The only worrying thing about the announcement is that these albums are

to be included in their ‘Sector’ series of box set releases currently under way.

I hope this doesn’t mean very costly box sets like the current Immersion releases from Pink Floyd. The Dark Side Of The Moon edition is retailing at a staggering £99.99 in our local HMV store and selling for about £85 on Amazon!

Although, if I could only have one 5.1 surround sound album, very close to the top of the list for me would be my beloved Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. It is without doubt my favourite Pink Floyd CD and even at the inflated price of £85 it’s going to be very hard to resist. It’s only money, afterall.

Update : 22nd October 2011

The Sector box sets have been announced… Sector 1 with Fly By Night 5.1, Sector 2 with A Farewell To Kings 5.1 and Sector 3 with Signals 5.1. Prices range from £48 to £36 at the time of writing. So at those prices, I’ll be waiting until at least the new year to see if the prices drop. The 5.1 mixes on their own would be an instant purchase, but not when I own all the other CDs in the box sets. I’m not happy.

Wow is the correct word to describe this remix, it’s been used in other reviews and it’s perfect. The clarity and strength of this remix is superb.

I know this album pretty much note for note, I still remember buying the vinyl on release day some 30 years ago, but I didn’t notice the typewriter in The Camera Eye before. The solos are clearer and more defined. The Bass in Red Barchetta is sublime, yes, I know it always has been, but it actually improves on my enjoyment of that driving Bass sound.

A wonderful birthday present for me, perfect timing. Thanks guys… now how about 5.1 mixes of Permanent Waves, 2112… oh and Power Windows… and Presto, Roll The Bones… and…

My reply was, ‘Tell me it’s a 5.1 surround sound mix’.

‘Yes it is!’

Moving Pictures is still one of my favourite albums of all time. Seven tracks that mean a lot to me, even 30 years later. I’ve already mentioned elsewhere my sheer enjoyment of the night our eldest son played the Bass part in YYZ for his A-Level music recital, I’ll never forget that.

Richard Chycki is carrying out the remix and quite frankly I can’t wait for this. It’s being released 14 days before my birthday… and no I won’t be able to resist it for another 2 weeks I’m sure!

It seems we have the terrible original mix of Vapor Trails to thank for this project. Rush have finally admitted that the mix was bad and Vapor Trails is being remixed too.

Just listen to the difference between the two remixed tracks from Vapor Trails on the third Retrospective CD and you’ll hear what I mean. It was a sad day back then, when I released even Rush had been a victim of the Loudness Wars.

And to top it all, Rush are working on a new CD, expected to be released early 2012, with longer songs again. Excellent!

Time for the dreaded reinstall of Windows. I saved my profile from the old install and other data before deleting the old partition for the reinstall. A fresh start is always best at times like that.

With a super quick, fresh Windows install up and running it was time to put Firefox and Thunderbird back. I copied two directories for each program from my old profile to the new profile, as follows…

In theses two paths c:\documents and settings\myProfile\local settings\application data\ and c:\documents and settings\myProfile\application data\ both of the Mozilla and Thunderbird directories. These are hidden directories, but you have Show hidden files turned on, right?

With these directories laying in wait in my new profile, I installed Firefox and Thunderbird. No messages, or warnings… no news is good news? When I ran the applications everything was just as I left them, addons all worked (OK, View in Chrome didn’t, but an  addon can’t work without it’s target program installed. ), all my email accounts and email history were there. Superb and painless. Sorted!

Thankfully we’ve all been healthy, save the usual odd cold etc. Here’s looking forward to another year and all the great events it will bring us.

Happy New Year!

I’m not a new year resolutions person, but I do find myself looking to make changes as a new year dawns. Don’t we all? Nothing drastic, but hopefully for the better. A re-tweet on twitter summed up new year resolutions for me…

My New Years resolution for this year is 1024 x 768!

Music wise the holiday has been great. Lot’s of new CDs and DVDs, too many to take in in the holiday.  Which CD didn’t Santa bring me? Less Is More by Marillion. After posting about it and looking forward to it so much I forgot about it. And the VAT has gone up by 2.5% today too!

One CD/DVD 5.1 mix that Santa did bring me was A Curious Feeling by Tony Banks of Genesis fame. The new 5.1 mix is stunning. His orchestration of the keyboards really benefit from the extra channels. I’ve always liked Kim Beacons voice too and was sorry to read in the sleeve notes that he’s no longer with us.

We watched the Joe Bonamassa Live from the Royal Albert Hall DVD. It’s a fine mix of his own material and some blues standards. Guitar playing at it’s best, from smooth blues to raging solos. Just listen to the guitar sound on the opening track, Django, nothing out of the ordinary, just spot on. Eric Clapton makes an appearance that clearly is the icing on the cake for Joe himself. Oh and there are two drummers, which is an unexpected bonus for me. Anton Fig has stepped in to boost the drum sound. The two kits are separated left and right which works very well especially during the drum duet throughout High Water Everywhere. The duet greatly enhances the live version of the song Joe originally covered on his You & Me CD. So click the link and buy it, you won’t regret it… honest.

After a lot of work by all the family we’ve finally finished the renovation of our living room. We’re pleased with it, just the small detail of paying for it now.

Dave helped with the nasty work of removing all the old plaster, rendering and the ceiling. Apparently we looked like a couple of miners after removing the ceiling.

Before and after photos…

Getting back to those bricks was hard labour

The newly plastered walls are sealed

The first coats of colour

In my 'Fantastic Place'

He’s applied for his room in Halls and his student loan. Today he’s sorting out which computer to take. It looks like we may loose the Eee Box.

Mike from their band is clearly and understandably in two minds. First and foremost  he is genuinely pleased for Steven, but with lots of bookings looming he’s also wondering how to keep the band going. Anyone know a good Bass player available for the odd gig?

The lack of notice forced upon us is not good, but such is life. Looks like I’ll be driving the 280 miles round trip a few times in the future.

Quoting from their website…

This Album will be made up of new acoustic arrangements of songs from our vast back-catalogue of music All five members of the band are looking forward to this chance to showcase the essence of our songs in this alternative, intimate and exciting format.

Tumble Down The Years is featured in one of the TV episodes. That’s a song that’s passed me by. Lyrically it strikes a cord with me. Kaz and I are certainly tumbling down the years and damn the river.

Now, where are they playing this Less is More tour? We have to be there.

Anyway, let me set the scene… there were two big sports stories in the news yesterday. Firstly England were actually doing very well in the second Test in the current Ashes series. Amazing. Secondly Tiger Woods didn’t make the cut in the British Open tournament at Turnberry in Scotland.

Late in the evening Alan Davies Tweeted the following…

Now that's what I call comedy.

Brilliant!

Here is a picture of my cat, a Badger and a Dingo all the way from Australia.