Listings have started to appear for forthcoming CD reissues of the first & fourth albums by George Harrison's Dark Horse signings, Splinter and also for Neil Innes's Off The Record album. These will be the first CD issues for these records in most territories. The issuing label is listed as Greyscale. I assume this is not the Australian indie label of the same name. Does anybody know anything about this company? I can find no info and wonder if these releases are legit as I know that at least one of these artists was completely unaware of these releases.
Do you a link online? Big Pink, a label in S. Korea released a couple Splinter CD's the last two years, decent sound, and very nice Mini-LP packaging! Keep us posted, please. Update: here's 4th album CD reissue via Gonzo Multimedia UK due May 26th! SPLINTER - Splinter - Amazon.com Music
Thanks. Yes I was aware of the Korean releases. Not sure how legit they were either as the licensing details were a bit vague. I thought the sound on The Place I Love was pretty muddy and it sounded like a needle drop to me. These appear to be European releases. I have now established that Greyscale is one of a number of labels run by Gonzo Media Group who have quite a substantial catalogue featuring some fairly big names. These 3 particular releases are not showing on their website yet however. Here are the Amazon.uk listings. Splinter by Splinter: Amazon.co.uk: Music The Place I Love by Splinter: Amazon.co.uk: Music Off The Record by Neil Innes: Amazon.co.uk: Music
Big Pink has released quite a few titles, other than Splinter releases. Interested to see how Gonzo Remastered, credits in Liner notes too! Thanks again for heads up on these UK releases!
Thanks for the heads up. The 4th Splinter album (their first non-Dark Horse release) has been listed for some time on Amazon. I ordered it a couple of months ago. This looks like the first UK release of The Place I Love. Hopefully Harder to Live will follow. Both very good albums, if you like light rock 70's music.
I've ordered 'Harder to Live' from the UK but there seems to be some delay in getting it shipped. I'm not too worried, I still have the original vinyl.
I had the chance to listen to the Cd of "Harder To Live" from 2015 put out by The Big Pink Co. This had a really nice sound to it...very clean and no noticeable noise that would come from a needle drop. I did some comparing with my own needle drop and they did a nice job on this one. What I'm really curious about is if the new 2017 issues are copies of the 2015 versions. If they all sound like this I would pick them up. But a red flag went up with GubGub's review about the muddy sound on "The Place I Love" CD...the Cd of "Harder To Live" is anything but muddy. Do we know if these new versions have even shipped yet?
My copy of the 2017 (Grey Scale) 'Harder To Live' arrived this week. What surprised me was that it contains four bonus tracks, although there is no mention of this on the Amazon page (which gives only the original track list) and no mention even in the cd booklet. The four tracks are thus a bit of a mystery, although the first two are the single versions of 'Lonely Man', one sung in Japanese. Overall the packaging is quite decent (jewel case, 4-page booklet with lyrics, picture insert in tray) but no new information about the re-issue or comment from the band members. I can't compare the sound quality with the earlier Big Pink reissue since I haven't heard the latter.
I have a copy of "The Place I Love" on Godfather records that has 3 versions of "Lonely Man" and a track from Two Man Band as bonus tracks...4 in all. This version of "The Place I Love" is not as good as the 2015 Big Pink pressing I have of "Harder To Live". I wonder if they lifted the bonus tracks from this copy and added them to the new version of "Harder To Live"....which is weird because "Lonely Man" is from "The Place I Love" not "Harder To Live". It's also strange your copy is in a jewel case when the new releases are mini LP's. Interesting!
All the Grey Scale Splinter releases (they've just re-issued 'Two Man Band' as well) are in jewel cases. The additional versions of 'Lonely Man' make sense on the re-issued 'Harder To Live' since that song was originally on that album. The other two bonus tracks are titled 'Love is not enough' and 'White shoe weather'. the former is the single version of a track off their 'Two Man Band' album. I don't know where the second track comes from. It's frustrating when record labels do re-issues with such minimal information provided.
I think what really adds to our frustration is that these albums have no official CD release. And it seems the Harrison estate have no interest in releasing them. I wonder if the band members have any interest in doing something about it?
The legality of these reissues has been raised on another thread: Is the new Splinter release on cd a pirate version? According to this neither the Harrison estate nor the band members are involved. On the other hand neither seems to have made any attempt to block these reissues so one assumes they don't care. But I agree it would be very nice to have an 'official' Dark Horse approved reissue of the three Dark Horse albums. At the moment that seems very unlikely however. Are we sure that the master tapes reside with the Harrison estate?
The Grey Scale label gives many appearances of being a "gray area" label. It is possible they are targeting the reissue of titles that label managers believe have fallen in to the public domain (remember Radioactive/Fallout/Phoenix?). I would like to think that Grey Scale's releases are legitimate, but the information I have located so far is not conclusive (my search led me here). It seems that the label appeared out of nowhere in 2016 with The Golliwogs "Pre-Creedence" CD (now apparently out of print and, interestingly, supplanted by the 2017 release of The Golliwogs – "Fight Fire (The Complete Recordings 1964-1967)" on Craft (Concord's reissue label)/Fantasy (also a Concord label). Grey Scale released a good number of interesting discs in 2017, including several Sun Ra CDs, a hard to find Duncan Browne release, Absolute Elsewhere's "In Search of Ancient Gods" (with Bill Bruford), GTO's Zappa-related "Permanent Damage," and the aforementioned Splinter CDs, to name several. I recall reading elsewhere in this thread that Grey Scale is among Gonzo Multimedia's related labels, but even so, that would really only mean that Gonzo might be a distributor of some of these releases. Notably, nowhere on any of the Grey Scale releases that I have seen has there been any mention of a relationship with Gonzo Multimedia. Maybe more importantly, I just looked at Gonzo's website, under its listing of associated labels, and under the listing for Greyscale, the only statement is: "Sorry, no products from are available from Greyscale at this time." Further support for the notion that the releases on the Grey Scale label may not be legitimate may be found in the credits. Of the Grey Scale releases I have had a chance to look at, none of them have any licensing information specifically pertaining to the Grey Scale release. So, while probably only a few insiders know the contract details behind the Splinter releases and the Dark Horse label, and whether or not their copyright status may be in question (as well as that of other titles that have appeared on the Grey Scale label), it seems unlikely that any of these CDs are authorized. With all of that said, Grey Scale seems to have done a good job at releasing good fidelity CDs of hard to find releases. While I have zero interest in buying a grey area (or counterfeit) CD if a legitimate edition is available, I guess I don't mind having a Grey Scale reissue of Duncan Browne's "Songs of Love and War" until a legitimate reissue is available on the market. Remember the Germanofon label? Germanofon's releases of then-impossible to find krautrock were of average quality (at best) but, at the time of their release, Germanofon's CDs provided a way to hear rare, oft-discussed krautrock albums that had not otherwise been reissued, were very rare, and were not readily available to even hear (this is before the internet made tons of music immediately available to your fingertips and eardrums). Germanofon provided an invaluable service and, in my opinion, paved the way for the public's interest in later, authorized releases of some of the same titles (of course, those first three wonderful Kraftwerk albums remain un-reissued except by Germanofon and its successors, so my collection still has a few Germanofon CDs poking their ugly heads up here and there). Similarly, in spite of the internet/online/download availability of some of the music now released on the Grey Scale label, I think that the label's releases may still have their limited place in the collections of collectors of the tangible music artifact and music lovers. And of course, my speculation that Grey Scale's releases are not authorized is based on the evidence mentioned above (and a few other tidbits of information gathered over time). So, maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think so.
Splinter's first post-Dark Horse album 'Streets at Night' (1977) is being re-issued on cd by Grey Scale on March 30th. Unbelievably (though perhaps for legal reasons) they've changed the original eye-catching cover to a boring generic image of the band. Two other things worth noting. First, the product description on Amazon UK includes comment by Bob Purvis. This suggests that the band are to some degree involved in these re-issues and supporting them. Second, less encouragingly, Bob's comments are pretty negative concerning the sound quality, explaining how the album was recorded in the north of England with inferior sound equipment. Perhaps not the best way to sell a reissue!
Grey Scale also changed the artwork to Sun Ra's Secrets of the Sun CD even though most sites selling the Grey Scale CD release still show a variation of the artwork that appeared on the original LP and Atavistic CD (a simple but effective Chris Hall sketch). The Atavistic CD reissue states that, "These recordings are taken from the Sun RA/EL Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive, released by permission of Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, in collaboration with El Saturn/Adam Abraham." The Grey Scale release makes no such claim. I believe that Grey Scale also lifted John Corbett's editorial from the Atavistic CD reissue, which Corbett coordinated. I'm not sure if this has any significance or not. Unlike the Atavistic release, the Gray Scale release does not credit Corbett with coordinating the reissue. With regard to the upcoming Splinter "Streets at Night" CD release: I looked at the quotes attributed to Bob Purvis on Amazon UK and it appears that this quoted material can be found here: Streets At Night LP by Splinter . There is no reference to any CD release on Tom Brennan's Splinter Library, which you can access from the link above. There is some pretty good material and information on Splinter, and other acts too it seems. The site seems to have been updated in December of 2017, but I found no mention of any Splinter CD reissues. More pieces of the puzzle.
Thanks. I wonder if the quote is taken from the original liner notes? It's a bit misleading that Amazon uses the words 'Bob Purvis remembers …' which suggests a more recent communication. The change in artwork certainly makes me think that this reissue is not authorized.
I agree that the way the quoted material is used on Amazon UK makes it seem as though Purvis is involved. The thing to remember though is that the entry was probably created by Grey Scale or someone on their behalf. I don't know whether Amazon actually creates any of its own listings. My guess is that, when a new release is coming out that Amazon is going to sell directly, Amazon receives a "press kit" from the label or distributor, which most likely includes a photograph of the item and descriptive text. As an occasional seller on Amazon US, I have created listings for items that Amazon did not have a page for, which included the item description and photograph. You will probably be able to find the item description that currently appears on Amazon UK on any number of sites on which this upcoming Splinter CD will be sold. The new artwork is horrible, though.
This one does certainly seem to have been done with Bob Purvis's input which suggests legitimacy for these releases. On the Splinter Facebook page Tom Brennan explains that Bob asked to change the album artwork as he hates the original sleeve. Apparently it will be reproduced in the booklet. There will also be several bonus tracks. Given that I have never heard this album as it was only released in Japan, they will all be bonus tracks to me.
Tom Brennan hosts the Splinter Facebook page and all of the CDs are discussed there. Indeed it was Tom who alerted me to the forthcoming release of Streets At Night
The Splinter material would be controlled either by Universal, WEA, or the Harrison Estate, and any legitimate use of that material would require 'through license' acknowledgement. The fact that these releases have no licensing declaration at all is pretty much a 100% guarantee these are bootlegs. These releases are too new for copyright to have elapsed.
So how do you explain the collaboration of Bob Purvis (who discusses this himself of the Facebook page using his daughters account) and the lack of intervention by those notoriously litigation averse institutions? There is no money to be made here. These releases are of interest to a few hundred people at most. For all we know Greyscale have bought the rights to this stuff outright for peanuts which is commercially all it is worth. Incidentally, the rights to the last two albums would have been owned (if not retained by the band themselves) by Sony Japan and the German label Bellaphon.
That definitely sounds like Purvis sanctioned the release, which I am glad to hear. I wonder if he owns the copyright at this point. Maybe he even owns the copyrights for the Dark Horse releases? I can understand why Purvis didn't like the original artwork (look at this Discogs link if anyone reading this is unfamiliar with it: Splinter (2) - Streets At Night ). It seems to reflect an image I would associate more with Wild Cherry or The Ohio Players than with Splinter (but that's just me). However, the new artwork is very bland, and there is something to be said in favor of accurately reflecting the original release. I have never heard this Splinter release either and, based on the following excerpt from Bob Purvis' quote (found on Amazon UK and on Tom Brennan's pages), I'm not sure whether I want to: "The songs were written the way I wanted them produced. I personally thought they were the best we'd done but the quality of the sound wasn't 100 percent. I guess I'd moved into Disco mode. I'm not sure if Billy was completely happy about it." The "disco mode" thing is probably the deal breaker for me. Sounds like he thought the Bee Gees move in that direction was a positive thing. For anyone looking for available Grey Scale releases, importcds.com has a pretty healthy selection of them. If you search using the label name, importcds has most of them listed under Greyscale (one word).
Bootleg releases with participating artist sanction are common as dirt. Take a look at the stuff that the Renaissance label put out in the US. They offer the artist a few bucks and possibly some CDs to sell at shows and everyone looks the other way. The artist is happy to get the material back in print--by hook or by crook.
