Thursday 24 December 2009

Re-issue news

Stocks have been running low of the Gathering Speed and The Difference Machine CD's and rather than re-order a fresh supply of the existing jewel-case CD's, we've decided to give them a makeover.

Gathering Speed will shortly be re-issued as a digipack with an 8 page poster booklet featuring previously unseen artwork and including, for the first time, the lyrics. The album has also been remastered by Rob Aubrey. The Difference Machine will be re-issued in January as a digipack, again with previously unreleased artwork.

The Difference Machine re-issue will also feature an additional track called Hope You Made It*. This song was part of the concept for the album and was recorded during The Difference Machine sessions. However, its inclusion took the album to around the 60 minute mark and we were looking for a tighter track-listing so decided to leave it off the original album.

Finally, we were looking to re-issue a re-mastered version of our first album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam, as an iTunes-only release in 2010. However, Rob Aubrey has kindly agreed to completely re-mix the original album from the master tapes so the re-issue will be of the highest possible quality. I'm not sure yet whether we'll do a limited pressing of Age of Steam or just go with the download-only version; we'll have a think about that in the next few weeks.

Anyway, the smell of mulled-wine is luring us to the kitchen, so we would just like to take this opportunity to wish all of the readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas and to thank you for your support.

Andy, David and Greg 

* If anyone has the original version of the album and is keen to have the unreleased track without having to buy the CD again, please e-mail us at bigbigtrain@hotmail.co.uk and, when the album is re-issued, we will send you a link to a free downloadable version of the song in CD quality.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that you've decided to let people who bought the original Difference Machine album download the extra track. It's a very honest approach.

Andy has done a great job on the revised packaging. I thought the re-issue and remix of English Boy Wonders was a great album and excellent value for anyone who bought the original album. I'm pleased you have continued this approach.

Anonymous said...

Free! Well all well and good for the punters, but surely a small charge would not be out of order. I'd be happy to pay up.

Lee said...

Hi Greg.

Lee here (ex-Heart of the Rock/Glory Daze - now Real Gone). If the remastered 'Age of Steam' gets a physical CD re-pressing, could you give me a shout please? I really don't want to miss that! Happy new year.

MatD said...

Hi Greg,

again a great service to make the extra track downloadable for "old" buyers.
And: Please make the Age Of Steam physically too, as I wish to complete my BBT collection. ITunes would not be an option for me as I don't have an ITunes account (and don't want to create one).

A Happy New Year and
Sers, MatD

Anonymous said...

Hi Greg
I concur with the other comments here, at least make a limited cd pressing of GTTAOS. It seems a shame to remaster it, then compress it down to iPodness. I'd love to hear it in it's full CD glory again - the original disc is one of my favourite (...etc.) EVER! albums so I'm interested in how it can be made better. The inner sleeve of the Underfall Yard would have made a great cover for the reissued ...Age of Steam eh?
Plus an excellent idea offering the Underfall Yard track up front of the album - 20 odd minutes was my drive to/from work, perfect, and the rest of the album was right up there too. Excellent.

Happy 2010.

Marcus Doller