First up is the next installment in the ongoing George Harrison/Zoetrope disc back-catalogue series, Living In The Material World:
Featuring the 2024 50th anniversary mix of the album, this will come in a numbered sleeve with an insert of the original cover art. Hopefully it will be easier to secure than the Zoetrope edition of All Things Must Pass from Record Store Day earlier this year! It quickly became as rare as hen’s teeth.
Also on Dark Horse is a Billy Idol 12″ single picture disc. It features the track ’77’ which was on his LP Dream Into Itfrom earlier this year. The song is a collaboration with Avril Lavigne, but the version with her has so far only been available as a digital download. She didn’t make the cut for the version on the physical release. Well, now we get both versions on this 2-sided picture. Side 1 features the duet with Lavigne, while Side 2 is the album version.
A third Dark Horse Records title for RSD Black Friday is only appearing (so far) on the UK list. It looks to be a follow-up to last year’s RSD collaboration between Dhani Harrison and Carmen Rizzo. That was called Dreamers In The Field and featured world music artists Huun-Huur-Tu. This time Ivan Shopov is also involved and special guests are the New Bulgarian Voices and composer/choir leader Georgi Petkov. The album is called Ascending Into Silence. Very interesting stuff:
And lastly, there’s also the now almost obligatory RSD Ringo Starr re-issue on coloured vinyl from Friday Music. It’s his Choose Love from 2005 and it is the first time this record has been available on vinyl, so that makes it interesting. It’ll be on ruby red vinyl:
UPDATE: Despite being published on early RSD Black Friday 2025 lists, this Ringo Starr release seems to have quietly slipped off those same lists in recent days. We’ll keep an eye on it to see if it re-appears and will let you know.
Apologies, but we’re a little slow of the mark with the Record Store Day 2024 news from last week. However, it has given us a bit more time to research and hopefully provide a few more details – so here goes.
First up, from Apple Records is another unique format first for The Beatles. It is a tiny The Beatles Limited Edition RSD3 Turntable, featuring a Beatle-branded dustcover and turntable facing. Each turntable is Bluetooth-enabled and housed in a Beatles’ box that includes four super small 3″ records featuring the four songs they performed 60 years ago on The Ed Sullivan Show: ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘Til There Was You’, ‘She Loves You’, and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. Each record is housed in an outer box and comes in a picture sleeve. There is also a poster for each. The package also includes a bright yellow Beatle-branded carrying case, which can hold up to ten 3” records. These little discs apparently play at 331/3 rpm.
If you don’t want the record player, the four 3″ singles will be sold separately, also housed in an outer box, with a picture sleeve and poster. The records only have music on one side:
The concept of these 3″ singles and their accompanying tiny record player have been around for a while (think the Foo Fighters, The White Stripes, or The Doors as recently as last year for RSD). However, they represent a limited format The Beatles have not yet embraced, making them a bit like those cards from last year containing special editions of the Red and Blue albums for kids to play on their Yoto players. So they could potentially reach a whole new younger audience. If you want to get an idea of just how small the turntable and discs are check out this Youtube unboxing.
Next up, from the John Lennon camp, comes a 4 track, 12″ EP teaser for the forthcoming Mind Games Ultimate Mixes box sets – due in June. Two versions of this will be available – one on “glow-in-the-dark” 140g luminous vinyl, and one described as “black ‘audiophile’ 180g vinyl”:
Gotta say the cover for the EP is great. The track list is:
Side A: 1. Mind Games (Ultimate Mix) 2. I’m The Greatest (Ultimate Mix) – feat. George Harrison & Ringo Starr
Side B: 3. Aisumasen (I’m Sorry) (Ultimate Mix) 4. You Are Here (Outtake, Take 5)
Ringo Starr will have an RSD 12″ 45 EP called Crooked Boy available on exclusive black & white marble vinyl – and also in a really cool cover:
Written and produced by Songwriter’s Hall Of Famer Linda Perry, Crooked Boy features four brand-new tracks from Ringo. The EP also includes guitar performances on every song from Nick Valensi of The Strokes.
On a recent video Ringo showed the inside cover:
And a quick shot of what looks like a green vinyl edition. Maybe that is coming later?
Zoetrope picture discs seem to be all the rage this RSD. There are no fewer than nine LPs being released, including artists like Blur, Marc Bolan and T.Rex, Fatboy Slim, Lily Allen, and even one from Doctor Who.
What is a Zoetrope Picture disc? They look fantastic spinning on a turntable. Have a look at this YouTube from last year of Blur’s ‘The Ballad of Darren (Zoetrope Vinyl)’:
Dark Horse Records and Record Store Day have announced a multi-year partnership to release limited Zoetrope picture disc pressings of George Harrison’s entire studio album catalogue. The first two titles in the RSD exclusive series – Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound – will be available on Record Store Day in April 2024. Limited to 8,000 units globally and exclusive to Record Store Day, each is individually numbered in silver foil and will include an insert reproducing the original artwork. The front cover will look like this – with a cut-out window showing off the LP plus a hype sticker and limited edition numbering also on show:
As mentioned there’ll be an insert in each LP with the original cover artwork included:
Dark Horse is once again extremely busy this RSD. They’ll also have out a 25th anniversary edition of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’Rock Art & The Ex-Ray Style, the debut album by the band in a limited pink vinyl Record Store Day exclusive 2LP pressing. The remastered 1999 album, which was Strummer’s first album release in a decade, is spread over 2 LP’s for optimal sound quality, and the original gatefold artwork by Damien Hirst will be meticulously reproduced:
One obscure Dark Horse release can be found only on the US RSD list as a Limited Run/ Regional Focus release with only 800 copies made. Its an album called Dreamers In The Field by Huun-Huur-Tu, Carmen Rizzo and Dhani Harrison:
From Wikipedia: Huun-Huur-Tu are from Tuva, a Russian federative republic situated on the Mongolia–Russia border. Their music includes throat singing, in which the singers sing both a note and its overtones, thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is solely a product of the human voice. They also play traditional Tuvan instruments. However, in recent years, the group have begun to selectively incorporate Western instruments and electronic music.
Carmen Rizzo is an American record producer, mixer, programmer, DJ, remixer and recording artist. A two-time Grammy nominee, he’s worked with Seal, Coldplay, Dido, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Pete Townshend. In addition to collaborating with Huun Huur Tu, Rizzo co-founded the world/electronic act Niyaz with Azam Ali and Loga Ramin Torkian (with three #1 iTunes albums). He’s released his own solo electronic albums too, so this RSD release looks to be an eclectic sound mix!
And lastly, on the UK and Australian RSD sites, there are two Dark Horse Yusuf/Cat Stevens LP re-issues listed (….can’t seem to find these on the US list).
They are (from 1975) Numbers on black vinyl LP – which will be limited to 2,000 units globally, and reissued for RSD with a lenticular gatefold cover. Included will be a reproduction of the original 16-page book with lyrics and illustrations:
And also (from 1977) Izitso – again, limited to 2,000 units globally and presented in a lenticular gatefold cover:
So, a lot of product from Dark Horse for RSD 2024…..
The Beatles, Apple and Universal Music have jumped a little earlier than expected. Overnight they officially announced all the details of the forthcoming Revolver re-mix and remaster project, due in stores on October 28.
There’s also a 4CD + 1EP CD super deluxe slipcase box, also with a 100-page hard cover book:
There’s a 2CD edition with the new stereo mix of the album plus a unique ‘Session Highlights’ disc:
A 1CD edition with the new stereo re-mix:
And a 1LP edition featuring the new stereo re-mix:
And, just as they did with the Sgt Pepper, the White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be re-issues, there’s to be a Revolver picture disc:
The rumoured Dolby Atmos Mixes will only be available as Downloads and on Streaming.
The original mono mix will be part of the super deluxe boxes and accompany never-before-released session recordings and demos, plus two singles from the era, ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’ are on the four track EP that is in the vinyl and CD boxes (in 2022 re-mixed versions and in original mono too).
Each edition is available for pre-order now and all the the physical product hits stores on October 28.
The opening song on Revolver, ‘Taxman’, has been chosen as the teaser 2022 mix sample song and it is available now on streaming media and in Dolby Atmos where that is supported.
It’s not often you see one of these come onto the market, so it’s worth mentioning.
The UK online second-hand store eil.com currently has a Wings Back To The Eggvinyl picture disc for sale. This super-rare, 1979 UK original promotional-only picture disc is an exclusive in-house edition conceived by Paul McCartney’s company MPL Communications for distribution only to friends, family and label executives, and was never made available for retail sale.
Widely believed to be limited to just 200 copies, or fewer, this example comes from the archive collection of a retired music industry executive.
The picture record displays the same image on both sides. Only the printed matrix number at the end of the perimeter text differs from side one to side two. Here’s the rear cover:
It is a genuine original and near impossible to find, and comes with a cool £1,995.00 price tag. (That’s US$2,720.00, or around $3,640.00 Australian dollars).
Find out more at eil.com where there’s more detailed info and pictures.
Well, here we all were, waiting for something like a Plastic Ono Band 50th anniversary deluxe re-issue, or maybe even a big All Things Must Pass 50th anniversary box set.
Heck, some fans were even speculating about an LP of brand new solo music from Paul McCartney that had supposedly been recorded in lockdown. They’d even given it a title already: McCartney III….
To mark what would have been the 100th anniversary of the cartoon character Rupert the Bear on November 6 we’ll be getting this:
Now, we’re not against novelty items like this. Not at all. Nor are we against Paul McCartney’s dedicated support of the art of animation over the years. It’s great. But ‘We All Stand Together’ by Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus is a very long way away from the Plastic Ono Band album, or George Harrison’s triple LP opus All Things Pass. I guess it’s a case of expectation meeting reality…..
Having said all that, ‘We All Stand Together’ (a.k.a. ‘The Frog Song’) is really quite sweet and beautifully orchestrated and produced by George Martin. This limted edition 7″ single cut-out shaped picture disc will be a faithfull reproduction of the original shaped picture disc that came out in 1984. As then, it will accompany the re-release (in lovely 4K quality, and with a new audio mix) of the short animated film Rupert and the Frog Song that McCartney began work on in 1981 with animator Geoff Dunbar. In it Paul voices the character of Rupert.
‘We All Stand Together’ has been remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton along with the B-side instrumental ‘We All Stand Together (Humming Version)’, which was also included on the original release.
The single features The King’s Singers and the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral.
‘We All Stand Together’ is available for pre-order now, and the cleaned up film Rupert and the Frog Song will be re-released on YouTube on November 6.
It certainly wasn’t in a hurry to get here though. RSD Black Friday was on November 29, last year. Our trusted local supplier somehow missed the boat on getting their supplies of the single fulfilled way back then and have only just now got the disc in-store. They’re usually very good and it’s unclear as to why it has taken so long. The store was citing “production delays”, though we’ve seen extensive coverage of this single being in stores in the USA right from the Friday of its release. Has anyone else experienced supply issues?
We must say it does look good in real life though. In the image above the yellow and red central label is actually a sticker on the outside of the clear plastic sleeve. Here’s a shot of the rear of the sleeve:
And here is the picture disc single iteself – firstly Side A:
And Side AA:
And the front of the carboard insert (with the disc taken out of the sleeve):
It’s a great design all round. Ferry Gouw and Gary Card, the two guys who did the spectacular Egypt Station LP and CD covers are responsible. You can read more about the design for the single here.
(As usual, click on images to see larger versions)
The official George Harrison social sites (Instagram, Twitter) have been carrying cryptic Traveling Wilbury teasers for a couple of days:
It’s now been revealed what it’s all about:
Universal Music, via a Concord Records’ subsidiary Craft Recordings, is to release a limited edition, 30th Anniversary picture disc pressing of The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 LP.Pre-order pics show that Side 1 carries the Wilbury logo, while Side 2 features an image from this video for ‘Handle Me With Care’, shot by Alberto Tolot:
The picture disc will be issued on November 2.
The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 Picture Disc Track List
A1. “Handle With Care” A2. “Dirty World” A3. “Rattled” A4. “Last Night” A5. “Not Alone Any More” B1. “Congratulations” B2. “Heading for the Light” B3. “Margarita” B4. “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” B5. “End of the Line”
The Beatlesofficial site has announced that a limited edition ‘Yellow Submarine’ 7″ vinyl picture disc single is to be released on July 6: This will mark 50 years since the Yellow Submarine animated film hit movie screens around the world:
Of course this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an officially released ‘Yellow Submarine’ 7″ picture disc. As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations for each British Beatle single, EMI issued a series of picture discs. This one came out in 1986 – marking 20 years since the band’s 13th single ‘Yellow Submarine’/’Eleanor Rigby’ was issued in August, 1966:
The new 7″ vinyl picture disc will come in a coloured die-cut sleeve and will be released on Friday, 6 July. A high-resolution, 4K restoration of the Yellow Submarine film will open at selected movie theatres in the UK, Ireland and the US in the following days. Tickets are here.
Another two discs have just come into the collection – thanks to reasonable prices on Ebay. They are “Love Me Do”:
And “From Me To You”:
These are both from the 22 picture disc series released by EMI/Parlophone in the UK on the anniversary of each singles’ release. Each disc was released on the 20th anniversary of that single reaching the number one spot on the charts. You can see the rest of the UK picture disc set here (1982-1985), here (1985-1987), and here (1988-1990) – with thanks to Dave Dermon for the links.
So, now I have four. There’s only eighteen to go….
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