Saturday Deluxe / 12 Dec 2015
SDE Editor Paul Sinclair eases you into the weekend and reflects on the week past with Saturday Deluxe…
This Rolling Stone gathers no Moss.
It’s been a busy few days here at SDE HQ. I attempted to take a few hours off from the world of pop-and-rock-music at the beginning of this week (it was my birthday on Tuesday), and indulge in a spot of shopping with the bonus of a rare kids-free lunch with my wife. Easier said than done though, since there I was in John Lewis, in London’s Oxford Street, having a peruse in the menswear department and I look up and who’s standing there doing the very same thing? Only Jon Moss from Culture Club!
My wife had actually picked up his jacket (which had fallen on the floor) and handed it to him, without batting an eyelid. I pointed out in a discreet whisper who it was and she looked at me blankly (it later transpired that she’d misheard me and thought I’d said something about ‘moths’..). By the time I’d thought I should say hello (I was at the Hammersmith Culture Club show in September) and oh-so-casually mention that I was the custodian of SDE, Jon had wandered off. Damn. Oh well, he-who-hesitates and all that. For the record, he was looking slim and very dapper. So if you’re reading this Jon, hello!
Tears For Fears live return
It’s fantastic news that Tears For Fears are to return to the UK stage next year. It really has been far too long. For whatever reason, in the last decade the band have played North America, South America, Australia and the Far East but not the UK. When I worked on The Hurting reissue back in 2013 there was some ‘talk’ of them playing that album in full at some UK shows in the autumn of that year, but much to my disappointment, it came to naught.
I was at their most ‘recent’ British gig back in 2005 when they played the Hammersmith Odeon in support of their last studio album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. Roland and Curt played nine tracks from that 12-track album and while you have to admire commitment to ‘the new record’ (which was/is excellent), I remember being slightly peeved that it wasn’t until song 15 (of an 18 song set) that they played anything from Songs From The Big Chair! Even then, they just played the three big singles; Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Head Over Heels and Shout. Having reissued that album last year, it’s pleasing to see them incorporate The Working Hour (one of only three tracks that wasn’t a single) in their sets, but who would love to hear Big Chair performed live, and in FULL, on stage? C’mon lads, it’s only eights tracks!
A nice idea, but let’s not forget, they are back on stage primarily to promote the forthcoming new album – which is likely to appear in late spring/early summer – so don’t get your hopes up.
One final point, it is over ten years since Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, surely it’s time to ditch the stage backdrop which utilises the slightly psychedelic ‘Tears For Fears’ logo/script and replace it with something fresh and a bit cooler…
SDE ChartWatch
The brand new UK charts were announced yesterday. SDE takes a look at the movers and shakers with regards to reissues and box sets.
Some big guns out last week and Bruce Springsteen‘s The Ties That Bind – The River Collection outperforms Fleetwood Mac‘s Tusk deluxe by some margin on the UK physical sales chart. Bruce is in at no. 48 while Fleetwood Mac have to settle for no. 83. This is even more impressive when you think that that Tusk was almost half the price of The River box set on Amazon UK.
You’d have thought that the reissue of Simple Minds‘ hit album Once Upon A Time would have comfortably entered the top 100 on sales, but it’s nowhere to be found. Perhaps people couldn’t get hold of it. One SDE reader said in the comments section of the SDEtv video unboxing: “I went into my local HMV the other day thinking about buying the double CD yet there was no sign of it or even the box or the Blu-Ray. Very poor distribution I would say.”
To be honest, as we close in on Christmas it gets tougher for an album-specific box to find a place in the top 100 physical releases because there are SO many greatest hits compilations clogging the chart up. Nice to see Bob Dylan‘s Best of the Cutting Edge (which I suppose is a hits compilation of sorts) going UP the chart rising to no. 80 from 93.
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I don’t mind the TFF logo. I think it’s cool enough.
How many more times are they going to reissue both Tusk and Rumours before we get deluxe versions of Mirage and Tango In The Night ? It’s getting ridiculous you would think that they were the only two albums they ever released.
No copies of the super deluxe set of Tusk at my local HMV, and there has been very little promotion of it by Warners – in the UK at least. Would have thought a short TV campaign would have been in order due to its Christmas market release. Will be interesting to see how it performs stateside.
My worry is that if it doesn’t perform well in the UK other deluxe editions, of Tango, Mirage and Stevie’s BellaDonna in particular, might not see the light of day.
One thing I think went wrong with the Tusk super deluxe editon (beautiful as it is) is that ther was not visual material included. I knw that this has put a lot of people off from shelling out for it.
Re the TTTB and put out takes it does seem as if Bruce has put some new vocals on there, especially comparing it to the circulating bootlegs. I have mixed feelings about doing that but Bruce does have a talent of recording in the old vocal style so it’s less obvious than it would have been
Thanks Paul – Very disappointing that he has chosen to do this again – I thought that it sucked the life out of the material on “The Promise”.
I ordered my Simple Minds box set OUAT from alibris.com. Received 2 days before release date in perfect condition. I paid $58.00, they still have available for $62.68. Use coupon code THANKS and order goes down to $61.67, shipping is included. Hope this can help someone. Thanks again for the great site Paul!
Bruce debuted at 40 on Aust Aria chart but that was sales across all the formats
Well have to say Tusk and Simple Minds both shipped from the UK and arrived in Oz in 5 days. Still yet to listen though.
I too ordered TTTB from Italy but its yet to surface.
Has the blu-ray of ‘Sparkle In The Rain’ been corrected yet?
Yes.
Burning Shed have the corrected version.
I am hoping my box set of 3 albums arrive next week, here’s hoping.
The Simple Minds, the latest Rush and Tull’s Too Old To Rock and Roll
all arrive in one week now that would be fine, oh well there wasn’t much we could do about the eventual price of the album i guess you can’t have everything your own way all of the time, to me it’s been a great year with so many super deluxe edition and deluxe edition albums in which to choose, as our wallets are a little lighter, hat’s of to Paul and not Led
Zeppelin you can include them too if you like for keeping everyone updated!!
I pre-ordered my Simple Minds box and it’s just languishing in ‘preparing for shipment’ hell on Amazon’s site. They must be behind schedule or something.
Charles, did you use Super Saver Delivery? At this time of year Amazon, seem use this as an more of an excuse, for low priority delivery. I did a pre order, but I needed on the Friday, 4th December. Mine did not go “preparing for dispatch” very late on Wednesday (so in my mind, it was late coming in). My delivery was, day of release. Thursday, it was dispatched, with the emailing stating “delivery Saturday”, and by Royal Mail (strange I thought was Royal Mail lost the contract with Amazon, because they send up their own delivery firm Amazon Logistics, and all my music orders had been coming by that method). I rang to enquire, and was told, if I had used express delivery I would have got it by Friday. (A cost of £7.00!).
The reason for delay, Amazon logistics could not cope, with the sales/deliveries from Black Friday, hence the out sourcing to Royal Mail.
Shall I say, I was lucky, I did get my Simple Minds on the Friday, my postman knew I needed it, brought it that day, (he is a simple minds fan) even though on the outside of the box, it said delivery Saturday.
My advice Charles, is to ring up, the online chat, they just follow a script, you may get some for of compensation, if it has been that long in dispatch, I think the norm is £5, some get more depending on how hard you stamp your foot.
Not sure if this is typical, but the emails I get from Amazon are almost always incorrect, I’m used to getting items one day before the estimated arrival date, so take the “delivery date” with a grain of salt.
Once Upon A Time seemed to have a very obscure launch where it simply vanished from Amazon-US as well as some well known internet vendors. I checked Burning Shed, Amoeba Records and a few others and couldn’t even get the search engine to produce a hit for the 5 disc. Wound up having to order on ebay so I’m sure it didn’t register as a sale. C’mon boys………first the cock up with the Sparkle in the Rain and now a non-existent launch of a seminal re-release? For myself, one who discovered the band right before New Gold Dream was launched…….Once Upon A Time was not a “sell out” but a mere response to the times and when listened to in the context of the momentum built up by Sparkle in the Rain and the dominance of the charts of larger sounding music from John Mellencamp, Tears for Fears….etc. OUAT seemed to fit right in. I keep running into blokes who swore off the band when this record came out, saying that DYFAM put dollar signs in their eyes but I had seem the band just prior to that song’s release and they honestly seemed to big to be “opening” for The Pretenders that night, you could tell something was about to pop. Can’t wait for my copy and Paul, thanks for the unboxing video and the great coverage. You’ve made life for people like me who still buy CD, vinyl and as many Deluxe editions as makes sense………….a lot more enjoyable.
I’m reading that Bruce couldn’t leave well enough alone, and like The Promise decided to sing over and supplement some of the outtake material.
Would be very interested to hear from folks that have bought the boxset if this is the case.
Speaking of availability, I went into 2 branches of HMV to try and get the Blu-ray of Rush ‘R-40’, they didn’t have it in either. The guy at the Bluewater branch said that it’s a “to order only” item and that I would be better off getting it from Amazon! In view of that reply I didn’t bother about asking for the Simple Minds Blu-ray.
Oh I wish Tears For Fears played The Hurting in full. What a missed opportunity. They made a big thing out of it when they real eased the box set, even going as far as releasing new material (ok, covers!) using the same typography and announcing they were recording a new album. There was me thinking maybe they would go back to sounding more like that album, a little more electronic than what they’ve released in “recent” years… It looks like since Curt Smith came back to the fold they never managed to move on from the sound of Seeds of Love (60s/80s psychedelic rock). Happy Ending to me was just a rehash of that 3rd album and that sound/style. I much preferred the way Roland had managed to go in a different direction with Elemental and Raoul. Happy Ending was like going backwards. I know that going back to the sound they had on The Hurting would be going even further back but I do think they could have explored that electronic side a bit more and a bit longer and with the re-release of the album there was an opportunity… Well, we’ll see what the new album has to offer…
Impressive chart placing for TTTB given the price and that there seems to be such a split in opinions about the content. The Times gave it a good review yesterday though. Haven’t seen it or heard yet as its a Christmas present but really looking forward to it. The documentary and Tempe show are on BBC Four next week I believe which may boost sales.
The Hurting in full? I very nearly asked (when I read here of their live return) if anyone thought this might *ever* happen. but thought this highly doubtful, so didn’t ask. I hope it still does one day. I need this more than any other gig … birthday on tuesday Paul?! mine was sunday ;)
Happy Birthday for Sunday!
thank you :)
happy belated one to you too :)
The Springy box set would probably have charted higher if all this box sets were purchased in the UK. I got my CD/Bluray set from Amazon Italy as other people I know did for less than £65.
Forgot to say it was the bluray edition.
Bought mine a week ago at jpc.de for 20€.
No sign of Once upon a time in any of the new formats in my local HMV and Fopp. I’ve been checking since its release on the 4th. Both stores told me to give it a couple of weeks.
I also went into my local HMV and they had no copies of Simple Minds in any format on release day, which I found surprising because last month they had the King Crimson – THRAK and Gentle Giant – Octopus CD/Bluray combos and I’ve never seen those bands stocked by them before.
I’ve ordered 2 copies of Simple Minds, weeks ago and still not received it. On emailing my supplier, I was told they hadn’t received their stock yet from UMG. Seems they sorted the big guns first. Not very good I feel by the music giant. I like to support local businesses and they were cheaper too!