Another Irish Band Outsells U2!

Found this on the Net and I thought I was seeing things at first. The veteran Irish band The Batchelors have released a greatest hits album and it has outsold U2s Boy, October and War by a large margin. Even in their 60s heyday The Batchelors were considered cheesy. Seems more people than me thought re-released re-masters are a waste of money.... And the re-releases have done even worse in the US. What people really want is NEW music, U2 please give a release date - for October!

You can read the full article here

U2's Producer Reveals Studio Secrets (From the Early 80's)

Some interesting stories from Steve Lillywhite about the recording of Boy, War and October can be found here.

Love the one about recording drums for the Boy album in the hallway of Windmill Lane Studio because they liked the "clattery" sound. But they had to wait until the receptionist went home, then they discovered once she had gone home that ringer on the phone could not be turned off so sometimes the phone would ring mid-take!

Also, the backing voices on Surrender were Kid Creole's backing singers The Coconuts who just happened to be playing in Dublin at the time.

U2 Deluxe Edition Boxset

This limited edition collectible U2 Deluxe Edition boxset comes in a hardbound shell. Inside are the newly remastered and expanded 2 CD deluxe editions of the bands first three albums BOY, OCTOBER and WAR, plus room for a fourth (not included). Re-mastered from the original audio tapes, each deluxe includes a disc of b-sides, live tracks and rarities, and the packaging on all three titles has been restored and expanded, with new liner notes for each record, previously unseen photos and full lyrics.

This set also comes with a limited edition, exclusive 18'x24' full colour replica poster from the bands beginnings, recreated just for this boxset.(But surely this will be ruined by folding it?) The three albums will also be available separately as deluxe CD reissues.

Am I going to buy this, you know, I don't think I am. I have bought the original vinyl versions then upgraded to CD. Do I need to buy these for a third time because they are re-mastered and have some "rarities"? I always feel "re-mastering" or "re-mixing" are just easy ways of getting more money from fans. I know many fans will love this boxset and buy it as soon as it's released on July 21st, but I won't be one of them, I'll be keeping my money for what I'm really looking forward to - the new album.