Features

Saturday Deluxe / 16 March 2024

“You say it’s your birthday…”

By Paul Sinclair

Comments

56

Baker’s dozen

I forgot to acknowledge this site’s birthday yesterday. On Friday, SDE was 13 years old – a rowdy teenager! Thanks, as always, go to YOU, the loyal and supportive readership. It has been an amazing journey and I’m glad you’ve been along for the ride. This site endures between we share the same passion for physical music. We care.

It has been gratifying in the last couple of years to step up and be able to exert some influence over the products that record labels deliver to audiences, notably with the SDE Surround Series. I’m particularly proud of this series because we are not just another retailer passively offering an exclusive coloured vinyl version of an album. The blu-rays really do offer something unique, and I do my best to influence the content and encourage labels and artist management to be generous! Sometimes the product and the Atmos Mixes simply would not exist if it were not for SDE (and by that I mean the combined enthusiasm of me, the editor, and you the audience). Paul Young is one such example.

Talking of Paul Young, the Dolby playback event on 7 March was fantastic. I know it’s difficult with a global audience, but I’d love to do more events like this where I get to meet more of you and we can come together and listen to music, celebrate music, talk about music. I will do my best to make this happen.

For now, thank you. SDE will do its best to not misbehave too much during its teenage years.

I’m still feeling really sad about Karl Wallinger. I was listening to a podcast interview where he was saying if you added up World Party’s global album sales it didn’t even reach 1m copies, which was quite a shocking statistic. I did point out on Tuesday that Goodbye Jumbo only spent one week in the UK top 40 album charts, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

I suppose it’s easy to view Karl as something of an underachiever, which sounds crazy given his creative achievements in those productive 10 or 15 years… but he didn’t release any new albums in almost the last quarter century of his life, which does feel like a waste, given his talents. There’s a song on the original version of the Dumbing Up album called ‘All The Love That’s Wasted’ and you could apply ‘talent’ to that line for Karl. I don’t mean that harshly, and of course we know health issues played their part.

The upside of creative freedom and not being constrained by the commercial focus of record labels is also a downside. Sometimes being able to do exactly what you want, or not do anything if you don’t want to, isn’t necessarily a positive. Karl surely paid the price for his disinterest in promoting or re-releasing his back catalogue, and combined with his inactivity – aside from occasional mini-tours on the other side of the world – World Party were effectively forgotten by the public at large. There was never even a ‘best of’ in the UK which seems crazy. I’m pretty sure Karl thought they were naff, but the odd compromise would have had wider benefits.

He did eventually see some sense with the vinyl reissue campaign of recent years, only to be slightly thwarted by COVID and production delays and the like.

Sadly, it’s not going to happen in Karl’s lifetime, but you hope that, when the time is right, his wonderful body of work will be celebrated and re-promoted and embraced by new generations of fans who may be unaware of all that great music. Excuse me, while I go and put on Egyptology...

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56 Comments

56 thoughts on “Saturday Deluxe / 16 March 2024”

  1. I know there’s no easy comparison musically, but Karl’s demise, out of the blue, has struck me similarly to David Bowie’s tectonic death announcement. The old trope about not missing your water till the well runs dry is apropos.
    Happy Birthday!
    (you did it…..congratulations)

  3. Congratulations Paul on the anniversary. I hope you continue for many years to come. Its a daily visit for me.

    I’ve been thinking about Karl Wallinger alot too in the last few days. Its a shockingly young age to pass away at and I hope his family and friends can take comfort of the joy that he gave to alot of people (and continues to do so). It does feel a bit sad that World Party seems to be largely forgotten by the music buying public but what he did manage to produce was exceptional. I am rather fond of Dumbing Up and one of my favourite songs of his was was ‘World Party’ way back on the first album. Very sad.

  4. Congratulations and thank you Paul! Your site has been an invaluable resource to this music nerd from Canada.
    Wishing you many more birthdays to come.

  5. A little late to the party, but congratulations, Paul and SDE! I’m so grateful for the existence of this site, and the (generally) incredibly nice fellow users who are a joy to interact with. Musical tastes may differ, but I’m sure we’re all united in wishing for the continued existence of this great site!!! (but, take care of yourself and your family first and foremost)

  6. When I first saw the 13 I thought a certain Blur album might be getting a revamp. Congrats Paul – this is a great website and you’ve built a nice little community of like minded music – and physical media – buffs. I have definitely been thinking about Karl W these last few days – this was unexpected and I guess maybe I hoped we’d see some more music from a brilliant musician. But I’ll be thankful for what we got.

  7. I visit SDE multiple times daily because its about true music enthusiasts enjoying what we love. Cheers Paul…heres to many more years!

  8. Well done on making 13 years (so far), followed for a few years now and it is a website I visit on a regular basis every day, enjoy your news and content.

  9. Joyeux anniversaire SDE. 13 ans déjà.
    I came on this site via a french forum called Club80. It closed but SDE stayed.
    As others have already said, I come multiple times a day to check the news as I love holding the music in my hands.

  10. Happy b-day to this great site! I first found it when doing a web search to try and find remastered Robert Palmer CDs. But concerning Karl Wallinger: 1 million worldwide seems a bit low, considering Private Revolution scrapped the US top 40, and Bang! was #2 in the UK! But yes, if money wasn’t an issue and he was a bit lazy by nature, and with no record company cracking the whip then it seems productivity reached a snail’s pace in recent years plus his health issues are an unknown factor. But I will always enjoy those 5 albums for the great work they are.

  15. Happy 13th SDE!

    Thank you so much for your commitment to blu-ray audio and showing the labels that it is still a viable format.

    Looking forward to another 13 years!

    I was fortunate enough to see World Party twice. There was always so much joy in the room at a World Party concert. I will never forget the sound of 1,000 New Yorkers belting out the “woo woo”s during “Way Down Now”. World Party shows were indeed a party, a wonderful communal experience. In recent interviews Karl had been saying that he had been working on new material. Hopefully we got to hear It someday. R.I.P. Karl.

  17. Happy Birthday, SDE! Now it’s time to stop listening to top 100 music and get serious. I recommend the Album Years Podcast by Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness. Go and find David Bowie Soundtrack Bahnhof Zoo, Paris by Supertramp and Destroyer by Kiss. Oh, wait, that was me at 13 in 1981.

    1. I found Christiane F. such a hard / depressing watch when I was younger. I can’t imagine it’s any more fun nowadays. Fabulous Bowie music though.

      1. The movie did what it was supposed to do: scare the hell out of me when it comes to using drugs. The book was even more explizit. I never ever touched hard drugs as a result.

  18. Paul, thank you for fighting on behalf of music fans who still want physical media for the past thirteen years. You have every reason to be proud of the SDE Surround Series.
    I know there’s a lot involved but it would be amazing if you start to put together exclusive releases like themed compilations, mopping up tracks not on albums but have an Atmos mix but you need more co-operation from the major labels to achieve this.

  20. Happy birthday and many, many thanks for all the information and articles about the editions, many I would have missed to buy, many I might not have bought and luckily I did, and many I might have bought and been disappointed. Paul, I wish you much success in your work and that you keep us informed about everything for many, many years to come. Cheers!

  21. Well hopefully you’ll have another 13 years of not posting my comments!! Having said that I do have the odd pearl of wisdom but most of them I’m met with the dreaded green bar! Love the site regardless! Hope you have a lovely st paddy’s day, love john.

  22. Like many others have stated, always the 1st site I look at every morning and then several times through the day!
    Thank you Paul and SDE and many happy returns! Here’s to many more!!

  23. Hi all, I heard about super deluxe in a taxi on the way to a Paul Weller gig in York. That was 5-6 years ago. Now I am on it everyday. It’s the go place for music fans. Here’s to another 13 and many more years to come. Cheers Kev

  24. Thank you for 13 years of joy! My music collection would be very different without SDE, let alone my Blu-Rays. Checking SDE several times daily has become a routine as well as connecting with the SDE community in the comment section. This site brings pleasure to so many. It is also nice and well deserved that labels and artists are getting more and more engaged. Well done!!

  25. Many Happy returns of the day…13 and going strong.. keep going for many more years, with many more releases.
    This is a truly awesome site, Paul, thank you very much. Big love to you and your family…. and all involved.

  26. Happy Birthday SDE! Paul, your site is the first I visit each morning. Thank you for all you do, especially the SDE blu-ray CDs. Now, can you bring back Liz Truess so that buying from the UK can be at parity with the US $? Damn I miss her!

  28. Paul first happy birthday to SDE and your success with it. I check out your site everyday. Next I fully agree on your comments on World Party ie Karl Wallinger. His albums, especially the initial 2 albums received a ton of airplay here in Chicago where he enjoyed a large following thanks to WXRT FM. XRT is a progressive station that plays(ed) lots of artists that don;t get any airplay on other “rock” stations with Classic Rock frankly the most repetitive crap on the air. I listened to Message in the Box, and Way down today while flying back home-just great songs from a great album. Thanks for supporting World Party-just sad to see Karl’s passing.

    1. Hey nice to know another Chicagoan is on SDE. Yes, World Party was wholeheartedly supported on XRT. In fact Message In The Box was a featured intro song to a popular weekly segment “Lin’s Bin”

      Happy 13th Paul! Here’s to 13 more!

    2. I am also a Chicagoan and regular listener of XRT, and it was through that station that I heard of World Party, XTC, etc. Bands that other stations would not play.

      And Happy 13th Birthday Paul and SDE!

    3. Saw WP opening up for The Mission or The Might Lemon Drops at The Vic Theatre on Sheffield Ave in Chicago. An impressive opening act and a fan ever since. Yeah underrated for sure.

  31. Happy 13th SDE/ Paul! I remember 2011 very well, in particular all of us at work being given the new iPhone 4 which had Outlook and we all had to work off a phone lol , I was working on the Olympic stadium at the time, and stopping off at Oxford Circus on the way home to stock up on vinyl, without this site my collection would be pretty empty of recent purchases, I can remember an alert for the Bowie Five Years vinyl box, crazy cheap got one for me and one for bruv, wishing you continued success .

  32. Happy Birthday SDE!

    Checking in has become an essential daily activity. I’m grateful for all the music I’ve discovered and interaction with the community. I told my wife that all the people I really want to talk to about music are on this site, and although I don’t know any of them personally, I totally recognize their faces and screen names in the comment section. Really thought it was cool that you had a listening event for Paul Young, and it made me hope that when I make it across the pond one day soon, I can meet some of you in person.

    Thanks for all you do Paul – always grateful. I’m listening to Bang! today…

  33. Happy thirteenth SDE! Thank you Paul for all your efforts thru the years. While I’m sure it falls under a work of passion, it’s still work. I have so much admiration for your drive to keep forging ahead with new ideas that retain the spirit and intent of what brought us all together over the last decade + 3!

  34. Congratulations and welcome to the teen years! Hope it doesn’t mean you start to get stroppy and argue about everything!

    Talking about the lack of success that World Party had, did you watch the documentary on Microdisney on BBC4 last night. Interesting insight but trying to buy a CD afterwards, all I could find were used CD’s. A pity no one thought of a reissue plan to coincide with the programme.

    1. There were rumours of a whole life boxset in 2022 but nothing yet. I agree it seems crazy that all their work is OOP and the last two albums especially for 30+ years. Great documentary, great band.

  35. Happy Birthday SDE. Never boring, always interesting and vital in my life!

    The lovely booklets of earlier years and the SDE surround series have been a delight, not to mention the likes of the Bronski Beat bonus cd single. The entertaining readership comments is the cream on top.

    Re: lack of output: Paddy McAloon where are you?

  36. Cheers to entering the teen years! True to any teenager, both challenging (in terms of wallets) and rewarding (in terms of experiences).

  37. Congrats on another SDE birthday Paul! Don’t take you, this site nor the SDE community for granted. I visit daily and it’s great to be able to communicate and interact with other music collectors from around the world here. The wonder of the internet.

    Have been an active participant since Nov 2013. My first post was for the Edsel They Might Be Giant 2-for-1 album reissues:
    https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/they-might-be-giants-elektra-album-2cd-reissues-including-flood/

    SDE is a place where I have learned about and explored unfamiliar artists, been alerted to releases I wouldn’t have known about, benefited from many ‘deal alerts’, purchased several SDE Surround Series releases, have found a place to complain about the missing tracks on reissues and can dust off and post my wish list in the annual ‘new year’ preview post (e.g. full PSB SDEs).

    Thank you Paul for all of your efforts and hard work with everything SDE!

  38. Zorionak Paul! Happy 13 anniversary!!

    Thank you very much for the work you do on this website, although it hurts my pocket, the satisfaction makes up for it.

    Many years ago (2014?) I came across this website, by chance looking for information about some box set that I no longer remember and since then my collection of music has been growing considerably.

    Without forgetting, the SDE Surround series are a delight, it’s a shame that I’m missing some copies from the beginning. I didn’t know how to value the initiative and I regretted it, I hope they are reissued sometime.

    In any case, happy 13 years and look forward to the next 25. :)

  39. Sometimes an artist really only has a certain amount to say, as it were. I’m not alone in thinking, for instance, that Sandy Denny – highly feted in the early part of her career (Melody Maker ‘best female artist’ 1970 etc.) – just ran out of steam creatively by the time of her (tragic) passing in 1978. If that accident hadn’t happened, she would likely have just faded into retirement, popping up at the odd Cropredy Festival reunion in later life with people unwisely encouraging her to write more songs and make recorded comebacks. Sometimes a few bright-burning years of recorded work are all there is, and that should be fine. Maybe Wallinger was one of those people and had the self-awareness to know it and be cool with it.

    Anyway, happy birthday – and keep on (pop-)rocking, Paul!

  41. Happy anniversary, Paul and Superdeluxeedition!

    To celebrate, Amazon U.K. has reduced The Beach Boys’ Sail on Sailor 6CD super deluxe set to £22.99 (highest price that I can recall, shortly after release, was £139.99).

    Has any boxed set, by any artist, ever fallen by such a huge amount?

  42. Happy 13 to you Paul/SDE! Many thanks for SDE being something I look forward to checking out every day. I’ve been fortunate to learn many other things about bands I already love and chat with others here about them. Adds a whole new level of appreciation to the music. Because of this site, I’ve also added well over a dozen other artists into the regular rotation. Of course, finding out about upcoming releases and even getting the opportunity for exclusives via the SDE store (TFF The Tipping Point) is a great bonus. Best wishes for the future!

  43. happy birthday to the site. We also celebrated my daughter’s 16th birthday yesterday so double celebrations.

    Can’t imagine my life with out the site and all the news, product and excitement I’ve had over the last decade and a bit.

  44. Happy 13th Birthday to SDE. One of two sites that I visit daily. Keep up the great work Paul.

    As far as World Party goes, Goodbye Jumbo is one of those rare albums that even having not listened to it for a very long time, once it is played again every song is instantly remembered and appreciated for how the marriage of melody and lyrics came together on that album. Time to source the rest of the catalogue to find out what I missed.

  45. Hi Paul and Happy 13th Birthday.
    As I have pointed out before, I’ve followed your site pretty much from its inception and only occasionally made comments. You’ve chosen quite a few not to be published – fair enough.
    I’m the same as you regarding Karl Wallinger. His death has had a profound impact on me. I am thankful for the body of work he has left behind but for years and years ( and years ) I have waited for some new material which never came to fruition and almost feel cheated for that.
    I’m surprised at his total album sales but, over the years when chatting to any other musos out there, we are seemingly in a minority of having World Party in our lives, let alone our music collection.
    Someone in another comment section made the point that they were glad to be in the minority of being a fan and I totally get that. As long as a musician can afford to produce new music then great. It’s sad that Karl, whom I’m sure could do so, chose not to.
    I’ve also briefly mentioned John Butler and Diesel Park West in another comment. He / they have been pretty prolific since the late ‘80’s with their album output and as much as their music differs from World Party, I would thoroughly recommend any readers out there to give them a listen. Shakespeare Alabama is a good place to start. Not sure why I’m mentioning them other than they are one of my favourite bands, similar starting timeline to World Party and hugely underrated. It might even help get over the feeling of loss towards Karl Wallinger, having another supremely talented songwriter who is still out there doing his thing without fanfare.

    1. Congratulations Paul on your 13th Birthday for all those who now contribute to SDE

      Hiya Mick you are not alone in appreciating Diesel Park West – All the Myths on Sunday ( playing as I type.)

      Karl Wallinger was recognised as a great talent during his lifetime being awarded an Ivor Novello Award,for – she’s the one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She's_the_One_(World_Party_song)

      New Radicals / Gregg Alexander, is also another talented songwriter – You get what you give

  46. “Sometimes being able to do exactly what you want, or not do anything if you don’t want to, isn’t necessarily a positive.”

    This equally applies to Peter Gabriel.

    1. Keeping it “In House” – Kate Bush too.

      As much as it is a silly thing to say and I certainly don’t wish ill, I kinda wish her accountant had done a “Leonard Cohen”, run off with all her money forcing her to go back out and be creative. As Tom Newman said of Mike Oldfield “Creativity comes from pain”.

      Middle aged comfort doesn’t make great albums or, in Kate’s case any albums.

      edit: before I see the rebuttals. Peter’s last album i/o is marvellous, it just took 21 years and Kate is currently on 13 years

      1. A good point about Kate and middle age Chris. Although in PG’s defence it was only a gap between actual studio albums not touring or soundtrack work, reimaginings etc etc.
        I think I’d much rather have a reasonable gap between albums (not 21 years mind) rather than artists who release albums each year or every two years with bland or dire results.
        Depeche Mode spring to mind, despite their latest being decent pretty much everything between Ultra and Memento Mori is average at best and that’s being kind.

        1. It’s a valid point of yours Trapdoor.

          At what point does noodling around the edges of creativity become actual creativity. I guess artists of this stature have earned the right to noodle around as many edges as they goddamn like.

          I’m probably selfish enough to think of 50 Words for Snow (2011) and Up (2002) as the last thing proper. I certainly don’t count The Director’s Cut although that, weirdly, would only shave 6 months off the numbers as it was also 2011. I’m not even sure I class Before the Dawn (2014) on CD / Vinyl as new work. The live experience was everything, the album, not so much. I’ve listened to it a couple of times since, possibly not all the way through. It’s not even as exciting as “Oil on Canvas” or “Exposed” but I wasn’t at either of those so maybe there is the reasoning / answer.

          If Kate came out with anything approaching the quality of i/o in the next few years it would, metaphorically at least, blow my socks off. And, as much as I love her, I would happily commit the heresy of saying the you can stick the new artwork versions up yer i/o.

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