The recent and jam-packed Levitate 2CD on Cherry Red was £11.99, and still is in London stores. CD manufacturing is still cheap as long as you order 500, so goodness knows why this is £20.00. A couple of other bands Beggars Omnibus CD box releases were still in stock new last year in London.. The Cult Love, Bauhaus Mask, and you're exactly right: £17.99.
Beggars said quite early on that Bend Sinister wouldn't be an Omnibus and I understand why. Their margin on those sets was slim and it's fair to suggest that Bend Sinister doesn't have the critical consensus behind it that "TWAFW..." and "TNSG" enjoy. Given that the rest of their BB catalogue was lumped into the "5 Albums" set, it's fair to suggest that BB know their market. I raised an eyebrow at the price of the 2CD set as well. Seems very steep. I already have all the tracks on the 2LP on vinyl anyway from the original releases (apart from the long Shoulder Pads which I only have on the 458489 B-Sides 2LP) so it's the CD set I want but £20 is a high price. Even The Beatles didn't charge that for a 2CD set.
Yeah, I scored the "Mask" set quite late on and I think I was only £17-18 for it. Excellent value for the content.
Boooo! you mentioned The Beatles. yeah, £20 + P&P is steep, but I know I'll end up buying it anyway. Think I've got all the 2LP tracks on vinyl as well.
I found a description: A mixture of Live and Studio out-takes that have never been out on vinyl before. Gatefold Sleeve, 180 gm Orange Vinyl. About five or six years ago Mark E Smith and I were going through some old audio recordings of The Fall both studio live and he invented a character called Holiday Tony who he said should be the person who should come round and listen to the tapes with us. He made a phone call to me telling me Holiday Tony lived in Prestwich and went to Blackpool on his holidays once a year with an old brown suitcase with recordings of The Fall inside. I even got a letter off Mark telling me when it was ok for Holiday Tony to go round and see him. Another idea of Mark’s about three years ago was to do a vinyl as a Non Record Store Day release in the weeks before Record Store Day and that every track should just be called The Holiday Tony Tapes. So here is the album.
Norman Records gives a more accurate description: "It has started. Ozit Dandelion the label that brought you that fake Martin Hannett compilation have now been given access to a mixture of live and studio recordings from the late and great Mark E. Smith and his the Fall. We all know it will be utter rubbish barrel-scraping stuff but it's the Fall innit? Expect plenty more similar releases over the coming years."
Oh dear god. MES should have left a stipulation in his will banning all newly cobbled together compilations. I hope one day someone who cares about his legacy can oversee all releases.
Crappy cash-in compilations is surely MES’s legacy - they’re sticking to the spirit of the way he looked after the band’s catalogue whilst still alive. Messy, frustrating, random, bemusing.
It's the big "Non Record Store Day Release" hype sticker that makes me laugh. They'll have turned it down because the last one (Bingo Master At The With Trials or whatever it was called) was just awful. I'd like to think he's chuckling in the hereafter with a fresh pint of Crystal and 20 B&H...
Expanded Witch Trials and Dragnet soon come: the floodgates are well and truly open! Fall (The) Archives - Cherry Red Records
Nothing new here, sadly. I guess the only bright spot is the reissue of the US version of "LATWT" which shows at least a wee bit of thought has been put into things and some consideration given to the fact that the audience for these will likely already have them in various forms.
Yeah, anyone who didn’t experience the Receiver / Jet era compilations story should look it up as a prime example - there won’t be anything more chaotic post-MES than there was when he existed!
No, none at all. In fact, the worst thing about this sequence is that Cherry Red have taken the 2CD edition of LATWT from 2005 and spread it over 3 discs so that they can charge a 3-disc price point! Nuts!
I don't really mind these reissues since the Sanctuarys are long out of print, someone just getting into The Fall might be interested. But then 3cd is a bit of an overkill, isn't it?
Sure it’s good that they stay in print, but for vinyl, I think both Witch Trials and Dragnet got reissued by Superior Viaduct and Sanctuary in the past couple of years.
Which is probably why they've done them on coloured vinyl, gone with the US Witch Trials and lobbed a 7" in with Dragnet, albeit just a repress of Rowche Rumble.
Yeah, and Superior Viaduct did a pretty OK (bare bones, but made the vinyl affordable) job. Hoovered up those I couldn't grab originals for. No complaints. But as for The Fall - splattered vinyl, Jeezus H.... Still, love idea of MES enjoying post-mortal laugh at coloured vinyl obsessives' expense.
Mixed thoughts about this: 1) Fantastic these essential albums are back in print 2) Cherry Red have an awful reputation in terms of quality control and quality of mastering 3) No new tracks at least mean I don't have to buy these again for the 5th time or whatever 4) It would be great to get some newly discovered stuff (that isn't live material) but I think the barrel was scrapped with the Sanctuary issues so there isn't much hope of getting anything now. I will be happy if they were able to find better tapes whenever possible and master them really well.
"The boxset also features a booklet of new sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea" made me laugh. He did the last set of sleeve notes. What new can he write? Is he just going to remix his own sleevenotes?
