Ian Hunter / Stranded In Reality: career-spanning 30-disc box set

Track down Stranded In Reality, a mahoosive 30-disc anthology box set celebrating the solo career of British rock legend and Mott the Hoople icon Ian Hunter…

Strictly limited to 2,500 copies worldwide and available to buy exclusively through propermusic.com, the set has been compiled and curated by Ian Hunter and his biographer Campbell Devine. Covering the years 1975 to 2015, it comprises over 400 rock ‘n’ roll tracks, with 17 original albums spread across 19 CDs, nine ‘new’ discs of rare and unreleased tracks plus two DVDs.

The panoply of solo albums include expanded Anniversary Editions of Ian Hunter, All-American Alien Boy, You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic and Welcome to the Club, plus bonus track discs of Short Back n’ Sides, The Artful Dodger and When I’m President.

The other nine CDs offer many unheard and ‘lost’ songs from Hunter’s archive:

• Tilting the Mirror (rarities – two-CD)
• If You Wait Long Enough for Anything, You Can Get It On Sale (Live 1979-81 – two-CD)
• Bag of Tricks (Live Volumes 1, 2 and 3)
• Acoustic Shadows (The 2008 Acoustic Tour)
• Experiments (Unreleased Trax)

Highlights include San Diego Freeway, Nobody’s Perfect and Salvation as well as rarely performed live versions of Wild East, While You Were Looking At Me, The Outsider and a 2008 acoustic concert.

The worldwide-compatible two-DVD package that completes the set is entitled It Never Happened and features promo, concert and archive material, most of which has not been issued commercially on DVD before. It includes a TV film from the 1979 tour, live in Toronto

This weighty collection is presented in an LP-size box with specially commissioned Escher-esque cover artwork and various goodies to complement the music. There’s an 88-page hardback book with a comprehensive essay on Hunter, rare memorabilia and Ian Hunter ‘track by track’ for every song; an Alien Boy lithograph personally signed by Hunter; a reproduction Shades newspaper featuring classic old press features; and original and new album artwork in replica card sleeves.

Those wary of diving straight into such a pricey pre-order purchase, can first dip into seven-track CD Sampling In Reality, which contains five tracks from the forthcoming limited edition set plus two songs unique to the sampler (all songs on here are previously unreleased bar Your Eyes from Shrunken Heads from the Shrunken Heads EP).

Also look out for Hunter’s new studio album with his Rant Band, Fingers Crossed, scheduled for release a couple of weeks after Stranded In Reality. Among the self-penned ten new tracks is Dandy, his tribute to the David Bowie who produced and provided the hit title track for Mott the Hoople’s 1972 album All The Young Dudes.

And if all the above is not enough Hunter for you, fans in the UK, Sweden and Norway can look forward to catching him live on tour this November.

Stranded In Reality is released on 2 September 2016.

All pre-orders and full track listing over at ProperMusic.com.