Crystal Cat has another recent title to post on these here pages...the latest is BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE SEEGER SESSIONS BAND "Milano Session Night" 2CD capturing his May 12th Concert at Datchforum, Assago in Milan...From the Rattlesnake Label comes a couple new releases...An early, pre-Ziggy & The Spiders From Mars DAVID BOWIE single CD, "Aylesbury Friars Club 1971", taped in the UK on September the 25th of 1971 to be exact...in fact, the back sleeve liner notes tell us this recording is "only weeks before his meeting with Andy Warhol at The Factory in New York.  At Aylesbury, Bowie performs with Michael Ronson, Mick Woodmansey, Trevor Bolder and Tom Parker ex-Animals on Piano.  Weeks Later Bowie and his band would begin rehearsals at The Underhill Rehearsal Studios, South London, the new band would soon be named The Spiders and Ziggy would be there."  Perhaps a bit over the top but being that it's all true, it just underscores that what we collect is history.  These are documents and you cannot underestimate the significance of some of these performances when you frame them up like this.  Rattlesnake's other title for June is BOB DYLAN "Pointed Shoes And Shakespeare Hats" 2CD, recorded live at Ahoy, Rotterdam on October 25, 2005...the disc also features some bonus tracks from Wetzlar, Germany on October 30th, 2005.

Thinman Records is tapping into Zimmy's Gospel period and that is always a good thing.  You can see that Mr. Sparaco has started reviewing these new titles right here on our pages...the latest BOB DYLAN releases from Thinman include "Blessed Be Thy Name" 2CD, which features a 1979 recording from Albequerque on December the 4th which is an audience tape...and "Walk Around Heaven All Day" 2CD brings about his Earl's Court show in London on June 26, 1981 during a very strong stretch of performances in Europe that Summer - should be very good.  The Godfather Records has provided collectors a nice silver disc offering from DAVID GILMOUR'S Island Tour by releasing the double-disc, "Let The Night Surround You", another show sourced from Italy...this is a March 25, 2006 in Milan.

With both DAVID GILMOUR and ROGER WATERS on tour - the latter also being joined by FLOYD drummer NICK MASON...and RICHARD WRIGHT being more diplomatic and playing with both factions at different stops...I guess that explains the heavy PINK FLOYD bootleg onslaught in recent weeks.  Sirene has a couple of real nice titles slated for June that include "Aphrodite" 2CD, which features 2 different sources of the Hakone, Japan performance on August 6, 1971 - this set also features a bonus replica of the concert programme!  Also from Sirene, look for the 2CD "Boredom And Pain" + bonus DVD-R "Video Archives"...the audio discs are  recorded live at Boston Gardens on June 27, 1977 and after soaking up the pre-release info, I get a sense that we have an upgrade in audio quality with this one and we look forward to it hitting the streets later in the month...the bonus DVD here includes nearly 70 minutes all mid-70's video -f rom the Hollywood Bowl '72 video to the L.A. Sports Arena '75...and Vienna, Munich and Anaheim '77 segments as well.  Great stuff.  And Harvested Japan has issued Video Archives Vol. 3 DVD....this time, they didn't just dub the fan-compilation to silver disc!...they have assembled all the DVD video from Sirene's titles over the last year or so and compiled it along with some of the fan-produced compilation of vids and that makes some sense for a change!

In ROLLING STONES bootleg news...that April 2nd Saitama show seems to be even more popular with the bootleggers than both the Rio and Buenos Aries broadcasts which dominated the release schedules last month!...It's getting rave reviews all over the net and getting into the action this week is Idol Mind Productions with the 2CD + DVD-R package, "Super Arena Remaster 2006" promising a complete remastered soundboard edition, plus bonus audience tracks from Radio City Music Hall - that also includes the proshot video from the event on a dual-layered DVD...the set is limited to 150 copies and will be hitting the market next week....TMQ has just issued their version, "Live From Saitama Super Arena" 2CD.  4Reel Productions latest "Ladies And Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones - Definitive Master Edition" DVD has just hit the streets over the last week...just to recap, it features both versions - the Widescreen Edition of the film, and the Pan-and-Scan or full-screen format, along with some bonus clips from the film footage.

That's all the silver disc-related release info gathered from the last week...stay connected via the News Ticker and visit often to digest the latest review offerings here at HotWacks On-line.  Have yourselves a great week!

Svengi, June 12, 2006