Opal - Early Recordings/Happy Nightmare Baby

gahhh

f. hazel plz check yr ilxmail

Sucks to hear it. :-/

Thanks to David Roback, his management and the record company- these two releases are permanently cancelled. Yes, CDs were manufactured and a few copies were sold last November. Sadly the remainder will be destroyed. Kendra & I did everything we could to make this release happen

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) November 11, 2020

fuuuuuck

such bullshit

he goes on to say: "it’s too complex to write it all out on Twitter, but I will say there were unreasonable and immoral demands set forth."

i'm trying to imagine who would be good for an opal / kendra smith tribute album ...

heron oblivion
damon & naomi
magik markers
dream syndicate
dean & britta

who else?!

I saw Opal split up onstage in London in 1988, not their greatest show I'm guessing.

I'm still baffled a bit: was this some sort of final wish of Roback's before he died or was in his will, or is his estate just jerking everyone's chain?

yeah i really have no idea.

yeah it's a bit weird to blame him now given he's dead

the 'immoral' statement makes me assume that there was some assertion on Roback or his estate's part that would have denied any funds going to Kendra. Did they hate each other?

well that's depressing!

Low would be great for a tribute album.

there's already four Opal tribute albums, the last one was called Seasons of Your Day

haha, really? well i missed those.

oh lol, i get it now.

Wouldn't mind hearing William Reid sing "She's a Diamond".

so weird that they are going to destroy the remaining copies of this. I get that they can't sell them but surely they could give them away, at least?

that's a pretty typical aftereffect of these kinds of injunctions, iirc. like Prince w/the Black Album.

it's hard to believe this band or anyone associated with it has the legal or financial wherewithal to impose any kind of injunction though.

I'm guessing they made a fair amount of money from Mazzy Star over the years, especially "Fade Into You"

Roback and Hope, yes. But Roback is deceased. So I guess this falls to whoever is handling the estate, or whoever owns the rights to these recordings; I also know, from the little I've dealt with the American music club reissues, that dealing with rights holders for independent music from the 80's and 90's is a complete pain in the ass. Hats off to Light in the Attic and Omnivore and other reissue labels that have the patience to deal with it

I mean yeah, remember that Happy Nightmare Baby was released on SST!

I believe it was a similar rights issue that kept the Game Theory records out of print in Scott Miller's lifetime, after Enigma Records had collapsed.

So sad that there's this kinda of wrangling over what must be a thin gruel of royalties

exactly. Pat clarified on twitter that the rights are owned 50/50 but Roback's demands were unacceptable. Hard to understand what kind of demands you can have when it's understood that you only own 50%. Frankly owning 50% of your rights for this stuff is pretty good.

Is the thinking sells on Discogs for $75, therefore the demand must be huge!?

god who knows. it's probably more along the lines of 'fade into you has made oodles of money and so there must be huge demand for his back catalogue' but I don't think reissues of Emergency Third Rail Power Trip sold out instantly and made trillions of dollars.

which songs on Early Recordings II are actually Opal songs? I assume the ones where Kendra is singing, but other than that...

seeing as some CDs were supposedly sold have the extra tracks surfaced anywhere yet? really want to hear the properly mastered Sailing Boats

belated thanks to f hazel, just my webmail for the first time in months!

enjoy!

A 1988 show after Hope replaced Kendra. Audience recording but good once they get going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIWhLwJ-kyY

I ponied up for a copy of the deleted Early Recordings remaster (making it the only album I have overpaid for twice, both times deleted) and in addition to the fascination of the extra tracks, I gotta say the remaster is excellent. The music is so much more present and alive, whereas the original feels distant and slightly muffled.

Live show above is lovely. The compression of the recording plus the LOUDLY mixed guitar is wonderful. Cheers for the link.

The remaster is great — lol, it really is so stupid that it's not available.

really sad the Happy Nightmare Baby reissue never made it out either, the original CD master of that one isn't bad but it isn't great either

There's a seller (Global-Deals for You) on eBay offering multiple sets of Early Recordings and Happy Nightmare Baby on CD - 30 sold, 8 remaining - which I think is a liquidator. Wondering if it might be the unsold stock of the reissues. I have the Early Recordings reissue and the original HNB CD, so it would be pretty expensive for me to buy a set out of curiosity, but I'm putting it here in case there are folks without either CD who'd like to give it a shot. Their feedback includes positive responses from folks who bought the set, by the way.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/185279370201

interesting! trying to justify buying it as I have both the original releases, I really want a hard copy of the extra Early tracks tho ...

Remaster is excellent too, if that’s a factor for you.

arrived today, and as suspected they are the Salley Garden reissues that were pulled. v happy!

does the Happy Nightmare Baby CD have anything extra? is it remastered? the SST CD version doesn't sound bad but it doesn't sound amazing either...

nothing extra, I have the OG vinyl so can't compare.
could rip & send if anyone's interested?

I would be interested to hear, yes please!

haha, I bought a set off the eBay auction so I can report back when I get mine re: old vs new HNB CD

(and can also rip for ILXors)

ok ripped, anyone interested webmail me 4 link

or just post here and I'll web you, that's probably easier tbh

That is AWESOME. I’m glad a few made it out after all.