Yes, an immediate pre-order for me too. If you don't feel the urgent need to have this set, then you can't love pop music. Basically.
With this much quality stuff on there, it's amazing to think there's still no room for Cathy Dennis, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Prince, Seal, Shakespears Sister, Mariah Carey - probably lots of licensing issues, but enough amazing work for a volume 2 and probably 3! What a guy.
Madonna. He did so many excellent mixes of her songs back in the day - it's where I started to notice his name, but as per above, I'm unsurprised by her absence. I'm glad it's a mixed bag and there's songs on there I've never heard before so it'll be much more than a 'hits' set for me. There's plenty of other mixes he did that I'd like to see on something like this, but it's not like they're not already out there... Bananarama, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Bowie, Nick Kamen, Timex Social Club, Jaki Graham, Depeche Mode all spring to mind as excellent mixes, and I'm intrigued to hear what he did with Metallica, but with such a catalogue, its more about knowing when to stop than trying to cram it all in. And of course Prince's Strange Relationship which, when it appeared on the Prince deluxe last year did put me in mind there must be a load of unreleased mixes from back in the day by the likes of Jellybean, Pettibone and Baker et al. I'd also love to hear what those guys would do with some of the songs of more recent artists. This series is possibly the most exciting thing to happen in the compilations market in a long while.
Wow, that Shep box set is a nice surprise! Funny, though, I knew there would be NO Madonna tracks when I looked at the tracklisting. Not surprising, but in a way, it kind of allows Shep to shine without the Madonna factor for a change. I hope I can get hands on this one. It will definitely sell out.
I just got one of the signed LPs on Rough Trade's website. It's part 1 of the LP set. I think the second part is ordered separately.
The LPs are crammed - 26 to 28 minutes per side. All those wonderful 12" and 7" singles won't sound as good.
I expect the CD packaging will be the fashionable rubbish stuff...we'll see. I was wondering who the signed version would be signed by, but I can see from the amazon packshot that it's Arthur Baker, and not Shep.
I was literally thinking earlier I wonder what Shep is doing right now and if he contributed anything this other than the great music, I know he’s given the odd interview the years but he seems to have pretty much disappeared since the 90s.
Of course, and to think it was originally intended to be a b-side. His work with Madonna is pure delight from You Can Dance to Erotica.
Yeah, wasn’t so disheartened I missed out on a signed copy once I realised it won’t actually be Shep’s signature.
That Shep compilation is a split decision for me… discs 1&2 catch the eye but 3&4 don’t. Well done on Depeche being included tho
