At the beginning of 2018, it was announced that this year would finally see the release of the long anticipated 3CD ‘Definitive Edition’ of Twelfth Night’s ‘Fact & Fiction’.
The original album has long been a favourite for fans of the Reading proggers, and for those fans who’ve purchased previous albums as definitive editions, each passing month suggested that the newly expanded ‘F&F’ could be the best of the lot.
The British ska revival of the late 70s was an exciting time. The short-lived 2-Tone label (founded by The Specials’ Jerry Dammers) was home to arguably some of the greatest music to come from the UK. Over the course of three years, with a mix of good-time party music and political messages, The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat became hugely popular, and although they moved away from their ska roots quicker than most, Madness became one of the most popular British pop bands of all time.
Following last year’s expanded reissues of The Cars’ ‘Candy-O’ and ‘Panorama’, Rhino are set to continue their Cars reissue campaign with expanded reissues of 1981’s ‘Shake It Up’ and 1984’s pop classic ‘Heartbeat City’.
In January 2018 it was announced that both The Beautiful South’s debut LP and Housemartins ‘London 0 Hull 4’ were to be reissued on vinyl. Classic albums both, but here at Real Gone we think that any Beautiful South deluxe edition CDs are long overdue. We’d like to take this opportunity to look at what might make up a box set of their 1996 best seller ‘Blue Is The Colour’.
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After the success of last year’s ‘Misplaced Childhood’ box set, the Marillion reissue campaign continues into 2018 with a similarly lavish multi-disc set of 1994 fan favourite ‘Brave’.