If relationships with Fire have 'cooled' that's good news. Universal not being arsed to do anything with what they have is also potentially good news, if they have no plans, they're likely to be open to discussions, as essentially they'd get a pay day on stuff they're sitting on, as well as allowing a deluxe box set to come out which would bring the band back into the limelight. If the band play along too then even better, it could be a pay day for them too, especially post-covid when touring comes back on the agenda. 

Fan interest is key - a petition telling the labels there is demand is great, this is how Paul Draper (Mansun) stayed so relevant in the minds of his fans, he had an album mostly written straight after the demise, and the fans were desperate for it, which inevitably led to Snapper signing him for his solo record, and then tapping to the Mansun catalogue, which has sold very well.

I don't know how many Mansun boxes were sold before it breaking even, but there are good margins to be made on these - without taking the p*ss out of the fans though!

I saw Supergrass's box but I thought it was pretty disappointing tbh, it was mostly repackaging what had been out, novelty picture discs (which sound awful), a thin book, not what I would want as a career defining box. The fact that Pulp are still (as far as I know) on good terms, they could play some shows, do some decent press and give 'a' box a real push everywhere - Mansun may be cult, but they don't have that on their side.

Yes there were a few Mansun conventions, the leader of the convention helped me out a lot on the box stuff, and even edited the concert for us. Knowing those fans are out there and keen was crucial to that box happening. Which is why I'm testing the waters here for Pulp. 

I imagine the minimum number of boxes for an order would be 1000 (although that figure may not be announced in a press release), I wonder if this could get there?

Yes Snapper have a good relationship with Universal, so that would be an easy avenue to gauge interest from, the others would possibly take more persuading, but like I said on the other post just now, if there's a payday for labels who are sitting on catalogue they are doing nothing with - why wouldn't they want it to happen?

 

Without even having to use my brain, I can tell you of so many concerts that are in the public domain which have been broadcast by the likes of BBC, France Inter etc - that could all be tarted up and polished. V96 for example, to hear that in full would be amazing - it does exist.

With your experience of compiling on of these type sets before, you have the upper hand of experience over us all - and if you think the albums should be included, then thats fine. Different Class could have sounded far better production wise, it just sounds so flat - so the remaster that got postponed was actually quite a let down to many on here. 5.1 mixes sounds pretty good.

Video content - possibly my weakest area - I know that there is certainly one song out there that we all want to see the video for, and that is Death Comes To Town. It exists, and a small clip was included on the "Hits" dvd - so as to has it, I dont honestly know. I presume Mark Webber would have it.

Geoff Travis at Rough Trade was the guy to speak to, I dont know if he still is? He is certainly the one responsible for our recent purchases in auctions.

scottrobinson wrote:

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I haven't delved into potential content yet, but all this talk of unheard live stuff is exactly what we like to hear, some of the old Mansun stuff sounds unbelievable after a modern day master and polish. 

Re: studio albums being in there - if it's to be a completist set then I would advise it, it doesn't add a cost to the manufacture and wouldn't be a big sales point, although a 2021/2/3 remaster would interest plenty of people I'd have thought, going on previous sets we've worked on, maybe even 5.1 mixes.

Re: video content - we could certainly collate music videos onto DVDs, or even Blu-Ray alongside high-res audio files, for best quality digital audio. If there's concert footage on tapes we could encode and put out a proper HD concert - DVDs are an inferior output, but they serve a purpose, and most people can play them at least. 

The content side of this could be really exciting as so many of you are bring forth ideas, but like you say, it's now about the band and the labels.
Is there management in place for the band these days? If anyone has a contact please do let me know, I'm happy to drop them a line and see if this is a potential goer.
I'm sure my colleague could get Yes, No, Maybes from the labels, but it would be good to get management and band ok to do this properly.

According to Wiki, in terms of labels, it looks like we've got;
It (Red Rhino, now PIAS)
Freaks (Fire)
Separations (Fire)
His n Hers (Island, Universal)
Different Class (Island, Universal)
This is Hardcore (Island, Universal)
We Love Life (Island, Universal)

 

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Hi Scott (R)

Management is still Rough Trade - I would assume still Jeannette Lee/Geoff Travis.

It is with Fire, not PIAS - it came out on Red Rhino originally but there were various legal anomalies in the 90s which meant it ended up with Fire, in perpetuity I think.

5:1 remixes would be really interesting. For Different Class/Hardcore I suspect they'd want Chris Thomas to be involved though, which could be expensive!

I believe Alan Smyth (producer) still has the multitracks for Separations, or he did. Jarvis *may* have the ones for It. The Freaks ones were lost, although there is apparently an unreleased alternative mix of the whole album.

I think you may be reaching a bit with the reformation thing. They did all that 9/10 years ago and haven't shown any interest in revisiting it since. And tbh they could do it whenever they wanted, so I don't think something like this would really make a difference either way.

Good luck with it all, and if you get the green light, please do drop me a line - I could give you a lot of pointers and would love to be involved.

Mark

JASON wrote:

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Without wanting to be a knobhead Scott..
A couple of corrections concerning those 'it' extras..
I have a pre-release tape of those first sessions, the version of blue girls was partially redone because Jarv had fluffed the lyrics.
This version of please don't worry was part of these sessions but as we know for whatever reason wasn't included on the final release.
And of course sink or swim (taking the plunge) was indeed a demo..

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Knobhead ! ;)  Thats interesting to know about Blue Girls, its my favourite song on It - the school piano is a great touch! 

Scottbloodyfrazer wrote:

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Fire have always been a bit of a strange creature in regards to the release of newer material. However, their most recent reissues appear to have changed their approach a little. "It" appeared with a track that was unreleased before in the form of Sink Or Swim, an alternate mix of Blue Girls, a track from the Spice Demo called "Please Dont Worry" and the My Lighthouse 7"mix.

Freaks got reissued with all the singles and b-sides included too.

Separations was possibly the most annoying reissue - with two b-sides, an extended Countdown mix that was already on its single, and the most glorious and neglected Pulp track ever, Death Comes To Town.

 

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 I thought the last set of releases were good and as much as I ever want pre-Separations.   What else is there from Separations era that is unreleased?

Ha! It wasn't just you mate, everyone saw those non-stop! But I'm talking about maintaining fan interest way before that, when he was not in the limelight and had nothing to sell

I have just gone through the recording sessions to work out what is still unreleased. By "unreleased" I mean that the band have never released it (so it includes those songs on obscure compilations). You're easily talking 10 CDs here:

Ken Patten Demo 07/08/1981
What Do You Say?
Please Don't Worry
Wishful Thinking
Turkey Mambo Momma

Rotherham Demo 18/04/1982
How Could You Leave Me?
Why Live?
Teen Angst
Barefoot in the Park

Spice Demo 22/08/1982
The Heat of the Day

It LP Sessions 27/11/1982 - 10/12/1982
Sink or Swim
Mr. Morality
(both left unmixed)

Bad Maureen Demo Jan-84
I Want You
Coy Mistress
Maureen
Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)

Sudan Gerri Demo 08/05/1984
Don't You Know
Anorexic Beauty
Take You Back
The Will To Power
Simultaneous
Little Girl (with Blue Eyes)
Srpski Jeb
Cousins
Maureen
Blue Glow
Silence

Ping Pong Jerry Demo 11/11/1984
Mark of the Devil
Simultaneous
Maureen
Anorexic Beauty

The Lost John Nicholls Demo' 1984 or 1985
Mark of the Devil
Being Followed Home
and possibly others

Freaks LP Sessions Sep-86
Master of the Universe (alt version)
and possibly others

Fon Sessions 1987
Rattlesnake
Don't You Want Me Anymore?

The Demo 17/07/1989
She's Dead
Down By the River
Love is Blind
Death II
Death III (Countdown)
Separations

Separations LP Sessions Aug - Dec 1989
This House is Condemned (alt version)
Going Back to Find Her (unfinished)

OU Session 28-30 Jan 1992
Live On
Babies
OU (alt version)

Island Demo 07/05/1992
Razzmatazz
Happy Endings
Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia)
Your Sister's Clothes (then known as Glass)

Razzmatazz Session Oct-92
Razzmatazz (at least 1 different version)

Le Roi Des Fourmis Session May-93
Lipgloss

Lipgloss Session Jul-93
She's a Lady
Have You Seen Her Lately?
Lipgloss (Ian Broudie Remix)

His 'n' Hers LP Demos
Joyriders
Do You Remember the First Time?
David's Last Summer
Razz II (unfinished)

His 'n' Hers LP Sessions Oct 1993 - Feb 1994
Live On
Pink Glove (Ed Buller Remix)

Different Class LP Demos 5-12 June 1995
Mis-Shapes
Sorted for E's & Wizz
Something Changed
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.
Disco 2000 (then known as Gloria)
Live Bed Show
I Spy

Abortive Album Session Nov-96
Help the Aged
Northern Souls (backing track only)

This is Hardcore LP Demos Jan-Feb 1997
I'm a Man
The Fear
We Are the Boyz
TV Movie
Party Hard
Grown-ups (instrumental)
Seductive Barry (then known as Sex Symbols)

Wessex Demos (1) 23-24 Oct 1999
The Birds in Your Garden
Darren
Bob Lind
Sunrise
Yesterday
The Quiet Revolution
Wickerman
Cuckoo Song
Got To Have Love (instrumental version)

Wessex Demos (2) 13-14 Jan 2000
After You
M'Lady
Grandfather's Nursery
The Performance of a Lifetime
St Just
Got to Have Love (vocal version)

Depot Demos Mar-00
Love You Baby
Six String
Chordy / My Mistake
Playground (probably an instrumental version of Grandfather's Nursery)
Last Song In The World
Medieval Owl
Forever in My Dreams
Candy's Spectre (became Bad Cover Version)
Disco too Disco (probably an instrumental version of After You)
Jungle Rumble (became The Night that Minnie Timperley Died)
Dream Galaxy
(all instrumentals)

Abortive Chris Thomas / Howie B Sessions April-May 2000
Weeds
Sunrise
Bad Cover Version (Chris Thomas)
The Birds in Your Garden
Yesterday
Forever in my Dreams
Bad Cover Version (Howie B)
and possibly others

Hits Session Sep-02
Another song was apparently started but left unfinished.

My Mistake was recorded with vox as we know so the question is whether there was a further, hitherto undocumented recording session with vocals (and if so, which further songs were demo'd?) OR if the information above taken from the Pulp website (and provided by Mark Webber? Or had he stopped giving a fcuk by then? He had by 2002!) is wrong and they/at least some of the songs such as My Mistake, were actually done at the Depot studios with vocals.

Maybe...although having a third working title (after Chordy and My Mistake) is perhaps unlikely ?

I've always thought all 4 Glastonbury performances would make a lovely set

Yeah I really think so, I think there might be better live shows out there but I wouldn't complain if they did a 4 disc set