Order Amazon de   37.72 Order Amazon usa   22.99 Order Amazon fr   41.67 Order Amazon it   43.6 Order Amazon es   48.1 Order Amazon ca   30.88 Order JPC de   39.99 Order FNAC fr   38.54 Pre-Order

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Tears for Fears to tour with Hall and Oates

Over two years since their last reissue (Songs From The Big Chair) and a whopping 12 years since their only studio album of the new millennium (Everybody Loves A Happy Ending) Tears For Fears continue to tour sporadically.  They already have one UK summer date in Hyde Park supporting The Killers in the diary (the first time they’ve played in London since 2005), but have now just announced a North American tour with Hall and Oates. The band will play 29 dates, kicking off in Tulsa on 4 May and complete the tour on 28 July in Los Angeles. There’s a two week gap in the middle to allow for a break and getting over to England for Hyde Park!

We’re thrilled to be going out on the road with Daryl Hall & John Oates this summer,” said Tears For Fears. “We’ve been longtime fans of the band so it’ll be fun to reconnect and also to see our fans throughout the U.S.”

Although the US dates are just two months away, fans will be hoping that Tears For Fears will finally issue their new studio record which they’ve been working on for three or four years. They signed a deal with Warners a while back, but there’s been no mention of it and the band haven’t played any unreleased material at any of their live shows in the last three or four years.