Rant No. 1

[Roobubba]

I believe a Mr K Richards was responsible for this stuff, and I can understand his reasoning. People expect him to be playing one of his original teles on stage (and on TV) rather than one straight from the Fender factory (looking all shiney and new.) But again thats all image and I have to be honest and say that Keef with a brand new looking guitar would be upsetting to me.

Sometimes I think Keef looks like he's been relic'd.

Yeah, but he is without a doubt an ORIGINAL!

I remember reading once that Cliff Richard had a picture in his attic that, strangely enough, aged instead of Cliff himself.

That picture was said to resemble Keef...

You mean Keef is aging for two?

[MrBump]

at least two...

[dave_mc]

Sometimes I think Keef looks like he's been relic'd.

:lol:

[AndyR]

I know that they feel great, but AndyR, if you had a £10,000 guitar and it was nicked or damaged at a gig, wouldn't you be gutted?

Yeah, I might have been a bit blase about that!  :lol:
I can't really make my mind up about it though- part of my thinking is, if I took my current favourite out (a fender-japan re-issue, cost me £500), I would be so gutted if it was nicked or terminally injured, but I would get over it. Replacing it financially wouldn't be a big thing probably, but it is seriously non-replaceable because of how it plays, feels, etc, etc... A different one would be a different one, and I'd never get her back..... :(
I'm not sure how much difference a bigger price tag would make to this? (For me personally that is, because, much as I love the idea of an actual historical guitar, I just can't see one being worth that much to me, so I'll probably never even look into acquiring one!)

And I think you're right about the relic'ing - we've just been to Denmark St, and I reached the same conclusion this morning before I read your post just now - the "relics" that have just been sanded down are the ones that make me uncomfortable (and that includes the RG strat I saw today), there is no way a guitar is going to age naturally like that!

The rest of this post is about Rory and Donal (for those skim reading about relics :D)

I also think you're right about Donal from all I've heard about him, but I supect Kilby might also be near the mark in some of his comments about him being too close to the material or trying to bring things up to date. I read somewhere (might be Gerry McAvoy's book, but don't quote me) that there was a lot of tension between the brothers over sound and mixes, even to the extent that Donal wasn't allowed near any of it in the studio eventually... I can't help but wonder whether some of the changes are what Rory was ruling out?

I certainly don't feel that Donal "owes the fans" anything (I've seen this elsewhere on the web and it disturbs me a bit). As far as I'm concerned, I assume he owns the stuff now, it was his brother, so he can do what he thinks is best...

But I was personally disappointed when the remasters came out - I'd been wanting to get all the albums on CD, I was really excited by it, it hadn't been possible to do so up until then. But when they arrived, they're not the original albums, visually or sonically, and in the case of Jinx, it's seriously different. The artwork doesn't bother me so much - I've still got all the originals :D. But as far as I'm aware, you can't get the original recordings on CD - they have disappeared from history as it were...

Roger Glover's approach on Machine Head would have been far better: remaster the old mixes and then, if there was a new perspective possible, include that as well. I actually prefer his remix most of the time - but it would have been almost unthinkable that the original version of Machine Head was no longer commercially available, only somebody's re-evaluation of it instead...

But that's what has happened to all of Rory's ouput :(

[Philly Q]

Roger Glover's approach on Machine Head would have been far better: remaster the old mixes and then, if there was a new perspective possible, include that as well. I actually prefer his remix most of the time - but it would have been almost unthinkable that the original version of Machine Head was no longer commercially available, only somebody's re-evaluation of it instead...

The Deep Purple remastered/expanded editions are excellent.  I wish Roger Glover was doing the work on the Coverdale period albums, even though he wasn't in the band then.  I've been waiting ages for Stormbringer, Made In Europe and Come Taste The Band!!!

Coming back to Rory, as someone who has very little of the original material, are the remasters so very bad that they're simply not worth bothering with?

[AndyR]

Coming back to Rory, as someone who has very little of the original material, are the remasters so very bad that they're simply not worth bothering with?

No, thankfully, not at all. :D
Jinx was the only one that really upset me, and some could argue that that album was a little "flat" already.
Otherwise, most of the "remixes" just sound/feel a little different, but you can't put a finger on it.
The live albums sound great - though the extra tracks on Live in Europe and Stagestruck don't seem to fit in so well. (But all modern repackaging is like that isn't it?! You go for the one with all the extra tracks, and then end up wishing they'd put them all in a separate package and charged you for them!)

I'm not so convinced about "Big Guns" the compilation. I have not heard it, but when it came out there was uproar on the forum connected to the "official" website. I understand they were remixed for 5.1 (odd in itself I feel) and the associated stereo mixes generated were not considered properly. There were longtime fans in tears feeling they were being disloyal, others flaming them for not supporting "Rory" - all very nasty, I left round about then and never went back.

But I'd say you're safe going for the individual remasters - they are still good stuff.

[Philly Q]

But all modern repackaging is like that isn't it?! You go for the one with all the extra tracks, and then end up wishing they'd put them all in a separate package and charged you for them!)

Oh, that is so very true sir  :lol: !  I've become quite obsessive about always getting the versions with bonus tracks (hence three versions of Argus, for a start!) and I often track down Japanese imports for the bonus tracks too.  But very often the extra tracks don't feel like they belong, and end up spoiling the mood of the album you've just listened to!

Thanks for the info about the Rory remasters, I may start building up a collection.  :D

[AndyR]

Ah - if you're into Japanese imports, while I was in Oxford St yesterday, I found that there are import CDs of Rory's albums in little mini-album sleeves instead of a jewel case. And they are the original sleeves...
I was suspicious of what's inside though. Obviously, reproducing the old album cover reproduces the old track list - whether the CD matches that though... (there's a lot more info on the outside packaging, but I can't read Japanese!).
Anyway, these attractive little gems were £15 each, so I passed... :lol:

There was also a "vinyl-reissue" CD of Irish Tour (might be what PhilKing had heard about?) but that looked more like a gimic repackage of the remaster, rather than anything different...
And I also saw one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Album-Classics-Priority-Evidence/dp/B0018BF1KY/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1216452703&sr=1-10
A very economical way of getting those 5 remasters at once!

[Kilby]

On the subject of relicing.

I took my son to an off the beaten track guitar shop as I wanted to see what old stuff they had in the back room.

Anyway there where a trio of Antigua finished instruments sitting (P Bass, Strat & Tele) along with a 63 Jaguar and lots of other Fenders and LPs.

My son who is 13 looked around and said theyre fakes arnt they, I looked around and there in the corner where a Gallagher Strat and a Strummer Tele. He was more interested in the Strummer tele as he already knew about RG (and seen a couple of the strats)

I asked him why he thought they where fakes and his answer was that they still looked new to him despite the paintwork and none of the plastic or metal parts looked anything like the real McCoy that where scattered around him.

We discussed relics on the way home and his opinion was that he would like relics if they could fade the paint like the custom Jaguar that was hanging on the wall and make it look like the owner had actually liked the guitar in the 1st place.

I didn't buy anything (couldn't afford anything I really liked) though there where a couple of old silver face champs and a pair of Musicman Sabre IIs which took me back to the day I bought my 1st guitar (heres what it looks like to you youngsters out there http://www.ggjaguar.com/sabre2.htm)

[AndyR]

...and make it look like the owner had actually liked the guitar in the 1st place.

Good grief, that's it in a nutshell, isn't it?
Much wisdom - buy him a guitar as reward :lol:

[Kilby]

...and make it look like the owner had actually liked the guitar in the 1st place.

Good grief, that's it in a nutshell, isn't it?
Much wisdom - buy him a guitar as reward :lol:

He is pretty smart (too much so sometimes)

I gave him my Peavey Wolfgang a while back, though it could do with a pair of Rebel Yells (or Painkillers) in it.