Earlier this year, it was announced that Wishbone Ash has a massive Box set arriving “at some distant point”. Well, although that point is still not precisely known, we have been given the satisfactory ‘April of 2018’ date. And that works well enough for me.
The newly assembled box has a wealth of music from the band during their first sixteen albums including a lot of live music. As a fan of Live Dates, I have extreme hope that many of the unused songs collected from the shows will find themselves here. (I STILL advocate for the assembly and reissue of an EXPANDED and REMASTERED Live Dates album with ALL songs from ALL four shows, plus a rich booklet of bonuses, remembrances and memorabilia. It’s a project I’d crowdfund!)
The new Box – being released by Madfish (a division of Snapper Music) – will be called The Vintage Years 1970-1991. It will house 30 CDs of classic Wishbone Ash including sixteen studio efforts through (I assume) Strange Affair, three live albums (both Live Dates and Live Dates II, and perhaps Live in Memphis), and 11 (!) CDs of previously unreleased live sets dating from 1973 through 1980. Also included will be a hard-bound 154 page book, a poster book, four reproduction posters, a “facsimilie MCA debut album promo pack”, a Japanese replica 7″ flexidisc, and signed photos of each band member. The BAD news is that there will ONLY be 2500 copies available for purchase worldwide.
According to Martin Turner, the pricing is yet to be announced, but the set will be available for pre-order on November 30 (2017). It won’t be cheap but then again, what definitive Boxed set is. It depends on your love for the band. For me, this is a must have. Unfortunately, there is also not an available track list of the bonus inclusions and the live sets. I assume these will materialize on November 30 along with the order link.
