Wishbone Ash: The Vintage Years 1969-90 mega box set planned for next year on Snapper Records

Yes, a minor quibble or two. The Live IDates Volume Two spine (an Apple product???), Starnge Affair (disc title and the title of one the versions on the disc when loadjng them into my filing program) and unlike the Streetwalkers set, no lyrics in the sleeves. Apart from that, it's the thing of beauty I expected!!!!!

 

Disappointing to hear about typos on the sleeves. Yeah, it's a little thing, but it speaks of lack of attention to detail. For $360, you'd figure someone could have done some proofreading.

Curious to hear how things stack up sonically on the albums that were previously available.

 

if i didn't already own the complete discography on cd's i might think about this.
not worth it for live tripe, live shows bore me, if i want live, ill buy a ticket. a signed photo for 300+ dollars, no thanks.
love the band, but i wish this was out years ago, i would have bought it.

ill bet its SUPER NICE though, too bad for me, i wont be able to enjoy such a nice box set.

all ye who purchase, enjoy !
ill be jealous

 

Would love to hear sound quality reports, especially with regards to how loud this set was mastered. I would hope for such a beautiful set, they would keep the limiting/compression completely out of the picture of use it only very lightly.

 

Picked mine up from the Post office today. It is a seriously heavy box. Have opened it carefully and the contents look beautiful. Like a previous poster I am going to play the live discs first and then go back to the studio albums in sequence. This is going to be a long journey but hopefully an enjoyable one.

 

Had a listen to Live Newcastle 1977 last night. Great setlist, band sound pretty great although Martin sounds as if he could have had a cold so his vocals are not always as good as on Live Dates 2. Beautifully recorded concert though, the interplay between Andy & Laurie is fantastic as we've come to expect. The Geordie crowd sound really fanatical so the rapport is brilliant. I'd say this CD is a 7.5-8/10 on first hearing. Not bad for starters.

 

I am really on the fence to buy this set, but I would like to know how dynamic the mastering is. Any information with regards to sound quality and especially dynamic range readings would be much appreciated.

 

Have played more of the unreleased live albums: Bournemouth 78. The Bournemouth show is a double CD and it's excellent, I think its going to be hard to beat. The set list is brilliant & the playing stellar. Outstanding versions of Way Of The World & FUBB. I'd rate it at 9/10 or even 9.5/10. Love it, love it, love it.

 

You forgot Pigrimage!

 

Noooooo!

 

Has anyone listened to the Portsmouth 73 set? Quite shocked to hear Andy Powell having a go at the audience for standing and mucking up everyone's fun! Sounds really annoyed!

 

Sounds like they used the edited 1 CD version of Live Dates II that came out on "Real Gone Music/Geffen/Universal" that came out in 2012. It has some between song banter as well as the original album song fadeouts cut out with fake edits added in order to squeeze it onto one CD. That's a shame for anyone buying this boxset hoping to get the original LP version of this album on CD without having to buy the Japanese SHM to get that, but luckily for some of us (myself anyways) I don't want/need ANY of the original albums included in this set, I'm buying it solely for the live material and a few rare tracks.

 

Haven't started on the studio albums yet.

 

I really don't understand such decisions. The original release is over 81 minutes long. To manufacture an extra CD is so cheap these days, and I think such kind of sets need to be complete.

Not sure what mastering they used for the main albums, maybe also some shortcuts there.

 

Not to mention that Argus is the Martin Turner remix, not the original mix.

 

A far better mix than the original, although I suppose both could have been included. It makes you wonder what the other two discs were when the original announcement talked about 32 discs.......

 

Well that's a good thing...... Isn't it?

 

I thought it referred to the extra discs on Twin Barrels & Raw to the Bone?

 

It's possible, hadn't thought of that. Let's hope the BBC box Andy mentioned is forthcoming, after my bank balance has recovered from this one anyway!!!

 

I have been giving this Live Dates Vol 2 issue some research. I see that there was a European 2013 release on 2xHDCD ( 782 035). Is anyone perchance able to confirm if this has the same timings as the Japanese 2xSHM ( UICY 94496/7) and if the mastering is any good?

 

I was getting a bit concerned about my order through Pop Market, but the email arrived this morning that the set has been shipped. I was interested to see on their site that their price for this set has risen substantially, up to $361.00.

 

It may require some care as it appears the edition you enquire about is the ‘Culture Factory’ 2 x CD release?

If so, it does not look too good although this is only an advisory as I do not own the release, but still I feel obliged to mention the DR database entry for the Culture Factory release;
CD1
Album details - Dynamic Range Database
CD2
Album details - Dynamic Range Database

Quite by coincidence as I was recently looking for alternatives to the 1995 BGO ‘Live Dates’ which I have, I did order an alternative.

Not many Albums listed as yet;
Album list - Dynamic Range Database

 

Really? Sheesh. Taking just some of what's been said so far into consideration (using the edited version of LD II, mispellings on the artwork, using the Argus remix) this reeks of a shoddy "we don't care what is in this set just get something out to make $$ on with the least amount of effort involved" by whoever the project "leaders" were. Disappointing. The band's music - and more importantly the fans shelling out the big bucks for this - deserve better. This reminds of the debacles with some of the Thin Lizzy "deluxe editions".

For the folks that received their set already, does it at least fully document what the sources are, like for Argus being the remix? If it doesn't then that is really insulting. Regardless I would think the least they could have done was to include the original mix AND the remix.

 

That's as maybe, but seeing as this is, after all, the Wishbone Ash album, I would have thought that including the original mix would have been self-evident. Ideally, of course, both that and the remix would have been included, thus giving the prospective listener a chance to decide which mix he/she prefers.

I myself am only happy that the set has got the Turner mix. I like it and, as it happens, I don't have it elsewhere, so not having the original mix does not bother me. However, if I had purchased this set and not had Argus in my collection, I think I would have been disappointed that they had gone and used the remix here.

 

I think the Colston Hall recording is a really good one – people have been leaping up and down about it. There were guitar solos that were trimmed on some of the songs on the original albums that are now going to see the light of day, like ‘Persephone’. There was only so much you could put on vinyl.

First thing I did when I opened the box was check the studio PERSEPHONE and despite Andy's statement, it still does not run a single second longer than the original. Super-sigh!
Wonder which of the unreleased live shows Andy really referred to but actually it does not really matter too much to me. I am as happy as a pig in a puddle to finally hear all those all-too-long-"lost" (i.e. unreleased) live versions of oh-so-many numbers I knew were recorded sometime, and finally have the lost outtakes, vinyl sinlge B-sides and stuff in one place.

Time for The Beeb Box, folks at Snapper!