I've now had the chance to hear the first 3 Splinter albums as released by the Greyscale label. I'll first start with the artwork...nice job all around , all 3 are in jewel cases with 4 page inserts. The titles on each cover have been re-done but the photos are just like the original LP's. Nice liner notes with general band history and lyrics . Bonus tracks are included on each one even though most listings on line show no information about bonus tracks. The only bonus track with no information as to where it is from is "White Shoe Weather" from Harder To Live. Overall a really nice collection of bonus tracks... The bonus tracks on Two Man Band are very good including the b-side "I'll Bend For You" a Japanese single "Sun Shine On Me" and a really good live version of "Love Is Not Enough" Sound wise things are all over the place....All 3 are needle drops with different degrees of noise reduction but hit and miss as far as click removal. I have the Big Pink CD of Harder To Live and that is so much better than the Greyscale release. I'd like to know what the other 2 Big Pink releases sound like. If they sound anything like the one I have they would be far and away the obvious choice for a CD copy of Two Man Band & The Place I Love for me. I also have the Godfather Cd of The Place I love and that would be a toss up with the Greyscale CD sound wise........ Hope this helps with some new information on the Greyscale CD's
Is there any Live Splinter available from the brief performance in Japan, they played a Festival event or two in late 70's/ and early 80's.
Why would you want them to? They're bootlegs, mediocre vinyl rips. Every time stuff like this gets issued, it puts another nail in the coffin of a legit reissue from master tapes. The demand isn't high in the first place. Now it's lower.
sorry I should have referenced the Big Pink label which only put a couple albums out to CD prior to those U.K. versions out on greyscale. Harrison estate/Om records could put out a collection, but yeah interest is slim to none today.
Sadly the Harrison Estate doesn't seem interested even in getting Harrison stuff out. Why would they bother with spin-off stuff like Splinter?
I'm not sure this is entirely true. There do seem to have been some licensing issues with regard to the Dark Horse albums but the band themselves have participated certainly in the release of their fourth album (originally only issued in Japan), providing some new sleeve notes for the release.
This happens quite frequently: The band just wants a CD of their material, and they don't much care how that happens. So a bootleg label agrees to put something out and to cut the band in on something--usually a few boxes of CDs, or a one time small payout...rarely or never actual royalties. The band usually doesn't have the original masters, so you get a needle drop (or a badly messed with clone of an existing CD, if one exists). It's still a bootleg. And it means that a legit issue will probably never happen because most of the original demand is gone.
Agree. I'm not sure what we could expect. What I would most like is vinyl reissues of their Dark Horse albums. Or how about a Best Of album highlighting their Dark Horse output? But given the patchy way their catalogue has been dealt with so far, I'm not confident.
