Smash - The Singles 1985 - 2020

[panda magic]

Neil reckons It doesn't often snow at Christmas is the best song they wrote in the 1990s?

It probably wasn't even the best song they wrote that month.

[panda magic]

Slight disappointment. Neil will be mad!! On the bluray, it's the american censored version of Being Boring.

But I think we can demand Parlophone to do something about it and replace the disc.

It's wild that:
1) this censored version that wasn't even used was somehow the most readily accessible copy of the video.
2) it made its way through all the steps of production without anyone noticing, seemingly bypassing all quality control.
3) as soon as they realized the censored version was uploaded to youtube, nobody recalled all of the blurays (which wouldn't have shipped out at that point) for replacement with corrected copies.

[Oznerol]

.....
3) as soon as they realized the censored version was uploaded to youtube, nobody recalled all of the blurays (which wouldn't have shipped out at that point) for replacement with corrected copies.

..at that pont, around a week ago...all the 3CDs + Blu-ray editions were already pressed and going to mayor retailers all around the world for sure... I don't think it was a possibility to cancel them all, reassemble a new blu-ray with the correct video, repress all of them them, reopen all the packaging, replace the blu-rays and reseal them in time get them ready around the world again in less than 5 days..
On the other hand, maybe it´s not the desired version, but it´s a valid and official one anyway (and a "previously unreleased" version..(the only thing of this kind we´re getting on Smash!!)
Maybe we´ll get a second run of future pressings with the other version..

In the meantime, here a video of an Argentinean friend living in the UK doing the "unboxing" of the 6 x Vinyl version of SMASH. (with the warning that it´s all spoken in Spanish..)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i37-N1cDJiA

[trafaelwyr]

You know, after reading everyone's post about the errors that have been made, it makes me wonder - what ever happened to quality control? I mean, don't the PSB have the final say on the music and videos? Do they listen too all the songs that were going to be issued or watch the videos to say, "No, that's not the version that needs to be put out." If they don't, doesn't someone at the label with brains figure that this is wrong or...? It's just boggling. I've seen this happen with other groups as well. Usually, labels do up white labels or promos for internal review. Guess they're not doing that anymore or if they are, no one is paying attention.

[Xakrij]

^
+1

[Meebabi]

I am in Canada. I ordered from Warner Music Canada.

I’m in Canada as well. I ordered through the US site as the Canadian one didn’t offer the additional merchandise I wanted.

Have you received your order or gotten any emails that it’s on its way? So far, still nothing for me.

No email. It was just delivered at my door, my dog barking.

That was fast! I wish the Canadian store would have offered all the additional items available from the UK & US stores (clothing, etc).

[Meebabi]

Neil reckons It doesn't often snow at Christmas is the best song they wrote in the 1990s?

It probably wasn't even the best song they wrote that month.

[Rorie]

Somewhere is the original 7" version. Not the released version. They had to remove One Hand One Heart as they could not get the clearance to use it when they released the single. It did show up in the Extended Mix when Bilingual Special Edition was released. I am pretty sure this is the unreleased first version on Smash.

[Rorie]

If I'm not mistaken Single-Bilingual is a different mix as well. Loads of extra harmonies especially on middle-8, different intro with crash cymbal and synth line is lower in parts. Actually sounds better but is not the single version.

There's also an echo effect on the word "Barcelona" in the middle eight at 1:51 which is not audible on the single version.

And then the next verse also has an echo effect.

[panda magic]

.....
3) as soon as they realized the censored version was uploaded to youtube, nobody recalled all of the blurays (which wouldn't have shipped out at that point) for replacement with corrected copies.

..at that pont, around a week ago...all the 3CDs + Blu-ray editions were already pressed and going to mayor retailers all around the world for sure... I don't think it was a possibility to cancel them all, reassemble a new blu-ray with the correct video, repress all of them them, reopen all the packaging, replace the blu-rays and reseal them in time get them ready around the world again in less than 5 days..
On the other hand, maybe it´s not the desired version, but it´s a valid and official one anyway (and a "previously unreleased" version..(the only thing of this kind we´re getting on Smash!!)
Maybe we´ll get a second run of future pressings with the other version..

The censored version was uploaded to youtube on May 30th, over two weeks before the June 16th release date. But yeah that's still probably not enough turn-around time to do a repackaging.

[panda magic]

You know, after reading everyone's post about the errors that have been made, it makes me wonder - what ever happened to quality control? I mean, don't the PSB have the final say on the music and videos? Do they listen too all the songs that were going to be issued or watch the videos to say, "No, that's not the version that needs to be put out." If they don't, doesn't someone at the label with brains figure that this is wrong or...? It's just boggling. I've seen this happen with other groups as well. Usually, labels do up white labels or promos for internal review. Guess they're not doing that anymore or if they are, no one is paying attention.

I can only imagine that there's just so many moving parts with these things and so many various people in charge of different stages of production that errors must just slip through the cracks. Recently I designed an EP cover for an independent band, which I handed off to another designer who was going to add on all the sleeve notes & credits, and I guess at some point along the way one of the Photoshop layers of my design got reduced to 50%, resulting in the image looking much fainter than I had intended. And then the day before the EP was to go into production, I by chance happened to see the finalized image file and I asked "wait why does it . . . look so bad?" Nobody in the band had noticed. Luckily we were able to fix it in time, but I can only imagine how a release happening on an much larger scale could have a miscommunication occur at some point along the assembly line that gets lost in the shuffle. Then again, the stakes are much much higher with PSB than with the local band I did the design for, so you'd hope that there'd be more eyes scrutinizing the final product. Why not make a prototype of Smash for Neil and Chris and say "here spend a day or two with this and let us know if anything is wrong?"

Of course it's very easy for me to hypothesize about what happens at this level of the music industry. I obviously have no idea what really goes on behind the scenes. And, to be fair, Smash only seems to have a small handful of mistakes, most fairly minor apart from the Being Boring video. Which is more than I can say for some other greatest hits packages I own (The Orb's "History of the Future" compilation, for example, is riddled with issues, both in the booklet and on the CDs. Very sloppy indeed, which maybe shouldn't be a surprise coming from those lovable stoners.)

[Nina]

Somewhere is the original 7" version. Not the released version. They had to remove One Hand One Heart as they could not get the clearance to use it when they released the single. It did show up in the Extended Mix when Bilingual Special Edition was released. I am pretty sure this is the unreleased first version on Smash.

Really confused.com.

I just compared the intros back to back and the person on PopArt has lots of fuzzy dialogue samples which I assume are from the West Side Story film, nothing resembling a song called One Hand On Heart to my knowledge (though those words are spoken by Chris on the Ext Mix).

The Smash version seems too be just a 'clean' mix without the dialogue?

[daveid]

Only two c***-ups as far as I can tell so far: the 'edited' Being boring video they said had accidently been used, and the version of Love etc. is remastered from the remaster and not the original mix (has the full drums on the 'Gerhardt Richter' bit). Apart from that it is a lovely boxset to treasure.

Ouch. The Love Etc version is an awkward mess up - as it was on the Yes remaster. As with the different ending to 'I Want To Wake Up ' on the 'Actually' remaster, it makes me always listen to the original CD pressings as the definitive versions, despite the rereleases.

I didn't know there was a different ending to IWTWU on the remaster. How is it different?

[OakeyDokey]

Are the liner notes/Heath essays contained in only the vinyl box or the 3CD/BluRay package too? As that would be my main reason for buying. And if the notes are basically an edited/slightly expanded (?) version of the Further Listening editions, is this worth buying even just for that?!

[Disco.]

Its new, and its on the Blu-ray 3 cd.