Tag Archives: Coloured Vinyl

Black Friday RSD – A Beatles Title Joins the List

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When the Record Store Day Black Friday list was first published a week ago it was slim pickings for actual Beatle content.

Today that has changed with the late addition of a unique coloured vinyl of the US version of Rubber Soul.

From the US RSD website: Available as a standalone vinyl LP for the first time since it was originally issued by Capitol Records in 1965 comes this limited-edition gold vinyl edition of the original Rubber Soul (US Album), exclusively released for RSD Black Friday 2026.

The audio has been sourced from the original 1965 US production master referencing the contemporary mastering notes of the time. The vinyl lacquers are cut by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. Pressed on a 180g heavyweight gold LP and housed in a poly-lined inner bag within a single outer sleeve that replicates the original US Album release.

It’s quite nice that this has been chosen for RSD as the album in this form was previously only available (on black vinyl) if you purchased the 2026 5LP box set SDE of Rubber Soul.

More Limited (and hard to get) Harrison/Dark Horse

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Dark Horse Records has announced just what will be on sale at its pop-up Friar Park x Niwaki x Dark Horse in Tokyo this week (October 14-15).

To celebrate the launch of the Friar Park x Niwaki collection on October 12, a two-day-only pop-up will be held at Light Box Studio in Tokyo. This pop-up store will feature the limited edition collection of Friar Park x Niwaki Japanese garden tools, workwear and accessories, along with a selection of rare out-of-print titles and collectibles from Dark Horse Records:

There are two pop-up store exclusive colour vinyls: Extra Texture in blue, and The Radha Krsna Temple in “fire red” which look interesting, plus Living in the Material World on purple vinyl – previously only available as a George Harrison Store exclusive when the 50th anniversary editions of that album came out in 2024.

The others are re-issues of all six Record Store Day Zoetrope vinyls released so far, plus ‘Be Here Now’ a fairly rare 12″ single that came out for Record Store Day 2025. This has George performing the song on one side and Beck giving his interpretation on the other.

And Dark Horse has just posted a second list of titles that will be available at the pop-up – this time the focus being on Joe Strummer:

Its our understanding that these Strummer and the George Harrison LPs will also be available at a second, limited-time pop-up store in Tokyo. It will be on the 6th floor of Tower Records, Shibuya from October 20 to 26.

Tower Records will be the main launch site for 13 titles (11 from George Harrison and 2 from the Traveling Wilburys) which are newly remastered and being released as limited SHM-CD/mini-LP editions. In addition, three of George’s LPs — All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World and Cloud Nine — will be released simultaneously on the super-high-end “100% Pure” 45rpm vinyl format. Not only that, Dhani Harrison will be at Tower Records Shibuya on 20 October to give a talk, meet fans and sign CDs and an exclusive Japanese red vinyl edition of Dragonflies, the album he recently released with Nigel Godrich.

Oh to be in Tokyo and have the ability to drop into either the Light Box Studio or Tower Records Shibuya.

Is anyone planning on going?

Dungeon Lane Special Edition Announced

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Well, it had to happen. There’s going to be a Special Edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane released. The surprising thing is that the announcement comes on the very day that The Beatles’ Rubber Soul SDE hits the shops (here in Australia at least)!

So far this looks to be a store exclusive, available only through McCartney’s official sites (UK and USA), plus Universal online store outlets like The Circle in Germany, Universal Australia, etc.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane (Special Edition) contains four new tracks, including a new version of ‘Home To Us’, his duet with Ringo Starr. It is described as a “flip mix” which sees their original parts in the song swapped with each other. Alongside this are three previously unreleased tracks recorded during the Dungeon Lane sessions: ‘City Fox’, ‘One Night Stand’ and ‘Chelsea Boots’.

As you can see the Special Edition is a double LP with orange and blue marble discs. It comes in a unique gatefold jacket with cover artwork adapted from the brilliant silkscreened collage by Kate Gibb using over 100 images from Paul’s personal archive; a 23″ x 23″ double-sided fold-out poster with a re-coloured silkscreen portrait print of Paul on one side and lyrics and credits on the other, plus prints of Paul’s handwriting on the inner sleeves and gatefold spread.

The double LP has three playing sides.

Interestingly Side 4 is a Zoetrope etching disc.

There’s also a CD and digital download editions:

The CD comes in a softpak gatefold jacket with the same collage cover artwork as the LP, plus a 20 page lyric and credits booklet.

The digital release is available October 7. The CD and 2LP versions are out on December 9th.

I guess this calls for an update to our chart showing all the variations of this title:

[Click on image to see a larger version]

The Boys of Dungeon Lane – The Collectors Who Have them All

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Even on popular discussion forums (like the Steve Hoffman Music Forum – currently up to 846 pages talking about The Boys of Dungeon Lane), there are fans who doubt anyone could possibly try to collect each and every variation of the latest McCartney release. We’ve tried to capture all of the current variations we’re aware of in this chart. Here’s the latest version:

[Click image to see a larger version]

However, there ARE collectors out there who do go for gold (and silver, and red, and white, and splatter…..etc. etc.!) and try to get everything.

One of our readers, Guy in the United States, has now amassed no less than 18 versions of Dungeon Lane. He sent us through this image:

The variants in the covers are: red, green, blue, embossed white (i.e. ‘the gatefold’), Third Man Records, Jacaranda Records, and Amoeba.

The vinyl LP variants: red, white, black, silver, green, yellow, pink, blue, purple, gold, splatter, picture disc, and white label.

Inner Sleeves: red, green, blue. Booklet.

Other Formats: red CD, green CD, red CD sleeve, green CD sleeve, cassette and booklet.

Doo Dads: eight different postcards, plus the Dungeon Lane tote bag from the listening party (not pictured).

I think you’ll agree his collection is an impressive sight displayed as it is. Thank you Guy for sending through the image, and big congratulations on the effort in tracking each of those variants down.

Another avid collector is Beatle Dustino, who has been detailing on YouTube his quest to collect every variant of The Boys of Dungeon Lane from around the world. As each came in he’s been uploading an unboxing video. As an example, here’s his video showing all the different lyric cards and photo prints that came in various editions.

As you can see he includes the lyric cards that came with the McCartney Store exclusive green vinyl; the Target exclusive red vinyl; and the Target CD. Plus the photo prints exclusive to the McCartney Store green CD; the Walmart exclusive CD; the Barnes & Noble or Rough Trade gold vinyl; and the listening party exclusive silver vinyl. Plus he shows the lyric card, photo print and post card that came with the Japanese SHM-CD Deluxe Edition. Phew!

Beatles Japan Visit – 60th Anniversary Releases Announced

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The Beatles’ Japan Store has just announced a special 60th anniversary project commemorating the band’s visit to Japan in 1966.

The Beatles performed at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo from June 30 to July 2 – and created something of a sensation throughout the country. Back then the previously unreleased albums Please Please Me and With The Beatles, were issued as special commemorative editions for the visit. Now, in June 2026, they’re being re-issued as special cardboard-sleeve SHM-CDs, recreating the artwork from that time, plus they’ll include a poster:

Additionally, Please Please Me gets a vinyl release in the same style:

Back in 1966 these releases were based on the UK Please Please Me and With The Beatles albums – but the songs on each had a different running order. They included tracks in stereo that had previously only been available in mono in Japan. And they both came in deluxe specification covers just like the originals featuring uniquely designed jackets and obi strips, plus 8-page bound-in booklets with color photos and lyrics. The new 2026 re-issues will recreate that same specification, except the song running orders are those of the UK pressings. It is just the artwork of the first Japanese LP editions that is truly faithful to the originals – though this doesn’t seem to extend to the record labels. Ideally these should be black Odeon labels (as seen below), not the UK Parlophone labels which is disappointing. The Japanese are usually fastidious about this sort of thing.

They will however recreate the obi strips from those first Japanese editions, and will also include a six-panel fold-out 868mm x 580mm poster. At the Beatles Japan Store you can also opt (at extra cost) for a special postcard to be included with the two CD’s and the LPs. The songs are in the same order as the original UK albums and use the 2009 remastered audio. It’s not clear why With The Beatles isn’t also getting a vinyl release.

[Update – 20 May] Today the Beatles Japan Store announced there in fact will be an LP edition of With The Beatles. Oddly, this wasn’t mentioned in the first round of announcements. Not sure why. It will come out on the same day as the Please Please Me vinyl and has the same inclusions:

Also back in 1966 a Japanese 7″ single was released following the concert tour and, only at the Beatles Store in Japan, there’s to be a recreation of this single – ‘Yellow Submarine’/’Eleanor Rigby’:

This new 2026 release reproduces the design of the original first-pressing jacket and its company inner sleeve. It comes on white vinyl and features the 2023 mix of the songs. However, again it looks like they’ve opted for non-authentic labels. This too should be black Odeon labels, not the UK Parlophone shown in the promo shots:

In addition, Universal Music Japan will launch a special Beatles pop-up store at the Universal Music Store in Harajuku (near Shibuya in Tokyo) from June 25 to July 5. Only at that store they’ll be selling a limited edition red vinyl of the 7″ single:

The Boys of Dungeon Lane – The Variants (So Far)

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[UPDATED 21 May, 2026]

Since we posted about the new Paul McCartney solo release The Boys of Dungeon Lane there’s been some developments, mostly to do with new variations and vinyl colours being added.

As we did for McCartney III and it’s sibling McCartney III Imagined, we’ve started the chart below showing all the known variations so far to help you keep up. We’ll add to this as more come down the pipeline:

(Click the image above to see a larger version)

Two new collectable vinyls have been added to the list. They’re not actually new covers or colours, but consist of a limited edition outer sleeve which slips over the cover of either the standard black vinyl, or the pink vinyl being made available to independent record stores. These come from The Jacaranda Records and Club in Liverpool (which has a long association with the Beatles, going back to the early 1960s). You also get a printed 12″ insert and a replica 1960 Jacaranda Club membership card:

We’ve also added to the graphic the two Japanese pressings (standard black vinyl and limited red vinyl) along with their unique OBI strips. These images have not been available previously:

Last week the big news was blue. A very limited blue vinyl was made available to The Beatles mailing list subscribers for a limited time. If you’re a subscriber you got an email with a link through to your country’s UMe store (e.g. for us it is Universal Australia). This limited blue vinyl comes with alternate embossed cover artwork with blue text, an alternate red and blue inner sleeve, and a 12-page lyric booklet:

Prior to that a spectacular blue splatter vinyl variation was announced. This one was strictly limited to 4000 copies pressed and was exclusive to Blood Records in the UK. It sold out in a matter of hours:

Blood Records is an interesting cross between pressing plant and online retail store – a boutique supplier producing limited edition, exclusively pressed vinyl. They pick and choose only those artists who resonate with their ethos of making only exclusive records and promoting listening to music as something special. And they’ve added The Boys of Dungeon Lane to their catalogue – in an embossed cover with blue lettering and a “Ripples in a Pond” splatter LP with a crystal clear and blue/white liquid effect. As mentioned, it is limited to 4,000 copies in a one-time only pressing run and is hand-numbered. It also has a red and blue inner sleeve, the same as the limited blue vinyl version from UMe stores mentioned above.

The previous week a very limited, UK customer-only pink vinyl with a Japanese-inspired OBI strip was announced. It’s available exclusively through Assai Record stores based in the UK. This was limited to 500 copies, each hand-numbered with an embossed Assai logo. There’s a 12-page lyric booklet and embossed cover artwork. It too is now sold out:

There was also a very nice looking picture disc featuring the screen-printed collage announced. This is only available through official McCartney stores (i.e. UK and US), plus Universal Music stores like Bravado in Germany, Udiscover Music in Mexico, The Sound of Vinyl in Australia, etc.:

And don’t forget the “extremely limited” silver vinyl. This one is only to be sold at “listening parties” to be held in a limited number of US bricks and mortar record stores on release day (May 29), and then for the following two days while stocks last. It comes with a fourth variation of the black and white portrait postcard included (see below). Customers, who have to show up in person at their participating store, will also get a Dungeon Lane tote bag plus entry into competition to win “a very special prize”.

A couple of weeks back a McCartney and UME Store exclusive with 180g black vinyl, gatefold blind-embossed cover artwork, full collage interior spread, and a 12-page lyric booklet was also added to the list, as was a cassette which comes with a fold-out print of the same collage.

Gotta admit, the collage looks great. It is screen‑printed and made from over 100 archive images, including previously unseen photography from Paul’s personal archive:

Along with the different cover art and vinyl colour variations, one other difficult thing emerging for the absolute completists (who must have everything in every permutation) is the different lyric cards to be included with some of the vinyl and some of the CDs.

So far there are 7 different cards: 3 collage lyric cards, and now 4 b&w portrait postcards.

In the green vinyl exclusive to the McCartney and Universal Music stores it is a green/purple collage card, while in the red vinyl – exclusive to larger chain stores – the card is an orange/red/blue colour with different images. It is also orange/red/blue in the Target exclusive CD, but it depicts a different collage of faces.

Then, in those releases that come with the portrait postcard, there are 4 different photos in use. One for the gold vinyl (exclusive to Barnes & Noble, and possibly Rough Trade UK – but this is still to be confirmed); one for the green cover CD (a McCartney Store/Universal Music exclusive); a third variation for the Walmart exclusive CD; and now a fourth iteration for the exclusive US launch-day silver vinyl just announced. We’ve tried to show these on the chart, but here they are side-by-side for comparison.

We’ll be updating this variations page and chart as soon as any more different colours or packaging is announced.

New McCartney – The Boys of Dungeon Lane

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No doubt you’ve heard by now there’s to be a brand spanking new Paul McCartney solo album called The Boys of Dungeon Lane – due in stores from May 29. Very exciting to get a whole album’s worth of new material from the master – especially after a five year wait.

A new Paul McCartney release means inevitably there’ll be lots of variations to collect. Already there are 8 different vinyl colours you can pre-order, plus four different CD packages. Based on his last solo release (McCartney III), there’ll no doubt be more….

If you are collecting, here’s a bit of a guide to what’s available so far. And please bear in mind we haven’t seen the packaging in full as yet, so who know what artwork will be on the rear covers, spines, etc.

However, with the guide below you need to note some subtle differences between some of the versions – especially if you are a real packaging nerd. A few come with slightly different features (inserts, etc.), so we’ll try to point these out for you as we go along.

OK. Lets start off with the most obvious, and it’s the black vinyl. It is available from the official McCartney store, at Universal Music stores in various parts of the word (Australia for example), and seems to be widely available at most other places too from May 29:

The black vinyl includes embossed cover artwork (with red and black lettering), a printed inner sleeve and a 12-page lyric booklet.

There’s also a green vinyl which looks pretty nice. This is a McCartney store exclusive (plus at various Universal Music outlets – Umusic Shop Canada for example):

As you can see above, this comes with a unique cover with green and black lettering on the front (not red and black). It includes the store-exclusive green vinyl LP, a lyric card, and the 12-page lyric booklet. So, different to the black vinyl.

The gold vinyl will be available from Barnes and Noble stores in the US and is most probably the same gold vinyl as the Rough Trade exclusive offering.

The Rough Trade listing says “Includes 12-page lyric booklet and embossed cover artwork”. The Barnes and Noble listing is a little more vague as to what this version contains packaging-wise, but the hype sticker clearly states “Includes Photo Print”:

Now, until the launch of The Boys of Dungeon Lane last week we’d never heard of TalkShopLive. A quick Google reveals it is “the live streaming, social selling online network for anyone, anywhere, to buy & sell almost anything!” Hmmm. Still not exactly sure what that even means….BUT, the site has a purple vinyl exclusive. Could this have the potential to become the rarest version?

There’s precious little detail of what the packaging is for this TalkShopLive edition.

At the other end of the spectrum is the big online retailer, Amazon. They get a white vinyl Amazon exclusive:

Pressed on Amazon exclusive white vinyl, this LP includes the 12-page lyric booklet and embossed cover artwork.

The red vinyl is going out as an “exclusive” to a number of the big bricks-and-mortar stores like HMV in the UK, Target in the US, plus other large chain stores (like JB HiFi in Australia, fnac in France, jpc in Germany, etc.). This actually looks pretty good:

The red vinyl edition comes with the lyric card and the 12-page lyric booklet and embossed cover artwork.

Actually, jpc in Germany has quite clear images of the labels (which are common across the variants). Obviously they’re printed but look to be originally hand-written by Paul?

The pink vinyl is going to quite a lot of independant record stores (both bricks-and-mortar stores and online) right around the world, including Rough Trade, the SuperDeluxeEdition store, Juno Records in the UK, Badlands in the UK, the iMusic online store in Denmark etc., etc.:

This Indie-only pink vinyl features an embossed sleeve and comes with a 12-page lyric booklet.

So as you can see there are a number of little packaging wrinkles amongst the coloured vinyls.

But the biggest variation (so far) is probably the Amoeba Music exclusive just announced. It has completely out there alternate cover artwork (riffing on the Amoeba store’s official logo), and is on exclusive limited edition yellow vinyl:

No word on what else is included in this love-or-hate packaging! This looks to have unique labels as well.

As far as CD’s go it looks like there’s the widely-available standard CD: white disc, embossed cover with red lettering. Includes lyric booklet.

There’s an exclusive “green cover” CD: white disc, green lettering on front cover. Includes a “Paul McCartney photo print”, and lyric booklet. This again is a McCartney store exclusive (plus through various Universal Music outlets – Umusic Shop Canada for example):

Meanwhile in Japan there are two different SHM-CD variants available for pre-order. The first is the standard SHM-CD:

Not a lot of detail about what you get here, but it is almost certain to come with a lyric booklet and an insert with a Japanese translation of the lyrics.

There is also a limited Deluxe Edition SHM-CD described as a “Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP) in a 7-inch cardboard sleeve. Bonus item(s) are planned. Includes commentary, lyrics, and a Japanese translation”. Both SMH-CD’s do not have any bonus tracks.

New Ringo Starr – Long Long Road Coloured Vinyl, Black Vinyl & CD

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The old addage “when you’re on a good thing, stick to it” comes to mind today as Ringo Starr announces the release of his second album with T Bone Burnett as producer – due out on April 24.

It’ll be called Long Long Road and it follows on from last year’s well-received Look Up, a welcome return to the country/Americana style that Ringo, and his audience, are very comfortable with. Under the direction of Burnett, Ringo is having something of a late career revival and reaching new audiences.

Recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles, the 10-song album features collaborations with Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sarah Jarosz, and St. Vincent.

Packaged in a gatefold sleeve, there’ll be an “Ultraviolet Dream” purple vinyl edition (not sure yet if this is exclusive to the Ringo Official Store and Universal Music’s various online outlets):

There’s also a standard black vinyl LP:

And a CD in a good old-fashioned plastic jewel case:

Talking about the new album Ringo says “I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records. After we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened. I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for Look Up, and now for this one, which I’m calling Long Long Road, because I’ve been on a long long road.”

Renowned music photographer (and good friend of Ringo’s) Henry Diltz shot the album cover, as well as additional photos for the album packaging. If you don’t think you’ve seen his work before, it’s almost certain that you have! Check out the link above to his official page. Since the 1960s he’s been snapping rock royalty. His photographs of The Doors, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor, Paul McCartney plus countless others have graced more than 250 album and magazine covers. 

The Pre-Christmas Bealtes Release List – Even More To Add!

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In late October we published a graphic titled “If You Want To Keep Up, Here’s Everything You’ll Need To Order” showing what we then thought was every Beatle, solo, or Beatle-related title released (or about to be released) this holiday season.

It didn’t last long. Some helpful readers pointed out we’d left out Ringo’s Stop & Smell The Roses – the numbered, liquid vinyl edition – limited to 400 copies.

This was due November 14, but seems to have been delayed. It is currently looking like December 5 now.

And the other Ringo Starr was a red vinyl re-issue of his 14th studio album, Choose Love from 2005. This had first been slated for Record Store Day Black Friday, but was quietly removed from official lists prior to the day. It’s popped up again on the Friday Music site, this time with a late January 2026 release date (though knowing Friday Music that is extremely likely to change):

Then came news of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono ‘War Is Over (If You Want It)’ 12″ Zoetrope pressing issued to coincide with the release of the children’s hardback book and the premiere of the short animated film of the same name on YouTube.

Then Dark Horse Records announced it would be issuing a further title from the Yusuf/Cat Stevens back catalogue that the label now has the rights to. It’s called Tell ‘Em I’m Gone and it will be on yellow vinyl:

So, each of these were duly added into a revised graphic and we were just about to re-publish when last Friday came news of yet another collectable, this time linked to the Beatles’ Anthology re-issue – and in particular Anthology 4. On it are the 2025 re-mixes of ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ and they are now being released as a limited edition, double A-side 7″ translucent milk white vinyl single. This is the 2025 mix of both songs.

There’s been no indication of a CD version of the single being made available (except for Japan where there’s been an exclusive Japan-only CD announced). Nor has there been any talk of updated versions of the ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ EPs (or “maxi-singles”) which were originally released to accompany Volumes 1 and 2 of Anthology back in 1995 and 1996. That means all of the extra tracks on those EPs will remain unavailable, with the exception of the song ‘This Boy’, which has been added to the Anthology Volume 4 discs.

The ‘Free As A Bird’ (2025 Mix)/’Real Love’ (2025 Mix) 7″ coloured vinyl single is only available from Beatles official stores (e.g. in the UK or the US), or from certain Universal Music online stores (eg. this one in Germany).

So, it has been a most busy time for any Beatle collector who is a completist. There’s been so much product so fast it’s been difficult to keep up.

To help, here’s our updated visual. If you want everything, this is what you’ll need to order. There are no fewer that 51 items here! This has got to be unprecedented in the run-up to Christmas:

(Click on the graphic to see a larger version)

New Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Zoetrope, and More Dark Horse

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There’s been a further development in the green vinyl ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ 7″ single release announced a few weeks back…..

It all seems timed to coincide with the release of a new children’s book, which in turn is adapted from the Academy Award winning animated short film of the same name that Sean Ono Lennon was involved in…….

Anyways, on the official John Lennon store site they’ve just announced a very special 12″ Zoetrope disc featuring the songs ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (Ultimate Mix)’ and ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling (Ultimate Mix)’ on side one, and on side two ‘War Pigeon/A Game Of Chess/A Sudden Interruption/Then Peace’, from the soundtrack to the War Is Over! animated film, composed by Thomas Newman (who has done everything from The Shawshank Redemption to Finding Nemo, two Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, to 1917 and Elemental). Suffice it to say he is up there with the best! This is the first time soundtrack music from War Is Over! has been available on a physical format.

The 12” Zoetrope picture disc is designed by Drew Tetz using still frames from the film, and features (on the front outer title sticker) an illustration by Max Narciso from the children’s book adaptation.

The disc is 180g and cut at 45rpm, and comes in a PVC clear sleeve with a title sticker featuring the credits.

It looks very cool and is set to become a definite collectors item.

Meanwhile, the team at Dark Horse Records has announced yet another pre-Christmas release. This is in addition to the three titles announced for Black Friday Record Store Day.

It’s another Yusuf/Cat Stevens back-catalogue title Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, and it will be on yellow vinyl:

The album was produced by Rick Rubin and sees Yusuf exploring some of his bluesier influences, tapping into musical traditions that have informed his own work. Fans of Cat Stevens will know that Leadbelly has always been one of his favourite artists and alongside the album’s original compositions Tell ‘Em I’m Gone contains covers of songs dear to him such as Edgar Winter’s ‘Dying To Live’, Luther Dixon/Al Smith’s ‘Big Boss Man’, and a bluesy reworking of the Jimmie Davies/Charles Mitchell song ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Interesting stuff. The album is available for pre-sale now and is released on December 5.