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Rick Wakeman deluxe reissues

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Rick Wakeman‘s first two studio albums will be reissued by Universal Music / A&M Records in the new year as two-disc deluxe editions.

The keyboard player and composer’s 1973 debut The Six Wives Of Henry VIII and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975) will be be re-released as CD+DVD deluxe sets and there will also be new vinyl pressings.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII will include a few single edits as bonus material, along with the original Quadrophonic Mix on the DVD.

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table also includes a Quad Mix on the DVD along with a BBC TV special from April 1975.

Both reissues will be released on 2 February 2015.


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The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Deluxe CD+DVD

Vinyl

roundtable_LP

The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights of the Round Table

Deluxe CD+DVD

Vinyl


Track listings

The Six Wives of Henry VII (CD+DVD Deluxe)

Disc One (CD)

  • 1. Catherine of Aragon
  • 2. Anne of Cleves
  • 3. Catherine Howard
  • 4. Jane Seymour
  • 5. Anne Boleyn ‘The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended’
  • 6. Catherine Parr

Bonus Material

  • 7. Catherine of Aragon (First Mix)
  • 8. Anne Boleyn ‘The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended’ (Single Edit)
  • 9. Catherine Parr (Single Edit)

Disc Two (DVD)

Quadraphonic Mix

  • 1. Catherine of Aragon
  • 2. Anne of Cleves
  • 3. Catherine Howard
  • 4. Jane Seymour
  • 5. Anne Boleyn ‘The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended’
  • 6. Catherine Parr

Bonus Material

  •  Catherine Howard (BBC TV 1973)

…King Arthur… (CD +DVD Deluxe)

Disc One (CD)

Original Album

  • 1. ARTHUR
  • 2. LADY OF THE LAKE
  • 3. GUINEVERE
  • 4. SIR LANCELOT AND THE BLACK KNIGHT
  • 5. MERLIN THE MAGICIAN
  • 6. SIR GALAHAD
  • 7. THE LAST BATTLE

Disc Two (DVD Video)

QUAD VERSION (QU-54515)

  • 1. ARTHUR
  • 2. LADY OF THE LAKE
  • 3. GUINEVERE
  • 4. SIR LANCELOT AND THE BLACK KNIGHT
  • 5. MERLIN THE MAGICIAN
  • 6. SIR GALAHAD
  • 7. THE LAST BATTLE

Live BBC TV April 1975

  • 1. ARTHUR
  • 2. GUINEVERE
  • 3. SIR LANCELOT AND THE BLACK KNIGHT
  • 4. THE LAST BATTLE

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25 Comments

25 thoughts on “Rick Wakeman deluxe reissues

  1. Just started listening to Arthur. I can’t find any BBC TV. Perhaps it’s buried in some menu that isn’t obvious. There are a couple of odd typos – “DTX” instead of “DTS”, for example. No format logos are included anywhere, and the booklet gives away nothing in regard to what’s on Disc 2. I’m not that fussed really, the quad mix sounds great and I now have a Pioneer Blu-ray player that plays DVD-Audio. I’m not a hardcore audiophile by any means, but I think my Cambridge Audio Minx satellite/sub pack is giving me an incrementally better sound when choosing lossless compared to DTS or Dolby, rather than anything startlingly different. That said, I don’t know why they wouldn’t have issued this on Blu-ray instead. All up, I’m very happy with this. It’s my favourite Wakeman album and this will surely do me for the rest of my days. Good job.

  2. I listened to No Earthly Connection recently (my ‘mirror’ insert is showing its age!) and I thought that 80% of it was rubbish. I used to love it to bits in 1976, maybe my tastes have changed somewhat…

  3. Pretty unexciting bonus material, but a packaging up-grade for Arthur is long-overdue – not that Amazon won’t crush it when they post it, of course – and the sound on both will benefit I’m sure.

    Strictly speaking Piano Vibrations (1971) was his first studio album, although since Rick has himself disowned it perhaps we can all agree not to acknowledge its existence :)

    I agree about 1984. Unaccountably Rick very much dislikes it, so not holding my breath for an upgrade:
    http://www.rwcc.com/title_detail.asp?int_titleID=10

  4. Do Universal Deluxe Editions come with those natty plastic wraparound outers once again? I know that they stopped doing them half way through the ABBA Deluxe sets. Thanks!

  5. About time !!
    A couple of months ago I bought from Gonzo a DVD of the Arthur gig at the Empire Pool Wembley , I wonder if its the same film on the new DVD ?
    Also a few years ago I bought Jap carboard sleeve versions of King Arthur and No Earthly Connection. Brilliant sound and of course great sleeves . No Earthly even came with a piece of foil so you can see the picture on the sleeve properly , just like the original album .

  6. Quick nit-pickers note:
    These are DVD-Audio/Video hybrid discs, not straight DVD-Video so that the Quads are there in 24/96 lossless along with the stereos.
    They are also included as DTS & AC3 versions for backwards compatibility

  7. Cant wait ! – I really do hope that the remasters do the source material justice. I have the Japanese 2003 paper sleeve remasters of each of these albums and would be interested to see if there is a leap forward sound wise (hopefully they will be allowed to have more dynamic range). The 2003 paper sleeve of No Earthly Connection is pretty good but a high quality deluxe version remaster would be awesome. If they can come close to the Mobile Fidelity effort on the Ultradisc version of ‘Journey..’ on any of the Deluxe Edition remasters I would be pretty happy.

  8. Two essential purchases here.

    If an industry head is reading this – I second the request for a Deluxe Edition of 1984. But the one I’d die for…. No Earthly Connection!

  9. Journey was his highest charting album in both the UK & USA though and it was also released in quad. Maybe if these two reissues are successful, Journey will follow.

  10. Just a good improvement on the sound would make me very happy. If there is any bonus material, it is still better. Rick Wakeman spent many years saying that Universal was not interested in re-releasing his albums. I hope Wakeman himself is involved in these editions.
    I think that Journey to the Centre of the Earth is Wakeman’s second album and King Arthur is the third one.

    1. He was apparently quoted last August as stating that he felt they were the best remasters he had heard of 1970’s material so it would seem he has had some involvement.

      Looking forward to Criminal Record, hopefully, getting a deluxe edition in due course.

  11. Very excited to see these being released. More record companies need to dust off those old quadraphonic mixes and reissue them. I am surprised however that there isn’t a BluRay option, given that Universal seems to like that format now. Regardless of format though, will be very happy to have these.

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