Box Set Blues

[nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@mitvma.mit.edu]

This will appear like heresy to some but I have to express my bad
feelings about the new Box Set. I finally got my set - it took a week
for the local store to get it. It seems people in the States had it before me!

Now I have got it I find it hard to contain my disappointment at
the way the package has been put together. On the plus front we now have
all the B-sides and some other odds and sods collected together in one
place and available on CD. There is a nice photo booklet but with the
CDs this is so small as to lose most of its impact. Why could not the
CDs be sold in a large format box. This was done with Bob Dylan's
Biograph set.

You get twleve stickers - well I suppose they might come in useful
when my daughter gets to the age when she wants to decorate the fridge.
Personally, one would have been more than enough for me.

Then we have six albums which have not been altered in any way just
stuck in a box. Must have taken someone a long time to think that
one up. Since the CD format became popular there have been dozens of
compilations, anthologies, special collector's editions of various artists
and almost without exception they have included previously unreleased
songs, remastered tracks etc. On this box set we have nothing new at all.
The recently released Led Zeppelin set comes out much more favourably in
this context (and no I am not comparing the music).

The two new CDs come with no accompanying biography, discography, lyrics
or explanatory notes of any kind. At the price the set is sold for this
is really poor. It must have taken someone at EMI all of two hours to
put this concept together. I will no longer have any qualms about buying
from bootleggers as at least their money for nothing approach is out
in the open.

As you might guess I feel let down by the presentation of the set.
No matter how good the music, there is no excuse for short changing
the fans. If Kate really was closely involved in putting this package
together then I think she has spent too long isolated and away from her fans.
I was hoping for something really special but I am afraid for me this
represents a wonderful opportunity which has been missed.
It could have been SO MUCH better!! Sigh - I guess we will have to wait
for the definitive Kate collection (along the lines suggested in Andy and
Derek's letter to EMI) :-(

So 10 out of 10 for the music, 2 out of 10 for the packaging.

Feel free to disagree (and clearly many of you are pleased with the
set) - these are just my opinions. You can always buttonhole me at the
Convention. I will be the morose chap trying to sell 6 CDs :-)
Neil
--
Neil Calton                          UUCP:   ..!mcsun!ukc!rlinf!nbc
Informatics Department,              NSFNET: nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,      BITNET: nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@ukacrl
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		Damn fine signature, Diane!