Well if I had a title it would be archivist/historian/advisor.

I am a Bowie fan too and have a few Bowie 30th/40th anniversary CDs for albums like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane etc. and wished that Roxy/Ferry would do this with their back catalogue.

These particular issues have the original album on one disc and a second disc with out-takes, unreleased stuff etc. from the relevant sessions. The booklets are expanded booklets with lots of rare and unseen photos from the recording sessions/tour and artwork. There is also a lot of memorabilia etc. in the booklets, adverts from the press at the time, single sleeves from singles released all round the world. Archive interviews as well as retrospective interviews.

I made a prototype version of how For Your Pleasure would look in this format. I made a booklet with lots of similar stuff as mentioned above and I showed it to Bryan Ferry and some EMI when I was in Studio One a couple of years ago. They liked what I had done and the concept of what I was suggesting. I also took an old acetate of Virginia Plain as a work in process to Abbey Road to get transferred and cleaned up to a usable state

Since then I have written a chronology for the period, gathered all the BBC sessions, listened to the original demo recorded in 1971 with Roger Bunn on guitar and Dexter Lloyd on drums. I scanned and digitally cleaned up about 10 different picture sleeves for Virginia Plain from all around the world same for all Roxy Singles. I provided lots of press articles from the period, adverts, badges patches etc. I also interviewed Graham Simpson.

I have in my collection a lot of essays that Simon Puxley did about the lyrics and gave them to EMI for consideration for inclusion.

I have had some input into suggestions of packaging/format for these releases. If you look at Bowie's Ziggy/Aladdin Sane/Diamond Dogs are similar but other issues like Station To Station are different. Nirvana, Radiohead and The Who have all had similar 'deluxe editions' for some of their albums so some ideas about format/packaging have come from all these.

These issues are aimed at diehard fans and not the housewife shopping for CDs in supermarkets. I have been involved to represent fans and hopefully put forward good enough suggestions to get this particular release as close to what will appeal to Roxy's most avid fans with the material and ideas that are up for consideration.

There are 3 aspects to this issue. Audio recordings, DVD footage and the booklet.
Potentially there could be mastered BBC sessions, the original demo, and all sorts of other rare audio from this period as well as a DVD with unseen footage if permissions are given for their release. Lots of unseen photos and rare memorabilia etc., interviews etc. could be included in the booklet.

The last I was involved it was just a lot of recordings/footage/photos and text up for consideration. I think it is now down to settling how big a release this will be (The more content the more expensive it is to produce therefore content against cost has to be considered) This will also be down to how much fans want and what would they be expected to pay for it. This also determines what format this will be released in and what will/can be included and what may have to be sacrificed.

A general thing I would also say about recordings and footage of any band is that just because they exist doesn't mean they can be released for all sorts of legal and contractual reasons. Some stuff may suffer this fate.

It's not my place to say much more than this at this time and I am only expanding on what has been announced via the official Facebook page. I am sure a press release will come out when this is nearer a finished item.

J.O'B.

What a good report! brilliant! thanks for the information

A thousand thanks for this John- this sounds as though it's just the sort of release I would like- can't come soon enough!!

Fantastic insight. Thank you!

Brilliant ! I would prefer to hear the recordings with Bunn and Lloyd more than anything else. Here's hoping!

Thanks for the update, John.

The 1971 demo is the Holy Grail. Whatever you can do to persuade the Roxy camp to release these tracks would be much appreciated.

Also eagerly awaiting news of the Manchester 2011 DVD. Cheers.

Thanks for the insight as to what you have been contributing John

It's great that we have you to provide feedback from all us die hard fans. I must say that I got a bit fed over the years seeing the same old Roxy/BF stuff being churned out in different formats for the supermarket shopper. No chance of that now with you being involved on thism one. BF upped his game with the Olympia album presentation, so I am really looking forward to the 40th Anniversary set. It's a wonderful suprise when you come across memrobilia/tracks you've actually never seen/heard before.

To be honest I don't kow a thing about this release as I haven't really asked. I will be working for a week in London next month on Roxy related things and will ask what information can be posted.
J.O'B.

HI JOHN , ANY NEWS ABOUT THE DVD? thanks

I have no further information on the DVD at this stage.

J.O'B.