Teenbeat XXXI - Classic Rock

This snowy week I'm on the spin.

Those geezers were quite something back then!

Sometimes a project may not be able to done as some might like and this is an example of it.

This year after a break not helped by Coronavirus, the British speciality reissue company Vocalian-Dutton set out a number of new releases of which this two sacd set is one but it wasn't long that a few started to complain that the because entire set wasn't in Quadraphonic surround sound they wouldn't buy it.

Thing was "The Hoople" the first album in this set was issued in 1974 and sadly was the only album of theirs originally mixed and issued on SQ quad record and Q8 quad tape so being realistic would could they do?

That album is the home to the 1973 hit Roll Away The Stone that I remember well plus The Golden Age of Rock and Roll.

Above is the SQ Quad lp jacket.

Split between discs is the first of Mott's albums All The Young Dudes from 1972 featuring that hit Bowie  written song that saved lead singer Ian Hunter's band which was only mixed to stereo.

Completing the set Mott issued in 1973 is the home of the hit singles All The Way From Memphis which is another of that era I remember well and Honaloochie Boogie.

For the modest price of this two sacd set, we get the three essential Mott The Hoople albums  in the highest digital era quality and a otherwise hard to find Surround Sound mix of one which to me is a bargain compared to many other single speciality releases. 

I did a few years back review the Caroline Records Bachman-Turner Overdrive 8 cd box set which as far as I'm concerned is pretty much definitive beyond the original lps which I have. 

Why then you might think would I buy this set?

The first is this is in super audio cd which can sound better on a equipped player and the other is some labels issued quadraphonic surround sound albums on record and then sometimes on tape but others only did tape.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive recorded for Mercury Records and they like all the then Phonogram group of companies did not issue quad records but issued Q8 Quad 8 track tapes of the sort we had at home and in the car at the time.

The quality of such tapes tends to vary and as any 8 Track user knows they are somewhat finicky easily jamming or losing fidelity over time so anyone who wants to hear the quad mixes is having play tapes over forty years old that were never that great to begin with.

This two on one sacd takes the actual quad master tapes used to prepare the Q8 tapes for manufacture and uses them on the surround sound layer for the first time in decades bypassing those limitations.

It also adds the stereo mixes in better fidelity than before too which for around £11.9 I felt was well worth it. 

To me having these albums we grew up with in the highest digital form possible is something I've always wanted and restoring to circulation those lost legendary Quad mixes even as with the Mott The Hoople Discs it's just the one is a dream come true.