Seven and the ragged Duran Duran announcement

Cover of Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Hot on the heels of the two disc reissue of Duran Duran's Rio, the band announced today that Seven and the Ragged Tiger is get a similar treatment. Coming March 2010, it may not be released in time for Christmas, but for fans this news is an awesome Christmas present.

Similar to the Rio reissue, Seven mops up loads of tracks released around the time of the original album release. In this case, it also includes the tracks around the "Is There Something I Should Know?" single campaign, that actually featured on the re-issue of the debut album.

The EXCELLENT news portion however is that the limited edition release with be three discs. The third disc is a DVD of "As The Lights Go Down". This has been requested from fans since Duran Duran product originally appeared on DVD back in the day. For the uninitiated, it's basically the band's concert movie "Arena" without the movie bit.

The DVD is fleshed out with era videos (including the 17 minute movie version of "New Moon on Monday" which was previously an Easter egg on the "Greatest" DVD) as well as clips of the band on top of the pops.

This is truly setting out to be an awesome release for fans, and with the Arcadia reissue booked, and a Mark Ronson produced album almost ready, 2010 is shaping up to an awesome year.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger limited edition 3 disc set tracklisting

CD 1:
Original album
1. The Reflex (5.28)
2. New Moon On Monday (4.18)
3. (I’m Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement (3.39)
4. I Take The Dice (3.15)
5. Of Crime And Passion (3.50)
6. Union Of The Snake (4.20)
7. Shadows On Your Side (4.03)
8. Tiger Tiger (3.20)
9. The Seventh Stranger (5.23)

CD 2:
Non album singles and B-sides
1. Is There Something I Should Know? (4.11)
2. Faith In This Colour (4.07)
3. Faith In This Colour (alternate slow mix) (4.06)
4. Secret Oktober (2.45)
5. Tiger Tiger (Ian Little remix) (3.25)
6. The Reflex (single version) (4.25)
7. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Live) (4.54)
8. New Religion (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (4.52) Tape no: 48375
9. The Reflex (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (5.52) Tape no:  "

Mixes
10. Is There Something I Should Know? (Monster Mix) (6.40)
11. Union Of The Snake (Monkey Mix) (6.21)
12. New Moon On Monday (Dance Mix) (5.59)
13. The Reflex (Dance Mix) (6.35)

DVD:
As The Lights Go Down
Intro: Tiger Tiger (1.26)
Is There Something I Should Know? (4.41)
Hungry Like the Wolf  (4.03)
Union of the Snake (4.12)
New Religion (5.34)
Save a Prayer 20.11
Rio
The Seventh Stranger (5.00)
The Chauffeur (5.19)
Planet Earth (4.35)
Careless Memories (4.23)
Girls On Film (6.16)

The videos
Is There Something I Should Know?
Union Of The Snake
New Moon On Monday (E.P Version)
The Reflex

Bonus video
New Moon On Monday (movie version) (17.27)

Top Of The Pops performances
Is There Something I Should Know? 23/3/83
The Reflex 26/4/84

Pet Shop Boys christmas ep coming

Score one for Twitter. The synth pop duo announced details earlier today of their forthcoming Christmas EP, released December 14th through Parlophone.

Tracklisting as follows:

1. "It doesn't often snow at Christmas" - new version produced by Marius De Vries and PSB.
2. "My girl" - cover of the Madness song produced by PSB.
3. "All over the world" - new version produced by Marius de Vries/PSB.
4. "Viva la vida"/"Domino dancing" medley. Studio production by Stuart Price.
5.  "My girl (our house mix)" - produced by PSB.

Should be a must buy on a few levels, including the first commercial release of "It doesn't often snow at Christmas" and possibly the first Coldplay song it's been okay to like!


The EP will be released on CD and download next month.

Pet Shop Boys' mis-handling by EMI

Neil Tennant via last.fm

We're used to hearing and reading how record companies don't have a clue about a great many things. To hear how one in particular can screw up the only thing it really knows how to do - release and market an album - well, that makes for interesting reading!

Tonight, when I got home, the latest issue of Pet Shop Boys' fanclub magazine, "Literally", was waiting for me.

Inside, was the story of the release of the duo's latest album Yes, back in March. It read like a catalogue of disasters the duo has faced at the hands of EMI's ineptitude. To be honest, the guys have been INCREDIBLY faithful to a label that has shown them contempt and disrespect over the years.

The problems, well documented but worth talking about again, would make me think twice about any allegiances I felt for my record label.

The download problem
On iTunes, 2 500 copies of the album had been pre-ordered. EMI ballsed up the release date data they provided to Apple, resulting in the album being available for purchase and download mid-week the week before actual release, and for the paltry sum of £5.49. It was eventually removed from purchase until the following week, but this action literally deprived the album of 2 500 purchases that would have counted to chart placement. A number 2 in the charts became a number 4.

As Neil Tennant says in the magazine, "All of the pre-order scams worked against the album, which makes my blood boil."

It was new technology that alerted the duo to EMI's cock up. Says Neil Tennant, "Someone Twittered us saying, 'I didn't realise the album was out already'."

Eastern promise
The physical release of lead single "Love Etc." was beset by issues of low to non-existent stock on shops like HMV or Amazon. This was put down to EMI pressing the discs in the UK and shipping half of them off to Europe for some reason.

Digital Bundle problem
One of the digital bundles EMI sold via iTunes for "Love Etc." featured two Yes album tracks as a pre-album taster. The plan was for the purchaser to only be able to purchase these tracks only as part of the single bundle with an offer to "complete the album" when Yes was released.

The tracks ended up being available individually and the "complete the album" offer never materialised.

Printing cockup
The initial run of the Yes Etc double CD set had a booklet that was printed with the pages bounded the wrong way round. A web page was set up where purchasers could apply to have a properly bound booklet mailed out to them.

This isn't a tale of EMI trying to come to terms with the new economy or trying to work out how to survive in the face of piracy. It's EMI trying to come to terms with releasing and marketing an album and single without cocking it up. Something they've apparently done for about 100 years.

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Robbie to release new album, does anyone care?

Robbie Williams signed to EMI for a record advance and went on to release rubbish album after rubbish album.

Now after a three year gap, EMI announced today that Williams is being unleashed on the music world once more. Come November, his new album "Reality Killed the Video Star" will hit stores, prefaced by a single "Bodies" in October.

Anyone who knows me can testify how big a fan of his I was back in the day. However, that's been eclipsed by the material he's released since 2000 (i.e. the post Guy Chambers stuff) and the latter material has really made me reassess my opinion of his earlier output.

I can't say today's news is anything but a reminder that someone I thought had packed it in obviously needs to pay for a new house or his rehab bill.

The promise of a Trevor Horn production, a Guy Chambers co-write (he's probably the magic ingredient that went into the material I enjoyed) and the tease of a potential Sex Pistols cover for the first single (i.e. it shares the same title!) are about the only things I'm looking forward to.

We'll see what transpired when the new disc hits November 9th.

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New Duran album news

In what was considered by many (including a former band member) to be a few too many shades of crazy, Duran Duran's last album was helmed by famed hip-hop producer Timbaland.

Duran are no strangers to the hip and the hop having covered "White Lines" and "911 is a Joke" on their 1995 covers album Thank You. Again, those who thought the pairing for Red Carpet Massacre was crazy also skip over the band's 95 foray into other people's tunes.

The band have announced - via their blog - that they've entered the studio for their 13th album with producer de jour Mark Ronson. Now this is such a better pairing than the hippy hoppy.

The band have already gelled nicely with Ronson, having reworked a number of their hits for a one off performance in Paris last summer for the Smirnoff series of events. They also contributed a reworking of "A View To a Kill" to the recent War Child album, Heroes.

I'm very interested to see what this pairing will produce. In fact, I haven't been this interested in a Duran project since Nile Rodgers took the reigns for Notorious.

The Miserablist is Back!

Cover of You Are The Quarry (Gatefold)

Good news to anyone who grew up in the 80s, wore black and had a pair of NHS specs. Mozza is back. After seven years, his new album "You Are The Quarry" is seeing the light of day May 17th.

It's to be-preceded by a single "Irish Blood, English Heart" which is to hit stores a week before. Both releases are being put out by Attack! Records, a subsidiary of the increasingly popular Sanctuary Records.

To celebrate the upcoming release, Mozza is playing a one-off gig in Manchester on May 22. This homecoming show is the first for the LA-based performer in 12 years and the first UK gig since his celebrated Albert Hall shows last October.

What do we have to say about this? Well, the last couple of studio albums showed the poet of a generation running out of ideas. Sales were down and his relevance was coming into question at every turn. The man who brought us essential listening like "Your Arsenal" and "Viva Hate" just didn't seem to be speaking for his generation anymore.

There's been quite a few previews of the upcoming material (most famously on the Janice Long Show on Radio 2 a few months back) and it sounds as strong as ever. Hopefully these past few years have rejuvinated the man and we can see him fighting fit once more.