Ultravox - Ure era reissues coming soon
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:27 pmFrom the Extreme Voice website:
"As many of you know, information regarding EMI's planned Ultravox re-releases was recently made known. This is the second major project Extreme Voice has been progressing on EMI's behalf, the first being 'Anthology', and we are now in a position to give a small update on the current progress and what the future holds.
EMI are intending, wherever possible, to release double disc versions of the entire Chrysalis-era Ultravox and Midge Ure solo catalogue over the next twelve months as 'Definitive Remastered Editions', in the order in which they were originally released - i.e. chronologically from 1980 to 1988. This second project came out of several conversations we had with EMI at the beginning of March 2006 around the main 'Anthology' release. We can confirm that these re-releases are intended to complement the main project ('Anthology') rather than replace it.
Despite the current industry trends and market conditions record companies are currently operating in, EMI have been tremendously supportive of both projects. The album re-releases are being put out through EMI Catalogue rather than EMI Gold, and so have benefited from a different perspective and budget, allowing us to 'think bigger' for what we would want these albums to be and include. With a broadly blank canvas, we were initially given a wider brief than we had previously had and we have been encouraged to revisit everything connected with the albums. We have considered and worked incredibly hard to bring a new dimension and ideas to everything you will see and hear on every album, this includes artwork, lyrics, photography and obviously, the music.
The original recordings will be digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. The first albums to undergo this process, 'Vienna' and 'Rage in Eden', were transferred from the original production master tapes at the beginning of March. The final track-listings cannot yet be confirmed until the members of the band have listened to, commented on and approved the proposed extra tracks. We will give more details and release dates as soon as they are confirmed to us by EMI.
However, one thing we can confirm is that with the help and support of EMI, 'thinking big' has allowed us to pursue and now be in a position to reinstate the original front cover artwork for the 'Rage in Eden' album. This was withdrawn by Chrysalis after legal issues soon after it was originally released and has been replaced by alternative artwork on all subsequent editions. The process from initial conversations with Peter Saville about identifying the art which inspired the cover, through to our extensive work in contacting the original artist's estate to establish intent and culminating with EMI concluding licensing negotiations for its use took over a year, but we are absolutely thrilled with this achievement and to our now be able to restore the image. Digital downloads of 'Rage in Eden' that will be available online will itself have alternate artwork as the agreement for use does not cover any other editions of this album now or in the future.
We are currently writing a second 'All You Need To Know' companion piece (the first of which was completed for the Island Records re-mastered albums back in 2007) detailing the full process of the 'Anthology' and remastered album re-releases. We will publish this on the Extreme Voice website in due course."
"As many of you know, information regarding EMI's planned Ultravox re-releases was recently made known. This is the second major project Extreme Voice has been progressing on EMI's behalf, the first being 'Anthology', and we are now in a position to give a small update on the current progress and what the future holds.
EMI are intending, wherever possible, to release double disc versions of the entire Chrysalis-era Ultravox and Midge Ure solo catalogue over the next twelve months as 'Definitive Remastered Editions', in the order in which they were originally released - i.e. chronologically from 1980 to 1988. This second project came out of several conversations we had with EMI at the beginning of March 2006 around the main 'Anthology' release. We can confirm that these re-releases are intended to complement the main project ('Anthology') rather than replace it.
Despite the current industry trends and market conditions record companies are currently operating in, EMI have been tremendously supportive of both projects. The album re-releases are being put out through EMI Catalogue rather than EMI Gold, and so have benefited from a different perspective and budget, allowing us to 'think bigger' for what we would want these albums to be and include. With a broadly blank canvas, we were initially given a wider brief than we had previously had and we have been encouraged to revisit everything connected with the albums. We have considered and worked incredibly hard to bring a new dimension and ideas to everything you will see and hear on every album, this includes artwork, lyrics, photography and obviously, the music.
The original recordings will be digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. The first albums to undergo this process, 'Vienna' and 'Rage in Eden', were transferred from the original production master tapes at the beginning of March. The final track-listings cannot yet be confirmed until the members of the band have listened to, commented on and approved the proposed extra tracks. We will give more details and release dates as soon as they are confirmed to us by EMI.
However, one thing we can confirm is that with the help and support of EMI, 'thinking big' has allowed us to pursue and now be in a position to reinstate the original front cover artwork for the 'Rage in Eden' album. This was withdrawn by Chrysalis after legal issues soon after it was originally released and has been replaced by alternative artwork on all subsequent editions. The process from initial conversations with Peter Saville about identifying the art which inspired the cover, through to our extensive work in contacting the original artist's estate to establish intent and culminating with EMI concluding licensing negotiations for its use took over a year, but we are absolutely thrilled with this achievement and to our now be able to restore the image. Digital downloads of 'Rage in Eden' that will be available online will itself have alternate artwork as the agreement for use does not cover any other editions of this album now or in the future.
We are currently writing a second 'All You Need To Know' companion piece (the first of which was completed for the Island Records re-mastered albums back in 2007) detailing the full process of the 'Anthology' and remastered album re-releases. We will publish this on the Extreme Voice website in due course."