Saturday Deluxe / 7 May 2016

Pink Floyd vinyl

It was not too much of a surprise that Pink Floyd would eventually get around to reissuing their back catalogue on vinyl…

Whilst things haven’t exactly been quiet on the Floyd front (2014 brought a Division Bell box set and ‘new’ album The Endless River) it feels like ages since those infamous Immersion box sets (and the Discovery box) emerged, back in 2011.

A lot has changed; Floyd find themselves part of the Warner Music Group (at least in the UK/Europe) and there is also a new entity called Pink Floyd Records. The early albums which are issued next month will be very welcome, but you do wonder what audio improvements will be delivered when they re-reissue The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, which, after all, were remastered and reissued on vinyl as part of the archival programme five years ago.

It is also mildly surprising that band and label have not agreed to issue an all-bells-and-whistles VINYL BOX, with a book, as Universal have so successfully done with The Beatles and Queen. I’m sure if they were planning that it would have been announced yesterday, so it looks like we will just get all the records issued individually, in separate batches.

There is of course some unfinished business, namely a 5.1 mix of The Wall that was notable by its absence from the Immersion box. I keep hearing positive things about this but James Guthrie, who is the only man Roger Waters would choose for that particular task, has only got so much time on his hands and it seems he has been busy preparing the audio for these vinyl reissues.

ChartWatch

Prince didn’t quite get to number one on the official album chart last week, but The Very Best Of Prince did grab the top spot yesterday on a busy physical albums chart. Ultimate Prince is way down at number 58 which can only be a reflection of its availability in shops and particularly supermarkets. ‘Hits’ sets and Purple Rain are one thing, but it will be interesting to see where HitnRun Phase Two – Prince’s last ‘proper’ studio album – debuts next week.

Billy Ocean‘s Here You Are – The Best Of, which we previewed a few weeks back, does really well, shooting in at number two, right behind Prince. The bundling-a-hits-disc-with-the-new-album strategy has clearly worked a treat.

The Bad Company two-CD 1977 • 1979 live set performs creditably debuting at number 38, while Universal have got to be pleased with the Cream Classic Album Selection five-CD set slotting in only two places behind at number 40. We flatter ourselves that SDE highlighting Amazon UK’s very cheap price may well have given the package a little helping hand up the charts.