ELO Reissues Postponed

Found this posted on Face the Music and an ELO board:

Just to update you on the upcoming ELO Remasters...

Craig Fruin, Jeff Lynne's manager, wanted me to let the ELO fanbase know that the remasters have been put on hold pending resolution of issues with business affairs. Craig says "Hopefully things will be resolved soon so we can stay close to the original schedule."

The Showdown List and Face The Music (www.ftmusic.com) will announce the new release date as soon as it's been finalized.

Lynn Hoskins

 

Funny how these get delayed, but never the next ELO Greatest Hits Album, released every few months...!!

 

I've had enough of the endless wranglng over ELO/Move CD's

I went to Amazon and cancelled my order for the expanded/remasters of ELO's "On The Third Day","A New World Record" & "Face The Music".We'll probably see 3 to 4 years of legal wrangling over these titles....just like we did over EMI/UK's expanded/remaster of "The Move-Message From The Country".The ELO/Move members and their contempt for the fans is appalling.All this over previously unreleased bonus tracks which were(largely) a bunch backing tracks.The bonus tracks that would have appeared on "On The Third Day" were nothing new anyhow,since they already appeared on the limited edition 2-CD UK remaster of "ELO 2".Someone should communicate to the ELO/Move members that their fans are sick and tired of the repeated legal wrangling.As if these guys aren't rich enough already.We fans were set to buy these albums for the 3rd or 4th time(vinyl,CD,Gold CD's and now these aborted expanded/remasters).What a reward for fan loyalty!

 

I hear 'ya Phil.

All this waiting and waiting, then comes the carrot right in our face only to be pulled away from us one more time. Frustrating doesn't really even describe it.

Well while "legal wrangling" is going on (which should have been finalized in the first place) maybe Sony in the meantime can re-remaster "No Answer" and "ELO II" from real genuine master tapes.

 

You seem to indicate here that the bonus tracks on the reissues might be the "business" issue holding the releases up. Have you heard or seen any indication that this is the reason, or is this just a guess? If it's a guess, it could well be correct. At the same time, there could be any number of other reasons as well. Some have suggested it has something to do with the ex-ELO/Part II/"The Orchestra" members touring the UK around this time as "ELO Part II Former Members." I'm not sure how this would impact the CD reissues, other than that Jeff Lynne and his management want to focus on cleaning up that problem before the CD reissues come out. I dunno.

 

I agree, but don't count on it John, Sony can't even "FACE THE MUSIC" (sorry for the intended pun!), that they are NOT already using the master tapes on those reissues!
I'm so glad that I'm not alone in feeling that we ELO fans have been mistreated with their reissues! I'm glad that the reissues are on hold, maybe we here at the SH Forum, will have made a difference, with what's left to be released and THIS time, they'll do them right?

Reissues, in general, have always had me puzzled. Why do they (record companies and/or artists) feel like they NEED to fool around with the master tapes in the first place?
Most of the fans only want the BEST sound available from the original master tapes, with little, if any, tweeking and if possible, a few FULL (not :45 seconds worth, as in the ELO reissues) bonus tracks, from that albums sessions. Give us the "complete" original front/back covers and inside record sleeve, with lyrics and pictures. Again, if possible, it would be nice to see the original vinyl labels and pictures of a few promotional posters, that were related to that albums original release (NOTE: We fans have these, if you can't find them and we'd LOVE to share!).

But, be it that I'm just "an emotional wanker", I'm probably wrong as usual!

Chris C

 

According to Lynn Hoskins of the showdown list, the remastering for these, and for the second batch, have already been done.

I doubt there will be any further work done on them as a result of the delays.

 

I've gotten to the point now, where I could care less any more. I'm tired of setting myself up for a let down. I have "Face The Music", "A New World Record", and "Out Of The Blue" on Japan 1st press, and even the true Japan 1st press of "OOTB" double CD. These things sound so good, I doubt that any remasters can better them. The bonus tracks would have been nice though. Sorry to sound so negative on the matter, but there is no excuse for this to continue to happen this way. :thumbsdn: :thumbsdn: :thumbsdn:

 

I like this post from a guy who claims to be a big music star giving a review to the fantastic job Peter Mew did on the "No Answer" remaster...

The "1 Star People" below are IDIOTS.....and that's a BALD FACED TRUTH!!, April 16, 2006
The recent care and beautiful attention that has been afforded the music of one JEFF LYNNE and his band THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA is nothing short of dream come true stuff for me and many millions of fans worldwide. The people below who posted those inane reviews have an agenda. They have personal grudges. Their views are idiotic and juvenile and I'm doing my little bit to right this wrong.

They talk of "Hiss" and "EQ" as if they know and respect what these things are. They don't. If you read their posts carefully they actually can't spell!! I'd say "EQ" had to be spellchecked?I'm also saying "they" but I don't think we'd be far wrong in thinking this is the work of one spotty cretin with a big box of tissues, heavy curtains and a 15 watt bulb.....?

"The Electric Light Orchestra" (No Answer) and "ELO 2" sound the way God intended to me and "God" is JEFF LYNNE. He has the final say over "HIS" product and that man has never ONCE had his radar off kilter.....NEVER!! I bought these records in the seventies and the vinyl sounded fantastic. I've purchased re-issues, cassettes, 8-Tracks and all manor of different variations of these records and yes, the longer these shoddy re-issues kept coming the more I went back to my vinyl BUT.....

.....ever since ROB CAIGER and a dedicated core of people set out on finding original master tapes and getting the original artist and players involved, THEN also convincing a HUGE conglomerate like SONY to take notice, ELO's back catalogue is only NOW beginning it's rightful accent to were it belongs.

I'm as big a fan of this music as is humanly possible and I've recorded and released my own records to critical acclaim over the last 10 years or so, I KNOW "EQ", "COMPRESSION" and bloody "HISS" so listen to this.....

THESE C.D's ARE..........DEFINITIVE!! Well done Peter Mew, Rob, the 2 Jeff's, Lynn and everyone else involved.

$11.98 eh.....? I'd pay $1111111111.98 for them.

Love - Thomas Walsh. (Dublin, Ireland.)

P.S.....Just thought I'd say that this review is also posted at the "ELO 2" review section on Amazon.....

----

Ha.

JEFF!

 

Let's see if the label raises the price after that.

 

If I had those Japanese discs I would feel the exact same way. I am not going to lose sleep over this, that is for sure.

 

It seems many forum people now takes for granted that the delayed remasters would sound like crap anyway so the delay is nothing to worry about.
Well, we still don't know anything about the sound of these delayed remasters. Remember, Pete Mew didn't do these.

 

Oh I don't know that was just pretty funny at the time...

 

I don't think Peter Mew's remastering jobs are all that great. They're listenable, usually. I don't like noise reduction, and I don't fall for the "louder means better sounding" trick. I guess I'm sort of a mid-level audiophile. I want hiss when it means offering more clarity and less murkiness in a mastering job. But I also sometimes laugh at reviews of discs that include comments like "I listened for the tape hiss and I can hear hiss, so I'm guessing noise reduction wasn't used, thus it sounds better and must be from a better generation tape", as if there aren't other factors that play into sound quality, such as how the actual music sounds, not to mention that more hiss could simply mean a 5th generation copy. I'm convinced there are a few who would listen to a one tape source that naturally has little or no hiss, and another source which has simply had extra hiss added to it, and then rate the second source as sounding better. I'm not singling anybody out here. I just think there is a point at which people are using indicators other than the actual sound quality to rate the sound quality. I mean c'mon, during the whole Beatles "Capitol Albums Vol. 2" debacle, the mono fold-down wasn't detected because the mono fold-down didn't have the right mix levels as compared to the original mono mixes. It was detected because of other evidence that has nothing to do with the actual quality of the sound or mixes (ie false start, running times). I'm a purist and plenty upset about the Beatles debacle, but when you have to dump the tracks into a computer program and analyze the waveforms and db levels to tell you what was done with the CD because your ears can't detect the difference, then at least for myself, I don't get too worked up about it.

The now-postponed ELO remasters have nothing to do with Peter Mew, who I believe was involved with the first two remasters only because he works with EMI and those albums were originally issued through EMI. The four 2001 Sony remasters were done by Joseph M. Palmaccio, and in general sound pretty good to me, even though I've read reports that there is clipping on some of the remasters. The now-postponed remasters are apparently remastered by Jeff Magid and Jeff Lynne. I don't know if those two will be credited with the actual mastering work. For instance, on the 2000 "Flashback" set, it lists Jeff Lynne, Al Quaglieri, and Jeff Magid as "Compilation Producers", while the actual mastering is credited to Doug Sax and Robert Hadley. It sounds like on the new remasters, Magid and Lynne are the ones actual mastering, so I guess technically this is a team "new" to remastering ELO. They were both involved with "Flashback" (Lynne of course being involved in all of the releases since "Flashback"), but in a different capacity. I've never seen Jeff Lynne before credited as personally handling mastering or remastering. But people seem to be generally pleased with "Flashback", which involved Magid, so the new remasters might sound pretty good when or if they eventually come out.

By the way, my comments above about hiss, sound quality, etc. aren't neccesarily related to the two Mew-remastered ELO albums specifically. I actually think the Move "Message from the Country" remaster deserves a lot more criticism than the first two ELO album remasters, but back to ELO, I agree that Mew's work on those is more easily discernable in terms of pure sound quality as having that Mew aspect that many of you and myself are not big fans of. I just mean to say that my comments above about hiss, etc. are meant more as a general comment about audiophiles in general. I don't mean to single this board or anybody out.

 

Since I have gotten quite a few PM's in response to the above post, in regards to the 28DP 1077 "Face The Music" CD, I thought I should also let it be known that the 28DP 1077 cuts off the first 1:30 of "Fire On High", and the first :22 of "Strange Magic". If I recall correctly, wasn't this the problem with the first US issues back in the late 80s also? If so, that might tell you something. I got rid of my first US issue CD back when the Mastersound Gold CD came out in ninety something.

 

Yes I had one. I called Sony and got a remastered disc.

How could you skip the start of "Fire on High"?

Joe

 

MFTC and all the EMI remasters from ELO and Move so far sound great,not sure why some are against these remasters,they sound much better than a lot of the SONY output,maybe the future remasters with Jeff Lynne involved will sound much better than the first batch in 2001.Considering Peter Mew was there when thse were origianlly recorded,it seems only right he is the man to do the job of remastering Bowie/ELO and most other EMI material these days.I am really pleased MFSL did not get their hands on thse masters and give us what was never in the mix,MFSL sound terrible and never heard a decent one yet.

 

Oh please!

 

James

 

Or do you mean never actually heard one at all?

 

Spin.cd's still have them listed for the end of May....Who knows.....

 

CD Universe lists a May 23rd release date for A New World Record (Expanded).

But maybe that's what been listed all along...???

 

I'm not sure about that, but I ordered them anyway!

 

I love the old ELO albums, I really do. And this is just my opinion, but all the remastering in the world won't help that beating-on-cardboard-boxes drum sound found on "On The Third Day" or the "let's-record-the-Ovation-acoustic-using-the-built-in-pickup" sound found on some of the other albums. But it just goes to show that what I perceive as bad production can't thwart the effect of great songs!

J. D.