May 9, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: The Beatles
Mark Lewisohn – generally acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost Beatles historians – releases volume one of a three part fab four biography in autumn 2013.
The series is titled All These Years and the first book is being called Tune In. This volume will examine the formative pre-fame years, the teenage years, the Liverpool and Hamburg years.
The publishers, Little Brown, claim that Lewisohn’s work is “certain to become the lasting word” on the band. This remains to be seen, but Beatles fanatics will already own some of his work, such as The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, which is a superlative reference guide, and fairly much a Beatles ‘bible’ to many fans.
You can keep up to date with the lastest news at thebeatlesbiography.com
Standard version
Extended Hardcover Special Edition
May 8, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: 1970s, nick drake, vinyl
Nick Drake‘s 1970 album Bryter Layter was issued last week as a special vinyl box set, in the same way Pink Moon was last year.
This new reissue comes in a rigid lift-off lid box with a slightly bizarre front image of a sealed version of the album complete with a ‘Record Tape & Video Exchange’ sticker on the front (not an actual sticker).
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May 7, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: 1980s, indie
Scared To Get Happy – A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989 is a five CD set we first told you about back in February. At that point the track listing was still a work in progress, but we can now confirm the running order (see below).
The mammoth 134-track set features music from all the key indie labels of the period (Creation, Factory, Rough Trade, Kitchenware, et al) and features many bands who would later taste mainstream success including Primal Scream, Aztec Camera, Stone Roses, Pulp, the Wonder Stuff, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Prefab Sprout, etc.
Many tracks see their CD debut on this set, while some selections have never officially been released before at all. Scared To Get Happy comes complete with a 54-page booklet, with lengthy sleeve-notes and illustrations of the records and bands involved.
Scared To Get Happy is out on 24 June 2013 from Cherry Red.
Scared To Get Happy – full track listing:
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May 2, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: Basia, Breathe, Cherry Red, Industry, Julia Fordham, vinny vero
Vinny Vero is a busy man. As well as producing deluxe releases for Cherry Red Records, he regularly remixes other artists’ work (just finished one for OMD), and is a songwriter, producer and DJ. We caught up with him recently to talk about his career in music and his most recent work on the Breathe, Basia and Julia Fordham reissues.
SuperDeluxeEdition: How did you get involved in the music business?
Vinny Vero: I was at university and wound up getting the opportunity to work in one of the biggest radio stations here in New York. Because I showed tremendous passion for music, they put me right into the music department. I was in charge of contacting – at that point by phone – retail outlets to find out what was selling, what wasn’t selling, to see if the plays on the radio were having any impact. So that was really interesting, and it also gave me exposure to record labels, coming in every week promoting there new singles. So within, I guess, a year and a half, I got the opportunity to then go and work at EMI. I started out as an assistant, and through a series of situations where I was put in front of artists, I started getting a reputation for being really ‘into it’, and they [the artists] really liked that because it was somebody at a label that they felt they could connect with. Within a year, I was a Marketing Manager, which was exactly what I wanted to do, and within six months of that they didn’t have anybody to work their catalogue, so they said, well we’ve got these five or six acts, why don’t you do their catalogue.
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May 1, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: 1990s, Alison Moyet, elvis costello, Fine Young Cannibals, George Michael, inxs, Suede
For your pleasure, a look back to some special CD releases from the 1990s. Yes, we have dug out of the SuperDeluxeEdition archive some interesting 2CD sets. Deluxe editions before we even called them ‘deluxe editions’. Some were very limited, others less so, but all were issued in addition to a standard single CD version. How many have you got?
Click to enlarge
George Michael / Older & Upper 2CD (1997)
George Michael‘s third solo album Older was a phenomenal seller in the UK. Six singles were released from the record and all of them reached the UK top three (two number ones, three number twos and a sole number three). This special edition came with a six track bonus disc called Upper which contained a couple of remixes, two radio edits and the new studio recordings issued with the Spinning The Wheel single, namely Safe and You Know That I Want To. The bonus disc also contains ‘interative elements’ which means pixelated videos to Jesus To A Child, Fastlove, and Spinning The Wheel that require ‘Quicktime 2.5′. The bonus disc comes in a simple card sleeve, which slots into a special slip-case with the standard album.
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Echo & The Bunnymen / Evergreen 2CD (1997)
The 1997 Echo & The Bunnymen ‘comeback’ album featured UK top ten hit Nothing Lasts Forever. This 2CD special edition featured ten Peel Session tracks culled from 1979 (Villiers Terrace, Read It In Books), 1980, 1982, 1983 (Seven Seas, Ocean Rain) and 1997.
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April 30, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: Deep Purple, nick drake, out this week, talking heads, The Blow Monkeys
Nick Drake / Bryter Layter vinyl box set
This boxed vinyl edition of Drake’s 1970 album has a completely new analogue remaster, supervised by original recording engineer John Wood, and is pressed onto 180gsm audiophile vinyl. The set includes reproduction of textured sleeve and inner bag, poster and facsimile of handwritten set list. Comes with three digital downloads, MP3, hi-res and ‘dubbed from disc’. 
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April 29, 2013 by Staff Writertags: 1980s, Paul Young
Paul Young / Remixes and Rarities (Click to enlarge)
Cherry Red Records will issue a new Paul Young collection titled Remixes and Rarities, via their Cherry Pop imprint on 17 June 2013.
As the name suggests, this new 2CD collection will feature a selection many of Paul Young’s best-loved singles in their full length, extended remix form, along with other rarities such as B-sides and cassette-only long versions.
Highlights include, the full extended mix of US number one Every Time You Go Away (unreleased on CD outside Japan), the ‘US Dance Floor Smash’ version of I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (remixed by John ‘Tokes’ Potoker) and other CD debuts such as the near-nine minute extended mix of album track I Was In Chains (previously only available on the cassette of The Secret Of Association) and the epic live version of No Parlez album cut, Oh Women (from the Love Of The Common People seven-inch double-pack and The Live Edition Japanese LP).
All in all, every 45 Paul Young released as a solo artist in the 1980s is featured on this set in remixed form. So while fans will delight at the rarities, it also doubles as a fantastic ‘hits’ collection representing the pop-soul singer’s most successful era.
At this point we need to hold our hands up and and declare an interest, since this compilation was conceived and compiled by SuperDeluxeEdition editor Paul Sinclair, for Cherry Red. This involvement will allow us to bring you the inside line on this set with some exclusive updates coming on this release between now and 17 June!
Paul Young’s Remixes and Rarities will come complete with a Japanese style collector’s ‘OBI’ strip and cover art true to the era.
Paul Young / Remixes and Rarities track listing:
CD 1
- Every Time You Go Away [Extended Mix]
- Wonderland [Milan Mix]
- Come Back And Stay [Scratch Mix]
- I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down [U.S. Dance Floor Smash]
- Why Does A Man Have To Be Strong [Extended Mix]
- Man In The Iron Mask
- Iron Out The Rough Spots [Extended Remix]
- Yours [Extended Club Mix]
- It’s Better To Have And Don’t Need [Live]
- Hot Fun [Extended Mix]
- I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down [Extended Remix]
- Everything Must Change [Instrumental Version]
CD 2
- Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) [Extended Club Mix]
- Some People [Dub]
- Heaven Can Wait [12" Version]
- Love Will Tear Us Apart [Full Length Version]
- Behind Your Smile [Live]
- Oh Women [Live]
- Tomb Of Memories [12" Mix]
- Love Of The Common People [Extended Mix]
- Softly Whispering I Love You [Extended Mix]
- Sex [Extended Club Mix]
- Everything Must Change [Extended Remix]
- I Was In Chains (Extended Mix]
April 26, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: Dr. Robert, The Blow Monkeys
29/04/13 Update: Sony informed us today that Track 3 “You Don’t Own Me” will not be featuring on this compilation, due to clearance issues.
Sony music will release a Blow Monkeys three-disc set on 17 June 2013 that comprises a single disc ‘best of’, a further CD compiling highlights of frontman Dr. Robert‘s solo career, and a final disc that features a remastered recording of The Blow Monkeys’ 1984 Hammersmith Palais concert in its entirety.
The best of is brought right up to date by the inclusion of Chained, a track from the new album Feels Like A New Morning, and fans will be pleased that You Don’t Own Me from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack also finds a place here.
Halfway To Heaven continues the fertile release schedule for Blow Monkeys-related product. Last year saw early albums Limping For A Generation and Animal Magic reissued as two-CD deluxe editions and in 2013 we have Feels Like A New Morning and this new collection. It doesn’t stop there either. Cherry Red will carry on with the archive releases, with the now-topical She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter next on the list.
Halfway To Heaven track listing:
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April 25, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: 1970s, robert palmer
1974′s “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley” saw Palmer backed by The Meters and Lowell George of Little Feat
Robert Palmer‘s classic debut, 1974′s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley is the lastest in a line of Palmer reissues from the Culture Factory record label.
The same company have already tackled albums such as Secrets (1979), Clues (1980) and Double Fun (1978) in the last few years, but apart from rather nice mini-LP CD vinyl replica sleeves, none of those releases have come with any bonus material.
The eight-track Sneakin’ Sally will buck this trend, and comes with four additional bonus tracks: a single mix of Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, Epidemic (Sneakin’ Sally B-side) and alternate takes of album tracks Blackmail and Get Outside.
Fans have long been frustrated by how Palmer’s eight studio albums for Island Records have been neglected, in terms of expanded deluxe reissues, and it is not particularly clear why or how Culture Factory have managed to negotiate access to this bonus material when none of the other albums have got the same treatment. The hit-laden Riptide from 1985 is also being reissued at the same time as Sneakin’ Sally, but features nothing extra.
Both Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley and Riptide will be issued on 21 May in the US but Sneakin’ Sally is available next week in France.
OBI-style strip confirms the track listing for the Sneakin’ Sally reissue from Culture Factory (France)
April 25, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: 1980s, Johnny Hates Jazz
Johnny Hates Jazz are back!
It’s been over 25 years since Clark Datchler, Mike Nocito and Calvin Hayes released Turn Back The Clock, a rather underrated and forgotten slice of well-crafted pop. A decent career beckoned, particularly since unlike some of their contemporaries (Wet Wet Wet), the band had ‘cracked’ America, with lead single Shattered Dreams peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1988.
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