Universal Music to replace faulty Simple Minds box set DVDs

Is it safe to buy this now as its cheap on Amazon, are all the discs fixed now?

Hey JW,

I emailed Universal on Christmas Day after I opened and tested it. I emailed both the Amazon Marketplace Seller and Universal (at the [email protected] address) and attached a copy of my receipt from the Amazon Marketplace Seller. While the Marketplace Seller was in process to issue a pre-paid return label I got a reply from Cressida at Universal saying the replacement booklet and DVD-A were on their way. They arrived a few days later. I am in the USA and hope that Universal are still taking responsibility and minimizing the effort and expense that any other solution for a non-UK purchaser/retailer would require. I was greatly relieved. My Amazon UK Tusk Deluxe (another Christmas Present) also has the correct vinyl (some have the Side 1 repeated on Side 3).

While Amazon UK never put it back up on their website as being sold by them after taking it down when the errors came to light, clearly one would be wary of Amazon Marketplace sellers. Perhaps Universal will replace if you bought it via mail order or are outside of the UK.

Derek

Yep – I got this for Xmas from an Amazon marketplace seller and it had the errors. Returned it and bought it from a different marketplace seller and it too had the errors!! I give up!!

I just got this for Christmas from an Amazon Marketplace seller and it was an original issue with the errors. :-(

I’m planning to finally buy one of these. What’s the odds it is a corrected set?

box purchased on 22 June at Amazon.fr, but still with the issue
now amazon accepts to get it back (even after 1 month, thanks to them!), but how to ensure my next purchase will get the corrected box ?
someone has a good retailer (internet) to recommend which could garantee that?

After contacting Universal about getting the DVD and not the Bluray I got two answers by email. And today the replacement Bluray arrived.

I just purchased the new Simple Minds Sparkle In The Rain Blu Ray Pure Audio disc and have found a defect in the recording on the second track. There is a audible pop/thud at 5:38 on the disc. This is on the surround sound mixes, but not on the 2.0 pcm mix. Either way, it’s unacceptable to have any pops, or unintentional noises on these PURE recordings.

I have several pure audio discs and countless sacd’s/dvd audio discs and never have experienced anything like this.

Anyone else have this problem with the disc?

Could the original posting be updated to say that the period for requesting the replacement DVDs from [email protected] has passed. Response back from UMC is the following:

“Thank you for your email

We are aware of this issue and have made corrections accordingly, as such could you please return your faulty product to the retailer you purchased it from who will be able to provide you with a refund or replacement product.”

Likewise to Anders, I received the DVD not BluRay- Sent word to Universal and they replied in 5 minutes that they will sort it out.
I have to say I am impressed with Universal’s Steve H and his communication with me through this!

I got my replacement disc today. However it was the DVD disk and not the Bluray that I expected to get. Will try to sort it out.

Got mine this morning as well.

Booklet OK, didn’t need the extra page, just re-justified the individual track descriptions to make it fit.

Hi Resolution Stereo is now Stereo. Hooray!

Background shifting between Waterfront and East At Easter and back again has been fixed.

White Hot Day and Kick Inside are now correctly indexed, so no longer include dying seconds of preceding track.

Bizarrely, though Street Hassle now contains the last second of East At Easter on all three mixes, but I think we can overlook that!

Not bothering to compare the 5.1 mixes, just assume they are now OK.

Glad it’s been sorted.

i am still waiting … what the f*ck

Ich habe vor 6 Wochen meine CD/BluRay inkl des Booklets versandt und bis heute keinen Ersatz bekommen – SCHEISSLADEN !!

Had this since Day of release and still waiting to have it put right. Shocking, shame Simple Minds.com could not at least update fans what the current situation is…FARCE

I did get a reply from universal that the replacement disc will be sent on once it’s all sorted, so that’s encouraging. I just sent a pdf ‘printed’ copy from my amazon confirmation of purchase.

Hi Paul, how long did it take to receive the email acknowledgement?

I sent a couple of email to Universal about the faulty dvd and the booklet , but no answers at all. Anyone else with no success like me?

Hi Paul,

Do you know if there’ any news regarding the faulty disc and the booklet replacement?

Thanks!

Thanks Paul!

Will email them. Nothing to lose except the cost of a blu-ray audio.
If there is no replacement eventually, it will be the last time probably I would get any blu-ray audio or remasters from Universal if they don’t get their act together.

Will stick to Japanese copies. At least the Japanese take quality control seriously.

Hi Paul

Wished I had stumbled upon this sooner.
Bought my copy of the blu-ray, and after playing/skipping through a few songs, thought it sounded… er… ‘strange’ and muffled, lacking depth and clarity in the stereo and the 5.1 surround.
Only later to thumb through the internet in search of reviews and to find out about the screw-up!!

Problem is I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and bought the SITR blu-ray from a local music store. I doubt that UNiversal Malaysia or the shop I got it from would entertain this screw up!
Could I mail the reciept (as proof of purchase, and seeing that it’s made in the EU) to [email protected] as in your earlier post and get a replacement for the bluray disc ( hopefully as and when it is available?

The barcode serial on my copy is 6 02537 97355 2, and it says
BIEM / SDRM Universal International Music B.V. Gerrit Van Der Veenlaan 4, 3743 DN, Baarn, Netherlands.
Made in the EU. Set No. 0602537973552

Hope you can help.

Regards
Jonathan

Finally got a reply from them – ‘As soon as replacement discs are available we will get them shipped out to you’ and no any word regarding the faulty booklet though I mentioned it in my mail too…

Does anyone knows how soon they reply to the replacement requests?
I mailed them more than a day ago with an Amazon.de purchase proof and there’s been silence still… :-/

As much as I am interested in knowing that the 5.1 mix on this release is also wrong in some way (I have purchased the HFPA blu-ray), I would like to see the message left by Steven Wilson passed on by Universal in an official manner. A simple message here lost among 70 others may not have any effect. How many people who have bought this release for the 5.1 mix know about it ? We have not been told officially that this is going to be corrected in any way. I expect an official statement acknowledging this issue. As long as we don’t have it, we cannot know for sure that the 5.1 mix will be sorted out too along the 2014 stereo mix…

A thank you to Mr Steven Wilson for leaving your comment here! How professional to give us a heads up and be honest and sincere about it. Like I said before, things do go wrong in life. So by the sound of it at this stage, the DVD box is a nice to have as it is a slick package. In order to get the best sound, I will obtain the blu ray disc as well (which has the HD-loseless version) in due course, once the 5.1 issue has been resolved as well.

Hi Paul,
what’s the e-mail address which Italian/European customers can us eto request replacements?
Thanks in advance
G.Luca

I am a UK resident and I bought the boxset from Amazon Germany. I have contacted Universal via the email address with proof of purchase on Amazon Germany and I have provided them with my UK address. They have confirmed they will send the replacement items. There is no need to send the boxset back to Germany.

The problem isn’t SW’s fault but I find it funny that he wrote “The issues with the 5.1 are less obvious”?

Granted that I was not promised a miracle with this remix (the original is a muddy, veiled mess), but what is wrong on this 5.1 option is dreadfully obvious. Output in the front speakers is almost non-existent – Center speaker vocal are low and veiled – Rear speakers are too hot.

I feel so relived though to hear this a tech problem. I hold SW as the guru of surround mixes and this one seemed to worse than any Silverline DVD-A release. Can’t wait to hear the proper stereo & 5.1 mix.

Hi Steven,
It’s a relief to hear directly from you that something is up with the transfers. Like most fans on this site, I am very familiar with the album having purchased the original on the day of release (and must have listened to a couple of hundred times since on vinyl and cd). I could tell something wasn’t quite right with the stereo mix on the blu ray but then with all the comments posted on the site, you begin to doubt yourself. From what I did glean, I particularly like what you have done to bring out the bass on the intro to Book Of Brilliant Things. I am also a long standing fan of XTC and thought Nonsuch and Drums & Wires were outstanding packages and fantastic sound quality played through my Naim system. I understand Oranges & Lemons is next! Anyway I am looking forward to hearing Sparkle In The Rain as you re-imagined it and I hope the Minds other releases can receive the same treatment in the future.

Hello folks, this is Steven Wilson – I did the new mixes of Sparkle in the Rain that are on this edition. It’s been difficult for me to monitor because I’m in Europe on tour and therefore not in my studio, but I have been able to establish that unfortunately there are issues with the transfers of both the stereo and the 5.1 mixes. The issues with the 5.1 are less obvious, but the bottom line is that it does not sound as it should. I’m not sure what happened exactly, it may have been some kind of file corruption, but before you ask; no I wasn’t sent any kind of check disc, though I have had assurance that I always will be in future. We will sort this out, but I need to ask you to be a bit patient with this one, it’s probably not going to be a “quick fix”. My apologies.

It’s a nuisance, but yes these things do happen everywhere in life.
Indeed it is about effective corrective action. Once I grab my hands on the box, I will send an e-mail to request replacements, of course that what we’re paying for after all.
I’m not overly worried about the high res stereo mix, I won’t have any time to listen to that anyway – I’m going for the 5.1 remix and I’m quite excited about listening to that. It’s a pity I will have to wait for the replacement booklet because I am quite interested in Charlies’ comments.

My blu ray recently arrived so today I sat down with the intention of working out whether the 2 channel version is stereo or mono. I didn’t get very far as about 1.5 mins into Book of Brilliant Things the disc just stopped. Same thing happened on the two multichannel versions. Has anybody else encountered this fault?

Paul – thanks for posting this information.

Much appreciated and yet another reason why SDE is such a great site.

The blu ray codecs are

DTS Master Audio 5.1 96/24
LPCM 5.1 96/24
LPCM 2.0 96/24

Is the content on the Blu-Ray identical to the DVD-A? Specifically does the Blu-ray have a HiRes 5.1 mix that is not DTS or Dolby encoded?

One of the best fans Simon Cornwell was involved heavily with this project.

Some of the errors appeared after he corrected them.
The corrected text:

It should read:

Brass Band In Africa / A Brass Band In African Chimes
“Who am I to sing on top of such a symphonic lyric? A piece like that speaks for itself. With most songs, I usually have an idea pretty soon about the direction in which the text should develop. But in the case of the instrumentals no textural ideas ever came up. Because everything was there already! I’ve never thought: that’s a strong song, it needs a strong text. Never! They had to stay instrumental, no doubt about it. You hear voices, you see images in those songs. Why give them an identity when they already have one? They express as much as the songs I did write lyrics for. Conclusion: they make me superfluous. They’re MacNeil’s creations.” – Jim Kerr, interviewed in 1984.

A Brass Band In Africa was another melody conjured up by Mick during the Old Chapel writing sessions and became a major part of burning up studio time at both Rockfield and The Townhouse as the band tried to knock it into shape. Charlie remembered the process clearly: “We kept on polishing “Brass Band” a lot, it kept changing. Some people have the talent to weld such pieces together seamlessly, but we are still learning. We knew what we wanted, the music was in our heads, but to actually sit down and express it, that’s a different story. There was a time when it strongly reminded us of La Dusseldorf. I don’t know what quality their music possessed, but there was certainly a sense of glory there. We tried to maintain that.”

It wasn’t included on the album but two versions were used as B-sides for the Up On The Catwalk single. Despite its non-album status, Mick was proud of the instrumental: “Please listen to “A Brass Band In African Chimes” It’s my favourite instrumental, and a good base to continue from. From there, you can handle anything.”

All the best,
Simon

Thanks to Paul Sinclair – I sent a PDF of my Amazon UK receipt with all the details and they promise me a DVD and booklet in the mail as soon as they are available.

Reply from the same Steve Hammonds: “Replacements will be in the post as soon as they arrive.”

i received an email reply from a Steve Hammonds asking me to still return the disc and booklet, it’s all very confusing

i’ll take mullets over lord smedley looking clone hair any day of the week- and any public school output can do one and all

I’ve just received an email from umusic to confirm that the replacements will be in the post as soon as they arrive.
Thanks again for your timely intervention Paul.

My comments about the errors on this disc are not meant as a criticism of Universal per se. I just think that with these problems and manufacturing discs again that the profit on this project diminishes and possibly Universal may not want to do these kind of deluxe editions in the future. I think they do a great job and the longer labels do physical product like this the better. Just a bit of up front planning and using knowledgeable fans would minimise these kinds of problems in the future.

Hello Paul,

when i got the answer for the dvd-audio, they told me that they change the booklet too, while there is a print mistake.

Maybe someone with access to the Remastering dept at Universal has got it in for bands from the 1980s who sported dodgy mullets back in the day.

It’s unfortunate for everyone as the lost profits and inconvenience affect and delay and discourage future releases. I really like the idea for the King Crimson stuff of giving test discs to super-fans in the forum there – would probably be better to do it that way than to find out when tens of thousands hit the shelves. Crowdsourcing is a powerful tool.

From the Deluxe Edition thread:

“Neil says:
March 19, 2015 at 14:58
Just read this on burning sheds webstore ***We have been made aware of a fault on the Blu-Ray. A new disc is being made and we will start selling again once we receive replacements. If you have ordered this from us we will automatically send you a replacement Blu-Ray disc when we get them. You do not need to return anything*** The same applies to the box set at least they had had the sense to stop selling them unlike Amazon.”

I really wouldn’t get too down on Universal. They made a mistake and are correcting it in a kind and courteous manner as soon as they can. I am most certainly less than perfect. Heck, what about that discussion concerning the reversal of audio channels on the original Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair? We all make mistakes. It what we do about the mistake afterwards that matters.

A big thank you to Paul for watching our backs and for bringing this to our attention in the first place.

Cheers,

Leemer.

I am glad all this will be sorted, but the question remains why do these things happen in the first place. It does seem no one checks discs or booklets before going into production. That surely is a costly error. Now, I know these discs are complex affairs and time probably dictates that corners need to be cut, but if you look at the King Crimson surround sound reissues and box sets they have a QC team who are usually members of the QuadraphonicQuad forum who test the discs prior to production. Surely it makes sense that companies could use “fans” via social media who would be more than happy to check booklets and discs prior to going into full blown production. I know I would love to check these things as it is frustrating when confronted with poorly produced text and discs with errors.