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Cherry Red apologise for Yazz errors

By Paul Sinclair

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79

Yazz / Wanted 3CD reissue

Cherry Red have issued a statement about their three-CD reissue of Yazz‘s 1988 album Wanted, after fans complained about errors on the set, and will be issuing replacement discs.

Amongst the problems identified, was the fact that the seven-inch version of Stand Up For Your Love Rights (bonus track on CD 1) is actually an edited version of the single mix and the Stand Up For Your Love Rights (She’s Crazy Mix) – track 9 on disc three) is not correct actually that mix at all…

In a post on their facebook page, Cherry Pop promised to sort this out and left the following message:

“Thank you to those of you that have contacted Cherry Red Records regarding our new Yazz 3 CD release.

We’ve been looking into the issues raised as a matter or urgency.

We were unable to access the vast majority of the original master tapes for this 3 CD package as their location is unknown.

One track that was supplied and mislabelled from the original production master was the ‘Stand Up For Your Love Rights – She’s Crazy Mix’. We are now creating a new master using the edited version of the track with the timing of 04:57 rather than the original 07:50 version as no alternative master source is available.

The 7″ versions of ‘Stand Up For Your Love Rights’ and ‘Bad House Music’ were sourced from the CD single and tallied with the supplied timings from the rights owner (as is standard). This also applies to the 12″ version of ‘Fine Time’. There was a ruling in the past that CD singles had a maximum timing of 20 minutes – this could explain why an edited version of ‘Bad House Music’ was used. It was the fourth track on ‘The Only Way Is Up’ CD single and had to be edited to be beneath the 20 minute threshold.

‘Turn It Up’ was cloned from the original commercial CD release and involved no clipping of the track.

It is always hugely regrettable when an issue is reported. Our releases mean a great deal to those people working on them. However we are always very keen to put matters right to ensure the best possible product is created. Increasingly the condition and availability of masters is a restricting factor in the production of our CD’s. It’s not an excuse but has a bearing on finding alternative and suitable mastering sources.

Anybody who would like a replacement disc should please email us at [email protected] with their name and address and we will send out the replacement disc as soon as it is back from manufacture in early 2017.

We thank you for your patience, understanding and support.
The Cherry Pop Team”

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79 Comments

79 thoughts on “Cherry Red apologise for Yazz errors”

  1. It turned out that the full”She’s Crazy Mix” of “Stand Up For Your Love Rights” was actually available on the French CD Single (Cat. No. 872 525-2) where it was unluckily mislabelled “Y’azzid Mix”..

  2. OK – Cherry Red say that ‘Turn It Up’ is a direct clone from the original CD… Then how come it is a different version to the one on my original 1988 Release CD? On my 1988 CD the track runs at 4:40, this ‘Remaster’ has a different mix that runs at 4:21…. so how could it be cloned from the original CD Release????

    They need to take responsibility for their mistakes, correct the discs and offer replacements of Both the affected CD’s, not just one of them!

    At least when Edsel screwed up the Dead Or Alive Box, they corrected the errors and replaced all of the 9CD’s and both DVD’s that were affected.

    1. I’d encountered the different mixes of “Turn It Up” before. I think there were different versions on the original US and UK CDs.

      PS Baba K – nice job. ; )

    1. Just received my replacement CD today after 3 months. Only one CD and only one track amended. CD3 and an edited version of Stand Up For Your Love Rights (She’s Crazy Mix) added.

  5. Most of the staff at these labels with their music university degrees and snotty attitudes,simply don’t give two hoots.They need fan turned sleuths in the archives, who have a passion for music and will be meticulous to track down the correct masters.

  6. Regarding the Belinda Carlisle A Woman and A Man error, I only discovered this a few weeks ago, emailed Edsel through their website and had the disc within 72 hours even though I had bought the CD’s on their release.

    Hope that info is useful to those who didn’t know either.

  7. It would be good to have a page with a running list of these errors and outcomes to shame other labels.
    The Bowie Five Years box contains errors and even clipped a word out of one song from the ‘Space Oddity’ album but no one batted an eyelid.

  8. “We were unable to access the vast majority of the original master tapes for this 3 CD package as their location is unknown.”
    What? So you’re doing a commercial extended release of an album and your source material is in fact everything you can find on Discogs?

    1. @John, whahaha. I think the physical CD/product will be dying if major labels & smaller independent reissue labels keep screwing up. CD buyers/fans won’t be buying anymore. That’s why I think it’s the best they release the whole back catalogue or their archive of music from master tapes online (without any “mastering”, read compressing or brickwalling)! So we can get what we want. No limitation (80mins of CD space: early fades, omitting tracks, etc), bad selection (omitting hard to find gems instead of those easily obtainables), wrong labelling (same mix/version with different names), no “release date”-deadline to meet (master tapes location unknown) etc! If there is a fault or an error they can easily be corrected (pull the wrong one replace with a correct one online instead of repressing CD’s & sending out)! We can listening to previews before getting the tracks. Of course I still prefer to get the physical CD/product in my hands. But online downloads would be a good addition or alternative for the “rest” of the unreleased tracks.

  9. I don’t know if it’s the only business model tbat works for them nowadaays, but Cherry Red, and the huge array of sublabels under ir’s “umberella” parentage, seem to release a huge amount of material. Maybe too much for it’s doubtless overworked staff to keep a proper handle on.

    But ensuring accurate track details, decent mastering and providing audio sources should be a minimum requirement for reissue labels. It’s not Rocket Surgery[sic] after all!

    As said above, hardcore fans would doubtless be happy to check test pressings and proof read liner notes – free of charge!

    Also, aren’t some of the CR sublabels – Esoteric for example – better than others? If so, it should be possible for the parent label to impose the same standards accross the board. Put the right people in charge for a start.

    (Another point is that reissue labels save a lot of cash by not having to stump up for recording costs / artist development & promotion, and should therefore be able to concentrate more of that £9.99 per disc into quality control – assuming the initial licensing costs aren’t prohibitive.)

  10. was there ever a replacement disc for the error of the expanded edition of holly johnson’s “blast”? the cherry red rekease from 2010 has errors with the tracks 1-17 and 2-6 but i think there have never been any replacement discs pressed… :-(

  11. I just bought the reissued “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence”-Soundtrack on CD and there are some major glitches at the end. Now I decided to stop replacing my old collection with those messy rereleases (see also: New Order, Siousie & The Banshees…).

  12. I do think too much blame is given to staff at the record label – however they certainly aren’t blameless!

    When tapes in the recording studio are labelled, this is usually done by the tape-op or engineer, therefore tapes are always being mislabeled or the notes are incomplete.

    Record label staff will only go by what has been noted. However this doesn’t excuse lack of knowledge, research, common sense and project governance.

    For example, the Beatles track Free As A Bird was only discovered on a tape by accident as it wasn’t listed on the tape.

    :-)

  13. Disc 1
    -09 Turn It Up 4:21
    {it does sound like it skipped a beat at the beginning, glad i still have my original cd somewhere. It might be cloned from the original commercial cd release and involved no clipping of the track. But back in those days many cd’s were having -0:02 or -0:01 so the track starts earlier than the 0:00 mark. In that case you have to rip the whole or the 2 tracks as a whole instead of ripping the tracks separately. My guess is that it was the case and Cherry Red ripped the track separately, without any clipping the track is still missing a few beats in the beginning}

    -11 Stand Up For Your Love Rights (7″ Version) 4:07
    {almost all cd singles were using the 4:20 version. I could only find a few compilation cd’s on discogs using the 4:05 version: 100% Pure House/The Best 7 for example}

    -14 Bad House Music (7″ Version) 2:56
    {there were many “unnecessary” early fades on various cd singles. But when you promised people the 7″ version you should stick to the actual 7″ version & some edits due to the 20mins limit on cd singles! The 4:30 version was on the Belgian Bam Bam Remixes cd single, German & Japanese cd singles! To be honest i didn’t like any of these 3 or 4 mins early fade out of the 12″ version. Using the 12″ version i created my own 7″ version 3:57 which has the same ending as the 12″ version}

    Disc 3
    -05 Treat Me Good (Three Amigos Mix) 6:20
    {is an early fade as well from a compilation cd. Glad i got the full length mix 6:36 from a friend}

    -09 Stand Up For Your Love Rights (She’s Crazy Mix) 7:07 is repeated Disc 3-02 US Extended Remix
    {the real She’s Crazy Mix: halfway down the intro music, there should be someone’s singing: she’s crazy, she’s crazy…The 4:57 edit they are going to use, was probably from a compilation cd The Greatest Hits Of House! I’m glad I have the 7:38 version from a friend}

  14. Well said, Graham and Scott. Major labels mostly get deluxe editions right (the music, anyway – the sleeve/booklet notes are regularly riddled with typos), but indies often don’t. This Yazz album was originally on Big Life, a label owned by her husband. Did Cherry Red even ask him for the masters? In America, some major labels keep their masters in Utah because the desert/salt lake climate keeps the tapes dry. I’m sure I read a few years ago that EMI keeps its masters in a disused London Underground tunnel for safe keeping (presumably in climate controlled rooms).

  15. You’ve only got to put an artist like yazz into the discogs database and search for ‘appears on compilation” to find 7″ versions on cd for a few quid if not pence. It’s getting silly now. It’s time to stick to what we’ve got and compile our own albums

  16. Claudia Brücken’s “Love: And A Million Other Things” is another sloppy job by Cherry Red: unexplained extra spaces added between tracks, botched up segue between tracks, tracks cut off during fade-out, one bonus track has noise throughout on one channel, audible vinyl noise on another, left channel drops out on another, missing pages from booklet, distorted colours on & image tilted on sleeve. Not to mention the music is 6 dB louder (brickwalled) compared to original.

    Obviously this went straight back. There’s apparently a somewhat corrected version but even that has mistakes (see Discogs).

  18. I think the title of this post is misleading and incorrect. Cherry Red are not apologizing at all. The only word that hints at something along those lines is “It is always hugely regrettable when an issue is reported”. Is it too much to ask that they actually say sorry for making you go through this trouble and disappointing you in such a manner when you paid good money (for our CDRs compiled of cd singles rips)? I guess it is!

  19. When a label says a master is lost, take it with a grain of salt. Often times, they either only look in the UK archive, or they don’t actually look beyond the obvious. Many times, masters can be found if you contact another of the label offices in another country. For example, some of the lost Siouxsie and the Banshees masters and video masters were found in the German archive when the UK archive could not locate them. Many years ago, Cherry Red released a Best Of Classix Nouveaux compilation. I had emailed them asking them of source material on the songs they hadn’t previously issued on their previous CD reissues. The BS response I received was “Oh, the masters are lost”. This turned out to be false because I found they didn’t even ask for masters from EMI. And to add to the surprise, I was shocked to see my alias ‘Rubellan’ in the credits as having supplied masters for several songs! It turned out, they used a CD-R comp I had made years ago to fill in the gaps, rather than seek the original masters, and I had no knowledge they were doing so. Point is, if someone like Edsel or Cherry Red say that masters were not available, they either didn’t look, didn’t look too far, or went directly for the cost cutting measures. This one does surprise me because most of the Cherry Red CD’s I’ve gotten in the last several years have been new master transfers. Perhaps I’ve just chosen the right titles to buy because it sounds like perhaps they have not completely given up on their previous cost cutting measures.

    1. As record companies continue to gobble up other companies it becomes difficult to keep track of what they have. They simply don’t hire the staff needed.

  20. When deluxes first started to come out, to me, a lot of thought and care went into it. This was a new product. with the success, unfortunately it looks like the labels are using the consumer as cash cows, they will pay anything for their favourite artist.

    I remember my first “super” deluxe U2 achtung baby. I gulped at the price and nearly fainted at the uber deluxe price (which I did not get), but were there any mistakes.

    Fleetwood Mac deluxes of Tusk & Mirage, any mistakes? NO.

    Nearly every week I can feel consumers holding their breath, hoping that their deluxe edition is correct with the labels Edsel & Cherry Red mostly at fault. If not careful, soon we will see a BBC Watchdog report on them!

    The only solution, and painful for the consumer who supports their favourite artist. Don’t buy it. Which then could become a double edge sword, as they may stop doing deluxes. But ask yourself, do you want wrong deluxes or right ones.

    On another point. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of setting up a web page, could do a database page, where the purchaser of a deluxe could put the details in of so called deluxe, to see if it has a recall/replacement and how to obtain a correct version

    1. You would think Discogs is the ideal vehicle for this, but the problem is a user must first step up and enter a new SDE in the first place. As such an endeavour can be very time consuming depending how big the set is due to the comprehensive data entry requirements involved, by the time a big set is entered by some kind soul, this sort of information often does not get visible (as a user comment to the release) in timely manner – if at all – to be of great benefit.

  21. Goodness me there are some sanctimonious voices on here. Duplicating print, film, video files and audio has always been tricky and mistakes will be made. People are fallible and certainly don’t made errors on purpose. Personally I’m delighted record companies are releasing tracks from the vaults (10+ tracks new to CD on this package) and can forgive the odd mistake. Now where the hell are those Pet Shop Boys repackages?

  23. Luckily I’m not interested in those faulty sets, but it’s always amusing to see how the annoying process repeats over and over with no sign of learning from labels. I’m sorry for those who actually buy this stuff and gets constantly screwed up. Feels just like people working for those reissue labels are unprofessional at best, and maybe it’s just the symptom of an oversaturated market (that of music reissues), which is starting to deliver sloppy products with an alarming frequency.

  24. The UK 7″ version of ‘Stand Up For Your Love Rights’ was included on the 2001 greatest hits compilation ‘At Her Very Best’ so how can it be lost? The problem with ‘Fine Time (12″ Version)’ had nothing to do with the length of the track but with how it sounded, it sounds better on the Blank&Jones compilation So80s 8. As for ‘Stand Up For Your Love Rights (She’s Crazy)’ I presume they will be taking this from the 1988 compilation album ‘The Greatest Hits Of House’. A CD I already have which contains the 4:57 edit of the track.

    1. Sounds to me as if you’re the expert Cherry Red needed in the first place! I do wonder why reissue labels don’t get a couple of fans to double check product – things seem to turn out so much better when there are a few passionate individuals involved… Yes, it might take a day or two longer but problems like this won’t arise!

  25. Sounds like those who held on to these masters were “partying” hard in the late 80s & 90s and either mis-labeled or mislaid them. Allegedly “partying”, of course.

  26. And then again…

    I won’t be back on the block for this kind of astonishing work (but not in a good way) and ask one question :
    – Now that we have had all these faulted editions, how to get the one without faults ?
    I mean I wanted once to buy an FGTH compilation, but the 1st CD was mastered in mono. I finally gave up from buying it because it was uncertain to buy the right one and not the faulty one.

    Now for example, that yazz expanded edition I “wanted” (lol), Will I ever be able to buy it and have the cd replaced IN it , or wil I have to buy ANY edition and then complain at Cherry red to get the right CDs ?

    This is an unfinished mess…

      1. That’s true, but what happens when you want to buy it afterward ? truth is you don’t really know if you’re going to buy the right edition , especially if you buy a second hand CD (or via the Internet market) …
        Alos, when I see a CD in store, I usually don’t have 3 hours tospend to locate where the right information of the right CD is and then look after the seller to open the CD and use my eyes to see the matrix number…

  27. Funny how virtually the only reissue of late that hasn’t had complaints from fans about tracklisting errors, use of vinyl rips etc is the brilliant It’s Immaterial double CD set for Life’s Hard And Then You Die. I wonder why that might be?

  29. I’m constantly amazed at how casually the labels treat their bread & butter – the master tapes and the original artwork. A project like Yazz ought to be a no-brainer from Cherry Red’s point of view. But clearly the handlers of the master tapes over the years treated them so poorly that many are lost forever.

    1. Well done Fedge for pointing the finger at the real villains of the piece, the holders of the original master tapes. Anyone who has read the booklets of almost any 60s soul reissue of rare material will be familiar with how poorly some labels labelled their master tape boxes. No wonder reissue labels make mistakes sometimes. There may well be processes they can follow to reduce the number of mistakes which are creeping in, but if too many people complain without saying anything constructive, the reissue labels will all pack up and go home and then we’ll never get our hands on unreleased product. We are all only human.

      1. How are you able to read the booklets? The type is so small. My daughter reads the booklets for me. This is a shame cause I really enjoy reading the liner notes.

    2. Yes and unfortunately it makes reissues difficult and sometimes impossible. This is especially true for 12″ record master tapes. Many companies considered 12″ records as promo only and were careless with storing and labeling. No wonder there are mistakes, so many mislabels. HOWEVER, a company who reissues should review the process. so long they know the artists music well enough to know what is accurate and the right mix to the title etc. One problem is that many of these people working on 80’s reissues weren’t around when the music was first issued. Again no excuse for all the errors simply an explanation

      1. Great points. Let us note, magnetic tape was never developed with purpose of longevity. Things will happen to analog masters over decades. Matters of business have definitely borne unfortunate and careless casualties. Fair to say every single time a tape relocated, 5% chance it went missing or something bad happened for no particular reason. I will never complain about a digital master – better than no master.

        Sorry for off-topic. There should be general consumer understanding that sourcing for reissues is usually difficult. Cannot expect all masters to be retrievable. Labels: just have an appreciation and quit the random thoughtless errors when pulling tracks for reissues, and be open/honest about sourcing (in the fine print if you must).

        Am reminded long ago of leaving my favorite “master” Queen GH vinyl in front of living room window on bright sunny day…oops. And then my pops claiming with unsuccessful straight face that it was fully fixable in the oven.

  30. Wow, every release these days seems to be screwed up.

    Sadly I believe this is because a lot of people in record companies these days are teenagers.

    The adults left to get proper jobs – just like I did!

    :-)

  31. This is the 5th album I have purchased to replace the old originals and original vinyl only to discover later there are errors with them and have needed to get them replaced with corrected booklets and discs (A-Ha, Belinda Carlisle, Dead Or Alive, Nick Kamen and now Yazz). It is really getting damn annoying!!!!! I hope there will be no errors with the up-and-coming albums by Crowded House, Fairground Attraction, Jermaine Stewart, Karyn White, Sam Brown, Super Furry Animals, Wilson Phillips). Thank goodness Cherry Pop/Cherry Red and Edsel do not produce food products or there would be people suffering with food poisoning.

    1. Add Divine and Human League to that list of mistakes. It does get old buying so many releases and then having to have components replaced. Though I’m happy to have all the releases mentioned it really makes you question why this happens so often and yes it must cost a fortune to correct it all.

    2. As an owner of the Belinda Carlisle, a-ha, and Nick Kamen sets, I had no idea they had errors?!? What were they and is it too late to sort replacement discs?!?

      1. ‘A Woman & A Man’ by Belinda Carlisle (Edsel 3 Disc Set) – CD2-6 “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” is not the Belinda Carlisle’s version of the love theme from the 1997 Disney film “Hercules” but instead the Disney Cast version. – A re-pressed version also exists and that was sent out by Edsel to anyone who purchased the mispressed edition and contacted them at the time. – The rear of release also mentions “nineteen bonus tracks” including Single Edits however these were not included in the final track listing and there are only seventeen bonus tracks.

        Nick Kamen self titled album (Cherry Pop 2 Disc Set) – Disc 1, Track 14 has a glitch (‘The Arthur Baker 12″ vocal mix of “Nobody Else” has some kind of corruption at 4:58 where the track loses the beat). – You maybe able to get a replacement disc by sending an email with your name and postal address to: [email protected]

        ‘Stay On These Roads’ by A-Ha (Rhino Records 2 Disc Set) – Unfortunately due to a printing error, a number of the booklets were printed with the pages in incorrect order. As soon as this was discovered by the record label they had new copies of the booklet printed and all new stock should have the correct booklet inside. – If you received a copy of the CD with the booklet with this layout error you can request a new copy of the booklet from the label using this e-mail address: [email protected].

  33. I don’t know, when a similar – but much larger – issue recently occurred regarding Dead or Alive, people were making excuse for the label and thanking them for replacements. I said at the time – it was simply sloppy work, and isn’t to be praised. OF COURSE they should replace the discs, otherwise you haven’t got what they described.

    As for Vinyl to CD transfers. I’m not opposed to them if nothing better is available. But I don’t know why labels aren’t up front and honest about it. Or rather I do know…. people would be less likely to pay… but to not tell us looks like deceit…..

    1. There are thousands of vinyl to CD albums out there in old blues and country collections. Nobody minds. In fact CD has been said to be the best medium to experience old crackly 78 recordings on. It only goes wrong when an idiot label tries to clean these things up and remove all the surface noise. I remember having a magazine freebie once of old pre WWII blues recordings where just such a thing was tried. It was a truely horrible listening experience. Leave our surface noise alone, and look after your master tapes properly!

  35. If you cannot find the masters then why even bother? Give it a few more years and try again or just shelve the project. Everybody can record from vinyl or copy a track from CD these days and then create his own compilation CD.

    1. “Everybody can record from vinyl or copy a track from CD these days and then create his own compilation CD.”

      Cherry Red pioneered this concept over 20 years ago. And obviously, they’re still going strong with it!

      My other favorite ploy of theirs was asking for suggestions for re-releases, and offering as a “reward” three CDs from their catalog. “Hey, buddy, if you can suggest something we can maybe move a few thousand of, there’s a fiver in it for you…”

      And I’ve always wondered how these tactics jibe exactly with the “spiritual” side of Mr. McNay. Somebody is sitting on some pretty good stories, I’m sure.

  37. Given that they can’t even look after the master tapes, I’m not surprised that these collections have errors. Unbelievable – like The National Gallery losing a painting

    1. The original label who issued Yazz had the responsibility to “look after the master tapes.” However the 1980’s is notorious for record companies not being careful with original master tapes. Recall the interview with Blank and Jones. They often spent months and presumably much money hunting around the globe for original masters for their chosen 12″ collections. In some instances when labels were bought out by other record companies many original masters were lost. The 1980’s great music but labels were careless.

  38. Probably they don’t even use EAC to ensure secure cd ripping, but if they do, they’d better include log files somewhere on their cd, just as a proof…

  39. my holly Johnson blast is full of errors I contacted them never heard anything sounds like a couple of tracks have that buffer underrun sound like when you copy a disc too fast

    1. And they never fixed their appalling release of The Danse Society’s Looking Through album either. Seems Cherry Red have cloth ears when mastering AND when hearing customer complaints!

  40. “..for collectors and fans who love holding the music in their hands while they await delivery of corrected replacements from respective record companies.”

  41. It surely can’t be too hard for researchers and engineers on all these reissue projects to exchange information and ensure tracks are what they’re supposed to be. Then have at least ‘one’ listen through and double-check all the audio and details.

    It would save constantly putting out reissues with mistakes and looking like you can’t be trusted to produce an error free product. Has a negative effect on the artist’s name too as well as making people wary of your future products.

  42. I don’t think they are changing the Stand Up For Your Love Rights, as it was the 7” Version from the UK CD Single 4:07, which was slightly shorter the the EU single 4:22.

  44. It amuses me how they talk about obtaining the masters and generally suggesting great attention to detail. I bought Cherry Red’s Frank Sidebottom box set, and none of the masters were located/used. The whole thing featured the vinyl releases put onto CD! I could’ve done that myself, ripping them from a USB turntable!

  45. Jeez – surely it would be better to just spend more time and get it right in the first place.
    All these replacement discs and booklets must be costing the labels a fortune and it seems to be happening more and more…

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