With the vinyl reissue of the 2-Tone live album ‘Dance Craze’ and the 8CD 2-Tone box set hitting the shelves in the autumn of 2020, it seemed like a good time to be a ska fan. While there seems to be no news regarding a much needed reissue of the ‘Dance Craze’ film as we move into 2021, The Selecter’s fans are given another cause for celebration.
On April 23rd, the classic Selecter debut ‘Too Much Pressure’ will be reissued on vinyl (in clear and black varieties) and a vastly expanded 3CD set.
For the past decade, it’s felt as if Black Sabbath have ignored their post-Ozzy legacy. Although the first six albums with Osbourne will always represent their most career defining work, there’s no getting around the fact that 1980’s ‘Heaven & Hell’ and the following year’s ‘Mob Rules’ – both recorded with vocal powerhouse Ronnie James Dio – are often cited among fan favourites.
Both albums were issued as 2CD deluxe editions back in 2010, but have been out of print for some time. A reissue of those sets would have been welcomed, but two new editions – release date 5/3/21 – offer the bulk of that material with some.variation.
When The Almighty played the Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in August 1992, they were only the opening act, but they played like a band at the top of their game. Those forty minutes still play like one of the era’s most exciting live sets. Particularly notable was the performance of upcoming single ‘Addiction’, taking the band in a heavier direction – a sign of things to come on the soon to be released new album.
In 2008, Universal Music reissued both of Elton John’s 1970 albums (‘Elton John’ and ‘Tumbleweed Connection’) as part of their ongoing Deluxe Edition series. These classic albums joined an excellent 2CD edition of ‘Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy’ and a long-out of print double disc Super Audio CD of the much loved ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, giving hope for future reissues.
A decade later, the only further reissue to hit the shelves was a multi-disc box set version of ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, reprising the earlier material and expanding it with two some excellent live material, some pointless – and unwelcome – modern day covers by other artists and a DVD.
Elton has only ever looked forward and embraced new projects, which has left other potentially worthy deluxe sets – including ‘The Fox’ – unlikely to appear.
Procol Harum’s 1975 album, ‘Procol’s Ninth’, is hugely disliked by some fans. A far cry from the pomp, adventure and bombast of their early work, it took them in more of a pop-rock direction under the influence of producers Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. Against the band’s wishes, the record included covers of Leiber/Stoller’s ‘I Keep Forgetting’ and The Beatles’ classic ‘Eight Days A Week’. Although, in many ways, it remains a true oddity within the Procol canon, its an album to which time has actually been very kind, sounding better decades on. …And regardless of what you may have thought of the original LP, the two discs’ worth of live material appended to the Esoteric Records deluxe reissue in 2018 created a fine package.