Universal is re-releasing Hex Enduction Hour this year. No release date has been set as yet. It is basically a straight repressing of the 2 CD Sanctuary reissue from 2005 (same audio contents / tracklisting). It will be repackaged in a double digipak rather than a jewel case & the insert will be altered from a 12 page foldout poster to a 16 page booklet. The liner notes will be the same. The extra pages mean the typeface can be enlarged, making it more legible - there were some complaints about needing a magnifying glass to read the 2005 version!

I have the first draft of the artwork and it is much easier to read.

No Look Know???

No, I'm a frayed knot.

To change anything on the CDs would mean having to go back and renegotiate the whole deal with MES.

well I reckon he might just sell a dozen of them.

Meanwhile the Beggars reissues languish.

The Beggars reissues are progressing... slowly but surely.

I thought someone had putta block on them.

What made you think that???

Even Stranger appears to have given up.

:lol: He's getting soft in his old age!

This isn't really aimed at the reissue market, it's to ensure a current pressing remains in circulation. New buyers are coming to the group and this is the item in the back catalogue that is selling the most. Partly due to recommendations on this site and music critics.

I find that very reassuring!

Even if it's not their best. Good news, though!

The members of this site have voted Hex as the number 1 album each of the 3 times we've done album competitions/surveys. So it must be the best. Simple as that!

:lol:

The deluded fools. It's a toss-up between Witch Trials & Slates, of course!!

Oh, I thought you were a big fan of PBL.

Or is that R Totale?

:lol:

Don't get me started on PBL. :D

Tempo House. Genius. Perhaps the very pinnacle of Fall achievement.

:sick:

Do you think Hex is their best, Conway?

Yeah, I think Hex is probably the best. But Grotesque is damn close.

That may have been me.
The reissue of hex convinced me that it was better. I revisited it with new aers (and considering my copy was the white vinyl Line edition, it didn't take much audio improvement)

Of course I loved it at the time and it was only later the doubts crept in: that I preferred the session versions to the elpee tracks, as I suppose they still had the feel of Slates about them. Smith's first stab at pop stardom. He just didn't realize it at the time. :lol: Or maybe he did and tried to counter it with Room to live. Anyway, it was certainly a foretaste of what was to come in the mid & late eighties.

At the time, I thought Hex was bloody hard work and not a patch on Grotesque or indeed Slates. Over the passage of time, Hex has risen through the rankings to be right up there and probably slightly ahead of the other 2 (for which my feelings haven't really changed).

Why re-package the same stuff about 30 times instead of producing a decent live album of current stuff? We've had to put up with some right tat recently

They must think we’re mugs.

At this rate, completests will need a separate shelf to store each version of an album, let alone their Fall collection.

I’m not buying it. I’ve already got it (2 on CD and the record I bout when I was a kid!).

at least there is some Fall product to chat about.

bit quiet down the record shop of late.

Yes, I'd certainly agree with that.

Real, quality Fall product is a bit sparse on most music shop shelves at the moment. And, although Hex isn't my favourite - I actually took it with me on a long car journey only the other day, and found it a little bit turgid in places* - at least it's something that's worthwhile for others to discover.

I was also only thinking the other day how the lack of top table albums, like Grotesque and PBL, on the shelves might harm the influx of newer, perhaps younger, fans. And let's face it, if there's anything the relatively young of today need, it's to be immersed in the worlds of Grotesque and PBL.

*I will qualify that by saying I don't think Hex is a car friendly album, but at home it is also a definite top table candidate.

Well, Grotesque anyway. :D

Oh no I haven't forgotten about the Beggars releases :devil2:

I was thinking "this time next decade then" after Conway's comment, but then that would probably be the case anyway. :rolleyes:

Does that mean the other Sanctuary reissues are likely to go out of print now?

What a shame that someone who is new to The Fall is ‘directed’ to material over 25 years old.

No wonder they’re left perplexed when seeing the band live.

True. And very wise words too.

The expanded edition/reissue of TRNFLPFCOTC therefore can't come soon enough for me.

Although, on reflection as I type, acceptance of the perplexion at the live experience is surely one of the fundamentals of fandom. Provided that with that perplexion comes enjoyment, which probably takes a certain kind of person, and that certain kind of person is either a Fall fan or a prospective Fall fan. :wacko:

If they are tinkering with the artwork..................
On the back cover of the LP there are strange little footnote symbols which link the individual descriptions to the tracks to which they refer. These need to be re-instated.

Less crucially one of the brackets around the "(1hr)" had dissappeared on the last version.

Or: what a shame that the group's best material is over 25 years old.

Only according to old FARTS! ^_^

:nahnah:

Mortally wounded, I am.

I'll probably end up buying this - My copy of the Sanctuary 2CD got lent to a friend about 3 years ago, and hasn't yet returned depite occasional prompting. I've almost consigned it to the 'lent, and lost' file...

This would only become the 4th time I've bought a copy of Hex then: at least they're getting passed-on!

I played mine in my old car and it (the car) promptly and expensively knackered itself.

I am more pleased about Conways comment that the Beggars reissues are surely, if slowly, progressing. I've been saving my pocket money for them and now nearly have enough for them in 1985 money!

Seconded :)

Nah that's because they're shit these days.

Trebled, for the sake of argument. Not literally, but only they exceed it. Fortunately, there is nothing to compare it to. Who did anything similar, even remotely? A fucking void, filled by the Fall. Wouldn't know it was there otherwise- a definition of genius.