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.
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[…] record. Also, I’m sure the issues with the Stay On These Roads booklet didn’t help (see last week’s Saturday Deluxe for more) because some people were complaining of it being hard to get hold […]
My local HMV has finally got one copy each of East of the Sun, and Memorial Beach…but tellingly, no Stay on These Roads. Which suggests they might not get it until the corrected copies are shipped, so in a way that would be better, no trying to get booklets sent through the post that turn up battered.
I don’t understand why record companies always have to rush things out instead checking for mistakes thoroughly before releasing them.
Belinda Carlisle Singles Box, In my wildest dreams (an “youtube”-rip instead of the real master)
Bananarama Singles Box, Nathan Jones CD track 14 @ 1:15 a jump
Nick Kamen CD1-14 @ 4:58 a jump
Etc etc.
Not sure they ‘rush’ things exactly. In particular, when you are talking about 20-30CD box set with 200+ tracks it’s hard to achieve absolute perfect, although obviously people do aim for that.
It doesn’t matter how many CD’s in a box. They all should be absolutely perfect before manufacturing & releasing them. Back in the days I had never heard about any mistakes. Some mislabelling of mix names/titles or track order/run down were acceptible back then. But actual flaw in the track itself nowadays is not.
I would imagine that youtube-rip wasn’t a mistake and was put on there deliberately and they would be hoping that nobody noticed it more fool them.
I was surprised not to see the A-Ha remasters in HMV on Friday, but the above probably explains why. Thanks.
The recent All About Eve remasters uses the wrong (i.e. the single version, not the album version) version of ‘Every Angel’ on disc 1, which is annoying (especially as the single version is on disc 2). I don’t know whether Universal are doing anything about that.
The A-Ha remasters weren’t stocked in HMV in the first place and it wasn’t anything to do with the booklet being mispressed though they have just suddenly appeared on their website today saying that they will be back in stock within a week.
if a *certain* MR S had been over-seeing the WHOLE of the aha projects
back-to-front booklets would NOT have happened ;)
#JustSayin
;)
Amazon should just send out replacement booklets to all who pre-ordered the SOTR Deluxe Edition!
What about the people who never got it from Amazon ???
Yes, it makes more sense for Warners to just send them to people direct I think. This problem was only discovered earlier this week, so people are going to have to be a little bit patient.
Thanks for keeping us updated on the a-ha situation! Mine has already dispatched from the UK and I’m pretty sure the booklet for SOTR will be screwed up based on other reports.
Don’t mention Amazon to me. I had all 3 a-ha reissues on order. 2 were only sent for dispatch 3.20 Friday afternoon, (I got these pushed through my door 17.50 today!). Stay On These Roads. One minute it was with the other 2 cds, then it was separated, then back, and then separated. Then 7, yes 7 times, it went preparing to dispatch, to nothing, to preparing to dispatch. It was only dispatched at 22.19 this evening. I think it was doing the hokey cokey. I checked the listing on Amazon, and it was saying in stock. I just about to press the cancel button and take my chances of getting it a HMV, but my local HMV store had not taken delivery of the a-ha cds. Fingers crossed I get it. Anyone else had any trouble with Amazon, or is it, just my bad luck again.
The problem with Stay On These Roads might be to do with Warners trying to sort out replacements with correct booklets..
I had the same saga with Amazon so much for receiving items on day of release. Ended up getting separate deliveries on saturday for ‘roads’ and ‘memorial beach’. Being in Birmingham for the day i decided to try out hmv for the third release but no sign of any of them in store. They also never listed them on their website.
Excellent releases though the front cover of ‘roads’ looks a lot less clear and pristine than my 25 year plus original version (purchased in the fine CD department of boots back when they sold music.) Will await developments on the booklet debacle however….
I just received my 3 Deluxes albums of A-ha and the first thing I noticed was about the booklet! Seems like someone was drunk when it came to quality control , before printing… As part of it, I also noticed lots of missing pieces in these reissues. If most 7″ Versions are in the “25” compilation” (including Cold as stone “remix” and Touchy “Dj Edit” – Only exception is for the Promo Edit of ‘Shapes that go together’), we still miss some instrumentals (backed of 45s for ‘Living daylights’, ‘Angel in the snow’, ‘Shapes that go together’, the very rare ‘You are the one “Justin Strauss Dub Mix” ‘), 2 mixes of “The blood that moves the body ’92” (Gun mix and Second Gun Around Mix), and 5 live from ‘Dark Is The Night’ (‘I’ve Been Losing You/Crywolf’) and from ‘Angel’ singles (‘The sun always shines on TV 4’53, I Call Your name 4’42, Early Morning 3’40, Scounderl Days 4’46) …
I’ve got the Rumours 45rpm mastered by Hoffman and Gray pressed at Pallas and it is sublime. Beware the is also another 45rpm version which is not as good. I know because I bought that one first. Anyway turned out to be a bit of a collectors item as side A has 6 tracks on it and plays at 33rpm. All the other sides play at 45rpm!
Mmmm.. I have reservations on Tusk as far as the SDE goes as I don’t like to have to buy vinyl and that is why I never bought the SDE of Rumours. Also at least with Rumours if you have both the two CD and three CD sets you actually have all the CD content of the SDE. Shame that a truncated set of live Tusk era tracks aren’t on the three disc version. I am sure vinyl lovers will be just as annoyed at the mix of formats as well. Will probably go for the three disc version, but I must say the previous two disc set is sublime and I probably play the second disc more often than the original album so the new one has a lot to live up to!
The Jean Michel Jarre super deluxe now looks like a really modest set after seeing the Roger Waters set!
I also saw the Tusk deluxe on the Spin CDs newsletter. Looks like a well put together package. I remember the original vinyl had extra special packaging, but someone ‘borrowed’ my copy about twenty years ago, and I haven’t seen it since.
Hi Paul just a heads up on the Fleetwood Mac Tusk Super Deluxe edition if you didn’t know.
Quality control is frankly appalling based on the amount of audio and packaging issues music fans have to endure, especially when they have the word ‘Deluxe’ in the title.
Deluxe seems sarcastic in many instances.