November 2011
With a few interesting bits we missed from earlier months.
Out Now - Peter Astor - Songbox (Second Language)
The former Loft frontman releases his first album for four years. Initially released in a 2CD set in a cardboard box with the bonus CD being alternative versions of the songs. Quintessentially English, engaging, and clever.
Out Now - Slade - Sladest (Salvo)
Wondered where it was when the Slade albums were remastered and repackaged in 2008? Well, it's a late arrival with extras including the single 'My Friend Stan', originally released on the same day as the album, and a newly discovered unreleased track. The best live band ever?
31/10 - Manic Street Preachers - National Treasures (Columbia)
All thirty-eight singles from the Manics in a variety of packages. The collectors' box houses thirty-eight CD singles, with DVD, poster, two seven-inch singles, lipstick and mirror. The Deluxe version contains two CDs and two DVDs. You probably don't need it all, but it beats messing around with handfuls of singles. Or buy 'Gold Against The Soul' instead. There's quality here.
7/11 - Jah Wobble Julie Campbell - Psychic Life (Cherry Red)
If your heart missed a beat when you first heard about the recent PiL reunion then have a listen to this where Wobble and Keith Levene work together for the first time in eons and produce something well worth investigating.
14/11 - The Who - Quadrophenia (UMC)
The Who's brilliant mod epic tarted up for Christmas with the super-deluxe set featuring:
• Discs one and two: the original double album 2011 remaster.
• Discs three and four: 25 unreleased demo tracks from Pete Townshend’s studio archive. Includes songs that were not included on the original album.
• Disc five: Quadrophenia 5.1 EP eight track DVD.
• 100-page, hardback featuring a new 13,000 word essay by Townshend.
• 7" vinyl single featuring the single '5.15'.
• Set of six facsimile ‘inserts’ housed in a card envelope.
• 20" x 30" poster.
Can you see the real me? Yes? Buy it for me please.
21/11 - The Rolling Stones- Some Girls (Rolling Stones)
Attention seems to have moved rather quickly from 'Exile On Main Street' to 'Some Girls', missing out many of the band's best records. Another huge package with the Deluxe Edition containing two CDs, DVD, hardback book, print, postcards, poster and the 'Beast Of Burden' seven-inch single. Also available as a straight CD, two CDs and 180gm vinyl.
Spring 2012 - Wilko Johnson - Looking Back At Me
Following the success of the brilliant 'Oil City Confidential', the last of Julien Temple's trilogy of films on the bands that changed the face of music in the 1970s, Wilko publishes his autobiography early next year and it should be a cracker. Don't miss it and if you haven't seen the film yet, it is probably the best of the three!