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street fighting years limited edition box : information
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- The first commercial Simple Minds box sets were issued in December 1989. Virgin
obviously had their eye on the Christmas market and Simple Minds were still being regularly featured in
the music publication with the conclusion of the Street Fighting Years tour and
the release of The Amsterdam EP, so the timing was perfect.
- Therefore the record company lavishly repackaged the Street Fighting Years
album as a box set. Two versions were produced: one which included a cassette of the album and the other which included
the CD. The box set's dimensions suggested that a version containing an LP could've been considered, but it was more likely that
the box's size was chosen so it could be easily slotted into existing LP racks.
- Both boxes also contained two extras: two cassettes of The Street Fighting Years and the
Street Fighting Years book.
- The Street Fighting Years was a BBC Radio One two hour documentary which was broadcast over
two successive weekends in the summer to tie in with the UK leg of the Street Fighting Years tour.
Presented by Annie Nightingale, the documentary unearthed the whole history of Simple Minds,
with interviews by band members, managers and journalists, peppered with key tracks from the last ten years.
- The documentary also included three excerpts of demo tracks which had never been released. Parts of Subway Sex,
Cocteau Twins and
Pleasantly Disturbed were aired. These wouldn't be heard in full until some
ten years later with the release of The Early Years 1977-78.
- For the box set, each hour segment of the documentary was copied to a cassette. The cassettes also included pull-out
sleeves which boasted unique graphics and the song listings.
- The book was actually a music book for the album and it featured the guitar tabs, melodies and lyrics for all the songs. But
it was greatly expanded with a lengthy essay by Alfred Bos about the album, and
exclusive pictures and artwork by Malcolm Garrett. It was one of the most detailed
accounts of the recording and reception of a Simple Minds album so far published.
- Everything was packaged up neatly in black box which boasted new, exclusive black and gold artwork by
Malcolm Garrett. Both boxes were also numbered, another first for a commerical
Simple Minds release. Numbering suggests that 10,000 boxes were created for both the cassette and CD versions.
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