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Behind-the-Scenes: Paul Young / Tomb of Memories: The CBS Years

By Paul Sinclair

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116

FIRST PICTURES: Paul Young / Tomb of Memories: The CBS Years 1982-1994

The initial idea for Tomb of Memories: The CBS Years 1982-1994 came in 2013. I had compiled a two-CD set called Remixes and Rarities for the Cherry Pop label and in June of that year Paul Young was dropping in to BBC Broadcasting house in London to do some pre-release promotion.

I had arranged to meet Paul there to get a few copies of the set signed (to give away to SDE readers) and over lunch we got chatting about his second album The Secret of Association. He told me about a song called Find One Voice which had been recorded and mixed for the album but removed at the last minute, since CBS’s Muff Winwood didn’t think it worked for the long-player. Surprisingly, the song was never even selected as a B-side or extra track in that era, so it had remained unheard in the archive for almost 30 years. Later, I got in touch with Paul’s old producer Laurie Latham who I had interviewed for Remixes and Rarities to see if he had a copy of the song that I could listen to. Unfortunately, all he had was an old acetate that was in terrible condition (Paul had told me he just had it on a tape in his car!).

So this got me thinking, what else is in the archive that we don’t know about? I waited six months or so before contacting Sony, because I wanted to see how the Remixes and Rarities compilation would sell for Cherry Red, before pitching the idea of doing a Paul Young project to the major label. It turned out to be a bestseller which stoked my confidence in terms of doing something further.

So it was February of 2014 when I put the idea of doing something to Sony. They were interested enough to let me have a look at the archive listing which catalogued every single piece of audio that Paul had recorded during his long career with the label. What I discovered, was that not only was Find One Voice in the archive but so too was what looked like an early sequencing of the The Secret of Association album. Find One Voice was the first track and there was no sign of either Bite The Hand That Feeds or future US number one, Every Time You Go Away! Also, many familiar tracks, such as Tomb of Memories and Everything Must Change, were different mixes and had different running times to what was eventually released on the album (some of these have ended up on the new set).

secret

The Secret of Association early track listing:

  • Find One Voice
  • I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down
  • Tomb of Memories
  • Standing on The Edge
  • I Was In Chains
  • Hot Fun
  • Soldiers Things
  • One Step Forward
  • This Means Anything
  • Everything Must Change

The original idea was to create new deluxe of The Secret of Association that had the album – as released – and B-sides and single remixes on disc one, the unreleased version of the album plus selected demos from the archive as disc two and then extended mixes on disc three. Sony liked this, but countered with something more exciting; creating a four CD ‘bookset’ that spanned Paul’s entire career and took in rarities and unreleased material. Let’s do it!

The first task was to compile at list of everything to transfer from the original tapes to digital, for listening/reviewing purposes. I spent quite a few weeks going through the archive reports with a fine tooth comb and highlighting anything that looked promising and I came back with a LONG list. This is where the commercial realities of a project like this kick in. The cost of transferring everything was deemed too expensive and I was asked to prioritise. This was probably the hardest part of the project. Tapes that almost certainly had something of interest on them were put in an ‘A-list’, while others which perhaps had vague or ambiguous labelling – but still might have contained gems – were in the B and C lists. There was also a lot of unreleased live material in the C-list. I had a suspicion that we’d only transfer what was in the A-list and so it turned out. Anything unreleased on the four-CD set would come from these transfers.

It was early June 2014 when I first got to listen to the digital transfers. It’s an exciting prospect listening to recordings from any archive, but if you think everything is going to be an amazing, exciting alternate version of a well known track then you need to manage your expectations. What you find are lots of ‘edit sections’ of tracks, lots of tapes that have many ‘takes’ of a mix (rather than a recording), many of which stop or break down for some reason, ‘TV Mixes’ created for appearances on telly and multiple versions of songs with minute variations – track titles with the suffixes like “voxup”, “bassup”, “morehammond”. They all sound close to identical decades on, but at the time there was probably lots of pressure to get things sounding ‘right’.

It’s easy to panic at this stage…”there’s nothing usable. Argh!” but then you find the gem. The first “wow, this is amazing” moment was coming across the demo for No Parlez album track Tender Trap. A well recorded and fully fleshed sketch that has some elements not featured in the finished studio version, including a great flute solo. I have no idea why this wasn’t on the 2008 anniversary edition of Paul’s debut, but that release’s loss was my gain! I finally got to hear Find One Voice and thought it was quirky but fantastic. To me it’s more No Parlez than Secret of Association and perhaps that is why it was considered a bad ‘fit’. In fact, there were a few variations of that track, the 4.10 ‘master’ version that has made it on to The CBS Years.. and a 5.22 ‘rough mix’ which features the familiar backing vocals of George Chandler, Jimmy Chambers and Jimmy Helms. Anyway, work continued, analysing what we had and it took me about month to come back to Sony with a proposed full track listing.

We had already decided that four CDs would work quite well. A disc apiece for the two ‘big’ albums and, roughly speaking, half a disc each for the remaining three albums and tracks related to the From Time To Time hits collection. I had also made the tough decision to try and only feature each song once (with the odd exception of live performance). This was supposed to be a listenable journey through Paul’s career with a focus on rarities, rather than a depository for dumping anything and everything with no thought for ‘playability’.

Looking back on my very original track listing for The CBS Years compilation, disc one of the new set is exactly as proposed, and so went unchanged in the development process. Disc two originally had an unreleased alternate seven-inch mix of Every Time You Go Away, but to be frank, it wasn’t that great (or that different) and I felt it wasn’t doing Paul’s smash hit single justice. Although I had really wanted to avoid 12-inch mixes (which were now all available on Remixes and Rarities anyway) I thought switching to the Extended Version of Every Time You Go Away was the right move since it’s still relatively rare in that form on CD and the remix takes the classic ‘80s approach and simply extends the song without ruining it.

It was around August last year that Sony officially confirmed that they would be going ahead with this project and they contacted Paul Young (who up until that point was unaware that this work was going on) to see if he was interested in getting involved and supporting the release. He said he was (great news) and I duly created a set of CDs for him to listen to. Paul was really happy to see Find One Voice on this set and suggested two further tracks hidden in the archive that could be added. Coralie dated from the Other Voices sessions and so was added to the end of disc three. Because a master tape of the finished mix couldn’t be found, that track had to be newly mixed from the multi-track. Paul had an old cassette of it which he used for reference to ensure the mix was as it should be. Souls Unknown, an outtake from The Crossing, would be the third ‘new’ song on this archive set.

comebackandstay2
The CBS Years cover uses the UK Come Back and Stay single sleeve image

Disc four had the most changes between my original track listing and the finished product, although they were still relatively few. PY suggested we go with an unreleased ‘solo’ version of his Crowded House cover Don’t Dream It’s Over (which I didn’t even know existed) and he also asked us to drop the song Need Somebody (originally an extra track on one of the CD Singles of Don’t Dream It’s Over) which he described as a “failed attempt to introduce talking on a track”. We also discovered that when Paul recorded those acoustic sessions for the It Will Be You CD singles one track, Love Has No Pride, was not released at the time, so that was added as well. Unfortunately Down In Chinatown, a great album track from The Crossing, got the chop around the time of these changes.

In May the original tapes were sourced and sent to Fluid Mastering for the remastering sessions, of which there were three. I could only attend the first because I was out of the country for the last two, which Paul attended. Fluid had done a great job with the Remixes and Rarities two-CD set so I was delighted that Sony had selected them for this project.

I cannot emphasis enough how easy it is for mistakes to happen at this stage in the process. The mastering studio is full of tapes which might have what you want and what you don’t want on the same tape. Tim Debney at Fluid played me back some of disc one and the first thing I spotted was that the normal album version of Iron Out The Rough Spots had been used for the opener, not the unreleased-on-CD seven-inch edit. This would have been spotted at a later stage via reference CDs (hopefully) but it underlined the value of being at the studio to listen to what’s going on. Because I wasn’t at the studio for the last two sessions I did have to review the rest of the contents via CDs. It was then that I noticed that the live Oh Women (originally on the exclusive Japanese LP The Live Edition) was six minutes, not the nine minutes it should have been.

I put a call into Tim at the studio who told me that while Paul had been there with him, he had decided that that live rendition simply goes on far too long and wanted to shorten it, which was easy because there was a convenient edit point. So instead of having the full Live Edition on CD for the first time we had almost the full Live Edition! I sent Paul Young an email and tried to convince him that we should keep as is but he was adamant that unless you’re at the gig it’s ‘boring’ to listen to a nine minute live track.

In the end it was an easy decision to stick with the edit because as it turned out there wasn’t enough room to include the extra three minutes without losing another track, so I’d got my maths wrong at some stage! Also, because the live Oh Women was on a UK B-side it had made it on to Remixes and Rarities, so a recently remastered version of it in its full nine-minute glory was easily available. Finally, Paul is the artist. He’s the reason this music exists and I have a huge amount of respect for him and wanted him to be happy with the finished product.

The Live Edition was only released in Japan

The final piece of the puzzle with this set was the presentation. Since I have a graphic design background, I had actually done all the design for Remixes and Rarities, scanning in transparencies and promo photos from the Sony archive. In the case of The CBS Years I was a bit more ‘hands off’ but wanted, at least, to offer some ideas for the cover. Post From Time to Time, there have been some rather uninspiring compilation covers, so was keen to make sure we did something decent for this set. I thought it was essential we used an early photograph on the front, which meant an image from the No Parlez or The Secret of Association years. In the end, I mocked up something using the Come Back and Stay single cover and deployed the Paul Young ‘crest’ which I had meticulously recreated for Remixes and Rarities. The final touch was getting the CBS logo on the front. The design agency Sony selected did a great job of taking that cover as inspiration and completing the rest of the project.

Tomb of Memories: The CBS Years 1982-1994 was released last Friday, around 18 months after I first got in touch with Sony to discuss doing a PY project. If you have this set, I’d really love to hear what you think about it, so please leave a comment and let me know.

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116 Comments

116 thoughts on “Behind-the-Scenes: Paul Young / Tomb of Memories: The CBS Years”

  1. I’m not that familiar with Paul Young’s music, but I snagged this when it was so cheap on Amazon UK. I was disappointed to find that the original release date (or at least recording date) is not listed for the studio tracks. I’m one of those folks who insists of using the original release date when importing compilation and anthology CDs into iTunes. Could Paul Sinclair (or anyone else) please list the years for each track? I figured out the ones that were originally released on a album, but am having problems with several others. Thanks!

  2. Paul. I know you waited to see how Remixes and Rarities performed prior to approaching Sony about the bookset project. I saw the The Tomb of Memories set in the charts for 2 weeks which is great for a project like this!

    Is there a chance of you approaching Sony one more time about the live material that came across in your work during the summer of 2014?

    This is the one aspect of PY’s career with Sony that has been overlooked apart from the Japanese edition, a couple of live tracks from the Hammersmith Odeon, and a version of Broken Man.

    I watch You Tube footage of PY and the band from this period and it is mesmerizing. PY’s live performance was consistently brilliant and his band must have been one of the finest in the world at the time. They could deconstruct s song, build it back up, stop on a dime, move in a new direction and then come back again. The whole ensemble still floors me. Nothing could touch them then in my opinion.

    I know that you know there is so much there. Is there any chance of that material seeing the light of day? This would put a memorable, and necessary, bookend on that point in PY’s career.

  3. Well, I have to say kudos to MyPlay Direct – I received my replacement copy today and it was a signed version.

    I was initially disappointed when my first copy was lost but at the end of the day it was about getting the music. Having a proper signed version again is the cherry!

  4. Anyone have any issues with skipping on the live version of Broken Man? Mine is skipping for about 10 seconds around the 2:40 mark. Thanks for any replies.

  5. Pleased to report back that today, my replacement copy arrived. Signed on the front cover. A month late, but I have it! Can’t get enough of those acoustic tracks on disc four…just fantastic!

  6. Well it arrived yesterday here in Perth Australia and had to play straightaway like a giddy kipper. I had the headphones on whilst everyone was watching telly so became mister unsociable but managed to listen to cd1 and then some chosen tracks due to the time and loved it. It brought back some of my own tomb of memories as they reminded me of my growing up and where I was at the time came flooding back. To top it all I got the signed edition . I reckon a Thompson Twins set would be great as well!

  7. I received a shipping confrontation from MyPlay Direct on August 18, 2015 for my signed copy. They provided a FedEx tracking number to Canada. The tracking number was not valid.

    I contacted them on September 2nd to let them know the order had not arrived. On investigation they now advise that the order was not sent FedEx but rather TNT UK Post – the latter providing no tracing mechanism.

    They are offering a refund or will reship a new order. Obvious and significant problem being that the new order would not be a signed version!

    This BLOWS – and not the first time TNT has screwed up something I’ve ordered.

    Very disappointed.

  9. This is by far the most complete release of PY’s work, and it is beautifully presented in a nice box with great pictures and a structured layout. The audio selection and the mastering of the tracks is done with a BIG heart full of love for PY’s music. Cheers to Paul Sinclair and Philip Connolly. Truly wonderful, and I reall do hope SONY can, and will supportmore of such archive releases by other very talended artists. Okay, I do have some comment as well, but this does not bother my pleasure of having this box in my collection, and listening to it many times from now. First, as a collector I would like to be able to instantly read the running time of each track; secondly I would like to read back which musicians contributed to each track. It is obvious for the hard core fan, but still, it would be wonderful to get that info collected in such an extensive box. The only real critique I have is the PY biographical career-spanning liner notes written by Daryl Easlea: it is not written with a similar spirit, as the love put into the collection, remastering and display of this release.

  11. i got mine today, love it but disappointed the first time i removed the cd’s two of the clips broke that hold them, and me with the delicate touch as well!! ….grrrr

  12. Fantastic set listened to it twice on spotify and have now ordered it, however I find myself agreeing with Darren Briscoe (way above) Find One Voice is horrible. Quite easily the worst Paul Young song I have ever heard. Massive fan since I saw him by accident as he was playing at my sister’s college with the Q-Tips and I was only 14 and visiting and she snuck me in. I even used to make 45 minute remixes of my own of stuff like Bite the Hand when I got the CD of TSOA in 1985, so I love Paul’s music. It was a good move to shift it from the early tracklist. It was good to hear it, but I didn’t like it (kept thinking of Jimmy Nail for some reason). Highlight for me was the Sex Demo and I was in chains alternate… brilliant work. Well done.

    1. Thanks Chris. Fair enough about Find One Voice, not everyone is going to like everything. I much preferred it to Coralie, but I know PY loves that one!

  13. Got my set this week and it’s very nice. I shall be contstructing “The Secret…” original tracklist as a playlist to :D

    One thing I’d like to point out is that the 1982 7″ Mix of “Love Of The Common People” isn’t the same as what is on the original 7″ pressing (not on my UK version anyway). It is similar but the keyboards on the chorus are mixed a lot lower on the box set version. Also it’s about 20 seconds longer. Paul’s vocal is also slightly different at one point on the closing chorus part.

    One other minor thing I noticed is that the “Sex Demo” on “Tomb Of Memories” has a slightly different mix on the intro compared to the one on the “No Parlez” 2CD set. It is the same demo though. I guess that makes this an unreleased track too (in a small way).

    Thanks again, Paul :)

    I guess a couple of mixes were done and were probably all labelled in a similar way.

  17. Really enjoyed listening to all 4 CD ‘s with really good sound quality from the ‘re-mastering.
    As a big fan of the late Jeff Porcaro I was extremely happy to hear Cold Sweat, Man of Steel & Souls Unknown, all of which are equal in quality to any tracks on The Crossing, which is Paul’s best album IMO.
    Definitely a project to be proud of so well done.
    Steve

  18. Hi Paul S.,

    Now we/I know you have a good relationship with Sony! I think I can bring it up again! First in the Get in touch with you! But never got any answer ;(

    “Hi Paul,

    I found this a while back on Classic Whitney! But until now still no sign of them/no news about them:

    Whitney / The Bodyguard, Expanded Anniversary Editions of two of her best-selling albums featuring bonus and unreleased songs plus expanded booklets with new photos and essays!

    I believe you are the only person who can poke around to see whether these will come out anytime soon! Many thanks in advance!

    Best regards,
    Griffin.”

  20. Your 4 CD are just amazing and the sound is incredible, very love all the songs and specially “Tomb of memories” “This means anything” “Standing on the Edge” “I was in chains” “Coralie” “The heart is a lonely hunter” “Souls unknown” . A special thanks for “Lovers cross”.
    Thanks very very much for this bookset. I have now 348 CD of Paul Young on my collection.

  21. I have been an avid fan since late June 1985. Although I live in Canada I would consider myself a bit of an authority on anything PY related that has been committed to CD.

    ‘Remixes and Rarities’ was a minor revelation.

    I have been waiting eagerly for “Tomb of Memories” since PY posted it first on Twitter a few months ago.

    Coming home from a trip to the States last Friday night I drove across the border and pressed play on Track 1 CD 1. Half way through the compilation (2.5 hours later!) I was STILL completely mesmerized. Hearing music that you have listened to regularly for 30 years sound so different is strange but immensely enjoyable. A week later I am still picking up some nuanced variations. Fantastic!

    All of the material on this site is such a great added bonus also.

    Without someone like you Mr. Sinclair a simple fan like myself would never have been provided with this experience.

    Thank you sincerely.

  22. I have received my signed copies and I hear now the first cd .
    First, Huge Thanks for your huge work for this bookset. For a fan like me it’s the Heaven !!!!
    The sound is just beautiful and perfect. I never hear the sound of Paul Young like this.
    I very love “Tender Trap” and “Iron out..”
    Next comments coming soon with the next cd….
    A Fan of Paul Young since 1983
    Denis

  23. I wish i’ll hear someday an alternate mix of “Man In The Iron Mask”.
    Or simply an instrumental version. Very strong, dark and sad song.
    My all-time favorite Paul Young track.

  24. What a great insight! Thanks for sharing Paul.
    This Phil Connolly is an important guy to know – for future Sony projects, that is. I think you should buy him a lot of beer (and arrange that the radio is playing Sade, Alison Moyet and Wham continuously).

    1. I can only go by my personal experience. History does show plenty of disputes of course, such as George Michael, Terence Trent D’Arby etc. But here, today, the people I worked with on the Paul Young project shared and encouraged the ‘vision’. Without that it would never have happened. It also wouldn’t have happened with a Cherry Red or a Demon because you’d never get access to the archive in the same way.

  26. Hi,
    I haven’t received my signed copies yet and my order number is not available to track it so I have ordered the bookset by a french shop this evening (but not signed). I hope to have it on saturday. TNT Post is very very bad in France.
    Denis

  27. How on Earth do you manage to get Sony to respond to anything? I sent messages to them regarding licensing and got shuffled to a couple of people. They forwarded my message to their special markets division but I never heard back. Then I contacted one of the previous people for a direct contact in that division. I was given a name and promptly sent a message, though no response. I’ve heard from another label who have tried to get contact with Sony regarding licensing that they are great for ignoring such requests. That’s unfortunate and it makes one wonder how many great releases never happen because Sony doesn’t feel the courtesy to respond.

  28. I must admit I jumped straight for the Secret Of Association material (disc 2), and it works as a continual listening experience, as well as housing lots of alternate/unreleased versions of songs I know so well.

  29. Received my box at the weekend – a great collection, and interesting to hear the legwork that goes on behind such projects. More insight into this part of the release process would be fascinating if you can dig in this direction.

  30. No CD sales means no more projects like this for physical CD releases. No rew remastering, no more digging in the vaults, no more transfering from master tapes, so no remastered unreleased mixes/alternate versions/takes of songs/gems to be put on itunes. Big companies like to see sales numbers to encourage them to more of these projects (fans will benefit from this)! I bought almost everything when Paul S. put his name on it (and in this case even Paul Young was involved)! So as for Tom Parker & Vinny Vero. You know what you’ll get is a quality guaranteed product put together with lots of heart and soul.

    I’ve pre-ordered mine from grooves-inc com for €18.69 (now €25.89). jpc de €25.99 & wowhd nl €38.54! Wow, glad I’ve pre-ordered it :D

  31. Wow Paul, Amazing work, I got my copy and I am thoroughly enjoying this. Your story here made for a fascinating read too, it’s the stuff we frequent this site for. Thanks for the mighty effort and the hearty tale.
    Now let’s sit tight and hope you run across a certain Mr G. Sumner one of these days and end up cooking us up an equally amazing blue turtles box
    One can dream :)

  32. Negativ: cannot understand why only a long version of Every time You go away is part of the collection.

    Negativ: cannot understand why it is not possible to offer the most famous songs on CD 1 so that it can be used in the car. Because of this I
    downloaded my 9 favourite songs via itunes. Now I am not sure whether I will in addition will buy the set.

    Positiv: i am very happy that this set is real because Pauls voice is outstanding and his music will be transported to year 2015. Thanks to all who made this happen!

  33. As usual and informative and educational piece that once more confirms that SDE is the go to site every day!
    One dispute though. ..heard Find One Voice on the radio…..hate it!! But would still get the box. Keep up the good work.

  34. My set arrived yesterday so I have just played discs 1 and 2. I have to say that this has surpassed my expectations. Great selections and brilliant sequencing. And extremely reasonably priced. I can’t see myself listening to tracks in isolation – I think it’ll be a full disc each time. Well done Paul – looking forward to the next project.

  35. Still enjoying the tracks I downloaded a lot.

    It strikes me Paul Young is one of those artists who doesn’t really get the credit due. He has a lovely voice – full of expression – love it when you get a bit of his real accent in there – and his first couple of albums had some lovely warm production – of their time a bit but I don’t personally find that a sin. After that his production was shiny and professional but for me it lost its edge and what was interesting about it – though there is still some nice stuff. Really well done on the set.

  36. Being a fan for over 30 years now..i find this compilation amazing…such wonderful songs on it from the singer with the best voice in the world…which still goes under my skin… such a wonderful voice it is…thanks so much for all the Infos about the prework in putting it all together ..great work of all of you!!!!

  38. Great CD Box Set!!
    My only wish was that in the vaults exists a 12” mix of “No Parlez”
    – my favorite song from the first album. But obviously not.
    Is there any chance that the “From Time To Time” instrumentals
    from the limited Japan Import CD will release on I-Tunes someday?
    I can imagine that these instrumentals are real treasures & wonderful.

  39. How nice Paul that you give us some insight into this process. It was extremely interesting to read. I don’t know if this makes sense to you but I recommend you take good notes and maybe one day you can write a book about all the projects you worked on. It’s really interesting to read the background stuff, artists opinions, label opinions, politics, etc.
    I ordered a signed copy and live in the USA. Have not yet received it. Hope to get it soon!!!

  40. Many thank Paul S. for this post (inside info’s, thought you mentioned it in another post after the announcement for this box)! Great story!

    Too bad Sony & perhaps other record labels/companies don’t take the time & investing their money in preserving the non digital vaults from the 70’s/80’s/90’s! Or back up’s that’s why so many most valuable gems were lost like one of Kim Wilde’s reissue using vinyl rips because the master(s) were lost or misplaced. They can always digitalize those & release them on itunes/7digital/other so they can cover part of the costs. And the fans can get what they want.

    So the Extended Version of Everytime you go away in this box is different than the Extended Mix from the Remixes & Rarities! That’s great. I’m still awaiting my copy of this boxset to arrive.

    I have his “From Time To Time Instrumental” CD! But I still like to get my hands on those TV Mixes. Don’t know what those are: voxup, bassup, morehammond! But I would be happy to have a chance to listen to those :D

    Hope more artists are like Paul Young still willing to get involved & giving us/the fans something we wanted for a long time or never heard of their existences before. Also many thanks to Paul Young then :P

  41. I’m still waiting for my box set but by reading all the work you’ve put into this project I know it will be as good as “Remixes and Rarities”. It was nice to read that Paul Young himself made suggestions. An artist and a fan working together with lots of respect for the music. An example for others to follow. I know it has been said already a few times but … Sade … I’m waiting!

  42. Oh, by the way, if i can, i would add to the list of my requests for your next Paul Young project the 5:22 ‘rough mix’ of Find One Voice

    1. Can I also throw my hat into the ring and add the following lists of wants:
      Playhouse (original 7″ version)
      Standing On The Edge (longer original album/cassette version)
      Heart Full Of Rain (remaster)
      A Matter Of Fact (Edsel release had a mastering error)
      Between Two Fires/The Crossing/Secret Of Association/Paul Young (full album remasters)
      Any unreleased live tracks (Audio and DVD)
      Videos (on DVD)
      Some People (video 7″ remix)
      Love Hurts/I Wish It Would Rain(remasters)
      What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted/Back Where I Started/That’s How It Is (Remix) (remasters)

      Ah……if only!

        1. Hi Eric,

          Sorry, got my tracks mixed up. A Matter Of Fact is fine. Trying To Guess The Rest on the Edsel release has a noticeable click at 1:22 but we have a better version on the new box set so that’s not a problem. The sound quality on the Edsel version isn’t brilliant; not sure if they used the master tapes, the volume is really low, but is better than the original release. Hope that helps.

          1. Thanks Nigel, if it’s Trying To Guess The Rest then yeah, that’s not a problem!

            Just listening to Find One Voice for the first time….it is indeed a strange one, but I do like it.

  43. Interesting read, I am happy this project is also on Spotify.

    I am a collector of music, but equally enjoy listening to all types.

    Stephen

  44. Thanks for sharing all those behind the scenes, these are the musical readings i like most.
    The box set is very well sequenced and balanced between album tracks and rarities/alternates, which makes for a great listening without the need of jumping back and forth for a different playlist.

    Just a couple of requests for your next Paul Young project (there will be another one, right???):
    -the live version of Love Will Tear Us Apart from the Tomb Of Memories 7” doublepack;
    -the LP version of Love Of The Common People, to my knowledge still unreleased on cd, but correct me if i’m wrong and possibly point me out to a cd source;
    -Come Back And Stay (Single Remix Version);
    -Wherever I Lay My Hat (Single Version).

    1. The original US CD of No Parlez (with the different cover) has the ‘album’ version of Love of the Common People I believe, which is around 4.52

  45. Amazing box set ,I unfortunately also fell victim to broken disc holders . Buts it great to have all these unheard tracks in one set , although I find it odd that a large number of paul youngs cd singles included duplicate album tracks as b-sides over and over again when some of these tracks could have been released and proberly boosted the sales of the singles to much higher chart placings

  46. Got it last Friday, the set looks great and it sounds good to me! The ‘behind the scenes’ story is a great read, thanks for that! Regretfully I didn’t know about the pre-order of the signed edition, so if anyone is willing to sell me one ;-)

  50. Paul, any luck with you contacting Sony and getting involved on some project like this for Depeche Mode? LOL… just a wet dream from a Mode fanboy…

  51. Excellent article Paul! I’m not a PY fan, but I enjoyed reading every word of this. The inner-workings and behind-the-scenes details of these types of projects are extremely interesting!

  52. Paul,
    You’re simply the finest person to do the right job on these releases.
    You must be thrilled to have the opportunity to put your knowledge to work while getting to do one of those ‘dream jobs’ that are so often rare in adulthood. Keep it up.. we’re all glad you’re at the helm.
    Marc in Arizona

  54. One of my favourite articles I’ve read on this site – or on the subject of archiving mainstream music, for that matter. Fascinating stuff. Great work on both the project and the article.

    There are a number of deluxe/expanded editions that really should have happened by 2015. We all have that wish list, right? But this article fills me with some hope that we’ll see more come to fruition as time goes on – especially when one of the biggest labels seems pretty sensible and open-minded. It’s encouraging to see.

  55. I only ever bought (on cassettes) ‘The Secret Of Association’ and ‘From Time To Time’ when they were in the charts, so took a bit of a punt on this box set after hearing ‘Remixes & Rarities.’

    It’s stunning. Beautifully realised in terms of content and packaging. I especially love the ‘compact’ size of it, and forgot how much of Paul Young’s material I loved back in the day, and most of it holds up really well now.

    My favourite box set in a long time, though I suspect Bananarama will change that in 3 days time.

    The sequence of: 1. Deluxe Editions; 2. ‘Remixes & Rarities’ 3. Box Set – is a template that should be applied to so many other great artists, and yes, I will again mention Alison Moyet and Dead Or Alive.

    Incidentally, I’d love to see a new Paul Young album… he was in similar league to Moyet in the 80’s for me, so the idea of a male ‘Hometime’ or ‘the minutes’ would be very welcome indeed. Meantime, another ‘From Time To Time’ with all single edits spanning his whole career would be good.

    Amazing work & thanks to all involved.

  56. It was fascinating to read that there may be many brilliant unreleased songs out there (for all artists) because record companies don’t want to spend money to find out what is on ‘all’ the tapes. That threw me!

    1. Sony did the right thing with the tapes. The project needs to be commercially successful – if it is then there will be others like it. Digitising lots more tapes wouldn’t necessarily resulted in a ‘better’ set but obviously you would spend much on tape digitisation and that’s not good for P&L. So it’s not that they don’t want to spend money, more like a measured approach. I requested we do a couple more at the end because there was a chance of finding an alternate version of Soldiers Things. Sony accommodated that request but in the end it was fruitless and there was no alternate. I have nothing but good things to say about the team at Sony who worked on this, especially Phil Connolly who led the project for the label.

  57. Definitely worth the wait. This is why I love SDE, and SDEs. The PY set (packaging aside..and yes, one of my copies arrived with the spring mechanism broken off) is an example of exactly how all acts’ catalogues should be treated. Very interesting to read about how easy mistakes can be made, and just the whole journey from an idea to a finished, book-bound boxset that we see in the shops.

    It’s also great to see the original Secret Of Association projected tracklisting at the very early stages. I’ll be re-creating that in iTunes for sure!

    2. BTW You need to use the versions of Tomb of Memories, I Was In Chains and Everything Must Change from the new set and Hot Fun from Remixes and Rarities to get the track listing ‘right’ (the rest is standard versions).

  58. So between this box set, the Rarities & Remixes comp, and the 2CD No Parlez from a few years back, do we finally have all the pieces to put together a proper Expanded No Parlez? That is, one with all the correct album tracks, 7″ mixes, 12″ mixes and period B-sides etc?

  60. Sorry if I’m behind the news on here but No Parlez is being re-released in September, is this a newer version than the one that’s reviewed and pretty much beaten up on Amazon?

  61. I’m not a completist for any artist – but I gave some of this a listen on iTunes and I found myself downloading Find One Voice – which is indeed a cool quirky song – I imagine I’d have liked it very much had it been released at the time – but still nice to have it now.

    Thanks!

  62. What a great story, Paul. Now THIS is what I love to read.

    Astonishing to learn that so much of their catalogue isn’t available as a raw digital file. Instead you have to go by descriptions on boxes. I can understand not having professionally mastered versions of everything, but not even quick & dirty digital transfers?

    It just feels me with dread when I think about the state of something like Prince’s vault…

  63. It’s a great set, great value too! Had to have it, Paul being a local Luton lad. He worked a few shifts in my grandad’s petrol station which was near his home and then used to fill up the van of his then band the q tips, my grandad says he was a nice lad but told him to get a proper job. When no parlez was released, I went into our local hmv to buy the vinyl album to find autographed copies. Apparently Paul had been in on release day and was so excited to see racks of his album that he signed them all! Still have it. Much later on I was cut up by Paul whilst on my peddle cycle he was on his Harley motor bike!

  64. Splendid stuff, Sir! I expected this to be great, given your involvement in putting together “Remixes and Rarities” and the excellent “Songs From The Big Chair”.

    I note my box set that arrived today is a little different to your illustration above, as mine has “Paul Young” written on the front. :-)

    I met PY once in the ’80s at a Thai restaurant in Guernsey, when he was dining with some local musician/producer friends of mine (I think he was rehearsing and/or demoing new tracks). When I was introduced to him, he was an absolute gentleman, and girlfriend at the time suitably impressed…

    Are you able to indicate what are the next projects you are to be involved in?

  65. Hi Paul,

    Thanks for that great article. Really interesting; clearly showing the time and effort that was put into this release. If only we could get remasters of the remaining album tracks, remixes and 7″ versions that weren’t included. Interested to hear about the unreleased live tracks. Paul and his band were great live (saw them three times) let’s hope they eventually see the light of day. Hate to harp on but just wondered if you had had any info on the included version of Why Does A Man Have To Be Strong. Was
    the chorus re-recorded or was the final chorus just repeated?

  66. Dear Paul i have a signed version,and i think you have done a great job balancing the rarities among the released tracks.The only criticism as others have mentioned are the awful clips which have nothing to do with you.How about a Sade box set next buddy?

  67. Paul,

    Simply the best box set i have bought and an absolute steal at the price. Great thought has gone into it and great that the artist has been so heavily involved.

  68. interesting read… even if I’m not a Young fan, it was fascinating to understand what ‘s going on to make a project like this a reality.
    Job well done Sir

  69. Pre-ordered the boxset which arrived over the weekend. Have to say this is a really well presented package (if only others took the time, like this clearly has done & what I’ve read above). For me it’s not the singles tracks that attracted me but two lesser tracks in the shape of “Soldier’s Things” and “The Man In The Iron Mask” that made me smile on listening to these again.

    Have to say was surprised by the Tears For Fears cover of “Pale Shelter” which Corby Radio have taken a shine too also. There were some songs even I’ve not heard but on listening to now, maybe I should have purchased his latter CBS output too.

    The fact that Paul Young and yourself worked together helps the set gell. Well worth the purchase – many thanks for your efforts in producing it.

  70. Fascinating article thanks Paul. Is great set and well worth buying people! Shame that my box was broken on its arrival, those small clips that hold the CDs in are destined to break Sony, so be careful people from overhandling – one is hoping myplaydirect can send another.

  73. I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of my pre-ordered autographed edition. With all the work that everyone has put into this set, I’m praying to god the mastering is not brickwalled or compressed.

  74. Well done Paul. It’s easy to see reading what you have put into this set why so many others slip through with errors. Not a job for the detail shy is it!

  75. I bought this set after reading on here about it coming out and also that there were autographed copies available. I got mine on Friday and played it over the weekend. What I forgot was just how good Paul is and that voice is amazing. I had seen a copy of Rough Spots 7” single at a record fair but never picked it up as I thought it would be the same as the album. What a great track it is. The whole box set flows smoothly I think and I really like the version of Tomb Of Memories too!
    I didn’t pick up the last couple of albums although I did get a couple of compilations. I will be looking for the other albums now as this set has really opened my ears to prove that he was a star in the 80’s and really should still be around more now! Thanks for bringing us this set Paul and thanks to Paul Young for his involvement too. Well done to Sony too for releasing this set too!

  76. AMAZING job on the set, Paul! This was a great article and you made it very clear about what goes on “behind the scenes”. Adding the timeline at the end made it perfect. I still wish the excellent single remix of HOPE IN A HOPELESS WORLD made it on, but if this sells well (it seems it already is with the autographed sets gone in a day!), we might get another chance sooner than later…:)

  77. Thanks Paul, I thoroughly enjoyed reading that interesting and inspiring article. I think that more record companies could benefit from your fantastic attention to detail.

  78. Great write up, Paul. Nice to hear the behind the scenes details that make up not just the recording side, but the actual mechanics of getting a record like this out (and out properly!). Wish more labels would take this much care and effort in pleasing everyone involved, from fans to artists.

    Ok, breaks over, now get to work on that ‘Seeds of Love’ box. And the Wham!/GM stuff. And, and, and…

    1. Let’s hope that is Paul working on the PSB back catalogue Ken. For many of us that news would be our xmas come early quota for several years!

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