[QUOTE]Originally posted by Semi-Detached:
For those of you wanting to buy the Luton CD from NZ online music stores - and take advantage of the low currency conversion rate! -

How about $3 each for the Split Enz digipacks!! That's what the Warehouse are doing now.

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Originally posted by Paul H:
Can anyone shed any light on Late In Rome (Serge) for me. I have a version with strings that appeared on one of the Enz boxes and presumed it was from Luton. However, the Luton version is a different take completely.

So where does the box set version come from? And was it released prior to that?

See Mike Chunn's book (p. 249) - the box set version was actually recorded for See Ya Round but ended up being left off the album. (A pity - it would have been a better choice than 'Doctor Love'!)

quote:

Originally posted by Semi-Detached:
How about $3 each for the Split Enz digipacks!! That's what the Warehouse are doing now.

WHAT?! Could someone pick these up for me and I'll PayPal you the $$?

Yeah, $3 a pop is bargain of the year! Out of curiosity I checked both Warehouses here, and true to form neither store had bothered to get in extra stock. They're advertising the live DVD for $25, but didn't appear to have it.

$3!! i'd also be up for copies, especially SYR with mr catalyst, does anyone have a copy of this?
ta

I haven't seen those CDs 'round here for $3.00. It must be compensation for living in Dunedin
No sign of the live DVD or the Luton CD in the shops I visited yesterday.

Well it goes some way towards compensating, Jaff! But I'm a North Islander
through and through, so...

They only had a few titles at either store.

'Old it - David's not in Dunedin. Which Warehouse did you visit, David?

That's what it said in those advertising flyers that come around each week in your letterbox. I was in the Whangaparoa Warehouse today - that had 6 of the 10 digipacks with an assortment of prices on them - from $4.95 to $12. They never bother to change the prices on the items in the Warehouse for specials - you'd only know they were $3 each if you actually took them to the counter. No DVD at my store.

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Originally posted by Flicker:

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
Can anyone shed any light on Late In Rome (Serge) for me. I have a version with strings that appeared on one of the Enz boxes and presumed it was from Luton. However, the Luton version is a different take completely.

So where does the box set version come from? And was it released prior to that?

See Mike Chunn's book (p. 249) - the box set version was actually recorded for See Ya Round but ended up being left off the album. (A pity - it would have been a better choice than 'Doctor Love'!)

Thanks Flicker. Just love this song.

I recall that the Warehouse in Wellington had the digipacks for $10 apiece when I was there last November, and I once picked up a copy of the ENZ DVD for an overseas friend for $19 in the Nelson Warehouse, but there certainly have been none of either to be seen in downtown Auckland whenever I've been there.

Still holding out for Luton. I suppose it potentially gives me time to fix my CD player or get a new one to hear it properly!

Anyone know if the November 19 NZ release date is still happening? More and more I keep reading that it's delayed 'til the 26th. If my double CD doesn't turn up in the next day or two, I'm going to need a quick fix VERY urgently!!!

Hmm...just found out it has been delayed 'til the 26th. This is exactly what happened with Extravagenza and the remasters.

Wow! It's a frickin' great week if you're a frustrated Enz fan in New Zealand! Dodgy live DVD; still waiting for my Luton double CD; and local release of the Luton CD been delayed for another week. I'm about ready to break something!

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Wow! It's a frickin' great week if you're a frustrated Enz fan in New Zealand! Dodgy live DVD; still waiting for my Luton double CD; and local release of the Luton CD been delayed for another week. I'm about ready to break something!

Yeah it must suck having Split Enz announce they're touring your country!

Well I am loving Luton. I didn;t expect it to be this good. Full of energy and some great songs. It is, in many ways the most vibrant Enz album or collection of songs I have heard.

Current favourites include:

Home Comforts - Fantastic song. Perhaps a bit long as Camus suggests but still wonderful.

Animal Lover - Love the Johnny Rotten parody and the whole energy of the piece

Semi Detached - a complete classic. One of Tim's best songs ever and probably the classiest song here.

Next Exit - Completely overshadows the later version. Tight and a real meld of the earlier music hall stuff with the simpler pop structures to come

Straight Talk - Wonderful grunge almost fast rap song. Off the wall and love Noels harmonica

Creature Comforts - Agree with Camus that this is probably the best recorded song here. It sounds a bit like the Kinks but in the best possible way.

Holy Smoke - nice pop, Very energectic and bouncy

Hypnotised - Great groove and top song. Took a while to grow on me but now I love it.

Late in Rome - nice song. A bit sytlized in the vocal but essential

The rest:

Remember When - Inintially I was disappointed but it continues to grow on me. Will probably become a favourite.

Message Boy - Punky and slight. Not fully realized for mine but then these were 'demos'

Carried Away - I think it has a great chorus but its too long. Enormous potential probably wasted

Miss Haps - Love the opening synths and the verses - not sure about the chorus or the moog stuff in the middle.

Hollow Victory - still growing on me

Evelyn - Good pop song but not great. Love the energy

Best Friend - best version I have heard. Love the verses but not sure about the chorus

The Judd Songs

Both really good but amazingly mainstream for him. Like the energy of I'm So Up but prefer So This Is Love - very complete and affecting song.

The Others

Famous People - craps all over the Frenzy version making a pretty ordinary song great IMHO

Mind Over Matter - thrashy, a bit too long but the energy it great

Betty/I See Red/Frenzy/Marooned/She Got Body - I think the Frenzy versions are better

Hermitt Mc Dermitt - I alway think the Anniversary version creams any other I have heard

Livin It Up - Hasn't impressed but I will give it more time

Thanks to Eddie, Gryphon etc. It is great to finally hear the RTL Tapes and they do live up to expectations. Energy, complex and off the wall arrangements, some very great songs..a band at one of its major peaks.

More later when I listened to them a lot more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Yeah it must suck having Split Enz announce they're touring your country!

Knowing my luck today, they'd cancel! Just having a Monday...

Ok, I've heard the second disc and had time to digest.

Hermit McDermitt

A much more manic performance, and certainly my favourite out of all of them. Love the group vocals/shouting, a good performance, and the descending synth bass line is so loud and punchy, great stuff.

Betty

A much better performance to me than the one on Frenzy. I like the extended last chorus, and I like the coda, similar to Six Months in a Leaky Boat, I wonder if they remembered this version of Betty when it came to Six Months? It's a song I've always really liked, even though it is quite a disturbing song.

I See Red

Very similar if a bit rougher than the released version. SAounds like Tim playing the piano solo, very proto type guitar solo. It's nice it was released, but not hugely essential.

Mind Over Matter

Very similar to the Frenzy recording, but it's more... dangerous. I like it better than the Frenzy version.

Next Exit

It's good, but it doesn't quite get there for me, it sounds like it still needed work. Certainly Eddie's remix is much better than the original 1978 mix, I love the compressed group vocals (they aren't compressed on the original mix). A huge potential is there, one that was certainly never realised on the 1983 remake.

She Got Body

Nice to hear, not hugely different from the album version, less polished and sounding very much like a demo. Not essential but nice to have.

So This Is Love

Nice to finally hear it in decent quality (even if it isn't quite up to the standard of the rest of the album, but then IRRC it comes from a domestic reel a generation away from the original master? so it's the best it will ever be). A good song, the arrangement just doesn't convince, maybe it's the mix. It's also great to hear it without Dave Lee Travis' idiotic comments at the end

Abu Dhabi

Sounds very much like a 'work in progress' some parts are virtually identical to the Frenzy version. No vocals though I don't the Luton version was recorded with any, unlike the Frenzy version. Nice to hear, but p[robably not essential.

Famous People
Sounds like one of the songs the rest of the band haven't heard. Nice tempo, but a bit sketchy and very much a demo. CErtainly it blows away the original Frenzy mix, but no way does it blow away the 2006 remix IMHO.

I'm So Up

For me, not the best performance. I've had a live version of this for years. Probably the most un-Split Enz song on the set, it has far more in common with Judd's post Split Enz work, sounding more like a Swinger's song. Sound quality slightly below the rest, it's from the same BBC session that So This Is Love is from, so the best we'll ever hear it.

Marooned

Nice alternate version, not too different from the Frenzy version, in fact, I can't really think of much to say about it.

Livin' It Up

Understandably not everyon'es cup of tea, but I love it. It's the most manic frustrated driven song on the set. It has to be a piss take of punk in general, but you can almost smell the frustration of the band as they tear it up with this. It still doesn't sound anything like Tim singing it to me....

Frenzy
I don't really like this version or either Frenzy version, nothing beats the energy of the Peel Sessions version. This version desparately needed a remix IMHO, I presume the multi-track is missing for this.

All in all, well worth the wait. I can fully understand why the second disc is fanclub only. It doesn't flow like the first album, and most of the songs sound unfinished in some way and probably wouldn't appeal to the average consumer, as it has a lot of songs already available (albeit different versions) on Frenzy.

Now all we need are the Peel sessions. From what I can remember though, there isn't a decent quality version of it like the Dave Lee Travis sessions.

Another batch of 250 DOUBLE cds arrives in the next 48 hours so more on their way soon.
Gryph

Disk 1 favorite: Carried Away.
Honorable mentions: Message Boy, Hypnotised, Holy Smoke.

Disk 2 favorite: Livin' It Up. I'm kind of surprised this didn't make it to Disk 1 actually - it was deemed good enough for inclusion on the A&M Frenzy. But who is the vocalist - Tim or Nigel?

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But who is the vocalist - Tim or Nigel?

My money's still on Tim.