Spandau Ballet SACD (1 Viewer)

[Danny Tse]

Just finished read about the Spandau Ballet SACD on High Fidelity Review. Why an Europe-only release? I guess that can be said of the Air Supply and Kenny G SACD from HK BMG.

Sure would like some Billy Idol, Huey Lewis & The News, and Pat Benatar SACDs from Chrysalis....

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Danny,

I for one am glad that Air Supply and Kenny G will remain in Hong Kong.

Spandau Ballet I will just order online as an import. They are more popular in Europe than here so that probably had something to do with it.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Sheesh, Amazon UK still has it listed as "not yet published". :frowning:

I am now wondering if I should buy the remastered CD in the meantime.

 

[Emil Stoica]

The disc is available. I bought mine from Amazon.fr.

 

[John Geelan]

All of a sudden every time I need to order a SACD I need to speak French!

 

[Danny Tse]

I dug out my CD of Spandau Ballet's "The Singles Collection" last night and listened to it. YUCK!!! What awful sounding CD, but the music is GOOOOD!!! That Gary Kemp sure knows a thing or two about writing a catchy tune. The "True" SACD is a must-buy for me.

I knew those 2 years of French I took in high school will come in handy one day!!!

 

[Brian-W]

I for one am glad that Air Supply and Kenny G will remain in Hong Kong.

That's it Lee, you've really done it now...I'm going to the dark side.

Bring me my Air Supply in DVD-Audio

 

[Danny Tse]

OK, I've done it....ordered the Spandau Ballet SACD. Now if only EMI will issue their follow-up to True, Parade, on SACD....

I will definitely pick up that Air Supply SACD in HK next month. My poor credit card!!

 

[Yee-Ming]

Bleh. 13 euros shipping cost per shipment, even before considering per item charges? What a rip-off. Why the hell doesn't amazon.co.uk have the disc? At least their shipping charges are reasonable.

Grrrrrrr.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law is going to Paris and London soon. If amazon.co.uk still doesn't have it, I'll have to ask him to get it for me.

 

[Danny Tse]

Jusr received confirmation from Amazon UK....SACD of Spandau Ballet "dispatched". About US$27.00 shipped.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Danny

My visit to Amazon UK (10 seconds ago) shows it is still "not yet published". Did you order regardless of this? I suppose that Amazon UK hasn't updated its site yet then.

 

[Rachael B]

Spandau Ballet was a stapple on college radio here.... I wish we didn't have to import so many titles...ugh! I'll end up ordering it eventually.

 

[Danny Tse]

Yee-Ming,

I ordered last week (I think it was Thursday). Over the weekend, I considered canceling the order from Amazon UK, since their "net yet published" could be indefinite. Coming into the office, I was all ready to cancel the order when I received an email informing that the order has been send out. So maybe Amazon UK need to get their website updated.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Thanks for the info Danny. After posting earlier, I ordered anyway, since in any case I'm preordering West Wing (out next Monday). On that basis, I'll leave the order in and see what happens, and I'll post my experience here (assuming anyone is remotely interested?)

 

[Danny Tse]

For those who are interested in this SACD, I just checked Amazon UK's website, and it's still showing "Not Yet Published". However, my order was shipped out on July 21st.

Yee-Ming....have you received confirmation that your SACD has been dispatched?

 

[Yee-Ming]

No such luck Danny. I'll wait over the weekend and see what happens; if by then it still hasn't shipped then perhaps I'll cancel the SACD to get the rest of my discs.

(OT: I'm actually kinda glad for the slight hold-up: in the last few days the Pound v. Singapore Dollar exchange rate has moved a bit in my favour... )

 

[Danny Tse]

I just received the Spandau Ballet SACD today in the mail. Amazing turnaround time by Amazon UK! When I opened the cardboard envelop containing the SACD, I was surprised that the disc was not wrapped in plastic. The clear plastic SACD jewel case wasn't scratched in anyway, and the disc was in perfect condition. I will listen to it tonight and let everyone knows how it sounds.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Not surprising Danny, Royal Mail is pretty fast. I once had a package arrive here in Singapore 3 days after shipping from UK.

Have fun with the disc, and we all look forward to hearing your views.

Still no word on my own order though... :frowning:

 

[Danny Tse]

After listening to this hybrid stereo SACD a couple of times, all I can say is WOW!! I can't believe I am missing this much!! Now, the only other Spandau Ballet disc I have is "The Singles Collection", so that's not saying much. Even just listening to the redbook CD layer on my Panasonic portable CD player thru Grado SR60 headphones, I felt as if a heavy veil has been lifted off of the music. The separation between the instruments was amazing, especially on this album, which featured a good amount of percussion in the songs' arrangements. I can actually hear the guitar work of Gary Kemp. The bass on this recording was not exactly overwhelming, but when played thru my Sony DVP-500 DVD/SACD player, the SACD layer definitely gives better bass response than the redbook CD layer. For about US$27.00 shipped, this SACD is a "Must Buy" if you're into 80s pop music.

This disc itself was "Made in the EU", with the booklet "Printed in Japan". Within the booklet are the lyrics to each songs, although the song sequence was printed out of order. Otherwise, not much else other than the credits.

 

[Yee-Ming]

The weekend's over, still no shipment, but my account at Amazon UK states "items shipping soon". I suppose that's good news...

And from the lack of interest in this thread, does this mean Danny and I are the only die-hard Spandau fans on this forum? Surely not :b

Now if only EMI will issue their follow-up to True, Parade, on SACD....

Although I'd certainly appreciate (and buy) Parade on SACD, the one I'd really look forward to is Through The Barricades, and ironically that's on Sony rather than EMI. Or failing that, an SACD of their "Best Of" collection. I'd love to hear "Through The Barricades" (the single) in SACD; given its stripped-down arrangement, it should sound incredibly haunting, as it should.