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THE DETAILS:
The
Re-Masters are digital remasters of the 12 albums Judas Priest recorded
and released during their CBS/Columbia Records years (1977-1990).
They bring out qualities long missing from the original releases while retaining
all the classic magic and charm. Each disc
has also been expanded to include unreleased studio and live bonus tracks along
with additional photos, lyrics, and liner notes from the band. In all, there are
26 unreleased bonus tracks: 9 studio and 17 live.
The remaining members of
the band were fully involved in the development and overseeing of the RE-MASTERS
campaign, and while Rob Halford was not present nor consulted on the bonus
material, he was invited to participate in the
promotional aspects:
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"I’m
excited that they’re bringing out some of these special moments that were
never released. I think it’s just going to add some interesting aspects to
this boxset that I’m as excited about as anybody else.
"I was not consulted for material to add to THE RE-MASTERS,
so I'll be just as surprised as any fan! And I’ll certainly be more than
happy to talk about it with the media."
- Rob Halford, May 15, 2001 |
The bonus studio tracks were especially intriguing to devoted
Priest fans, who were already aware of many of the titles from past interviews
the band had given throughout their career. Fans had longed to hear such
unreleased gems, even if many of the tracks were only from a couple of
album/demo sessions:
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"The
bonus studio tracks weren't
necessarily
recorded during the era of the CD they appear on,
but we tried to get it as close as we could. Obviously, some of the songs were
from the same session, and some sessions may have had three or four previously
unreleased tracks, so we spread them out between the albums. So, I wouldn't
categorically say they were all from the exact session, but many of them were.
And some, it was very difficult to remember exactly what session they were
from."
- K.K. Downing,
Shockwaves, 2002 |
Phase 1 and 2 ad; Phase 3 ad
The Judas Priest RE-MASTERS campaign began May 7, 2001
and wrapped up on March 19, 2002 and followed a three-phase release plan, consisting of four
discs per phase. The first phase actually contained
the discs from the middle of the collection (BRITISH STEEL - DEFENDERS OF
THE FAITH):
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"No hidden reasons why we released THE RE-MASTERS in three phases - we always intended to do it that way.
We felt if we
released all twelve in one go, it would be too much for everyone, so we staggered the
release - the reason we released the 'second' series of albums first was because
we had a special of the making of BRITISH STEEL on English TV and we wanted the
album out to coincide with that. Nothing devious - just good marketing!"
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2003 |
June 18, 2001 Classic Albums Series 3 Ltd.
(UK Cat. # EREDV163)
November 6, 2001 Classic Albums Series 3 Ltd.
(US Cat. # EE19002)
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"BRITISH
STEEL is perhaps my favorite of the lot. The coolest thing about the
MAKING OF BRITISH STEEL is that K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton meet up with
longtime producer Tom Allom at the studio where the album was recorded, an
English country house owned by the two ex-Beatles, Ringo Starr and John Lennon.
The band discuss recording in the 'white room', where Lennon filmed the video
classic 'Imagine', as well as other rather unique recording techniques they used
like micing the entire living room to get that 'big' sound, smashing milk
bottles on John Lennon's porch (on 'Breaking The Law') and slamming loads of
silverware on the kitchen table in order to get that 'metallic' sound in 'Metal
Gods'. K.K. and Glenn also share with the viewer the way they worked out the
guitar solos and rhythms on songs like 'The Rage', 'Metal Gods' and 'Grinder'.
The classic original promo videos for both 'Breaking The Law' and 'Living After
Midnight' are also included on the video/DVD. Other really cool, interesting
artifacts featured in this documentary include interviews with the Metal God -
Rob Halford - himself, as he discusses the lyrical content of BRITISH STEEL, and
even Scott Travis is interviewed as he talks about his time with Judas Priest
(even though he joined the band long after the BRITISH STEEL album). What really
shines through on this video is the true enthusiasm that is shown, especially
between K.K. Downing and producer Tom Allom. K.K., Glenn, Ian and Tom really go into
depth about the recording process of BRITISH STEEL, discussing how they came up
with the riffs and how they got that incredible, ultra-heavy, guitar tone.
Seeing how I am a longtime Priest fan, this documentary was truly informative
and it kept me entertained throughout the entire video. A must have for any and
every metal fan!"
- Bob Nalbandian,
Shockwaves, 2002 |
SIN AFTER SIN:
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UK/European
CD Released October 22, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia
Records (UK Cat. # 502127 2)
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North American CD Released November 6, 2001 by Sony Music/Legacy
Records (US Cat. # CK 86183)
BONUS TRACK SOURCES:
"Race With The Devil" is a studio cover of the Top Ten hit by
the English band Gun. K.K. told Rock Hard magazine that it was recorded during
demo sessions for the STAINED CLASS album. Other sources reveal that those early
sessions were held at Savage Studios in Birmingham, England.
"This was the band jamming at
one of their early recording sessions but has never been released to the
general public."
- SIN AFTER SIN
RE-MASTER liner note, 2001 |
"Jawbreaker" is from a live ABC Rock Network broadcast at Long Beach Sports
Arena, Long Beach, California on May 5, 1984
The track listing differs from previous releases, which had
track 5 as "Let Us Prey" and track 6 as "Call
For The Priest/Raw Deal".
The band says this is not how they originally intended it to be and only now is
it finally corrected on THE RE-MASTERS,
which correctly place track 5 as "Let Us
Prey/Call For The Priest" and track 6 as "Raw Deal".
Known Errors:
STAINED CLASS:
-
UK/European CD released October 22, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia Records (UK
Cat. # 502128)
North American CD released November 6, 2001 by Sony
Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK 85434)
BONUS TRACK SOURCES: "Fire Burns Below" is from an unfinished December 1987 RAM IT DOWN sessions demo
at PUK Studios, Denmark
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"We have left it pretty much as is because of its historical value. All that has
been added are some classical acoustic guitars and lead which Glenn and K.K.
recorded at a later date."
- STAINED CLASS
RE-MASTER
liner note, 2001 |
"Better By You, Better Than Me" is from a live KNAC broadcast at Foundations
Forum, Los Angeles, California on September 13, 1990
KILLING MACHINE (UK) / HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (US):
-
UK/European CD released October 22, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia Records (UK
Cat. # 502129) -
North American CD released
November 6, 2001 by Sony Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK
86181)
BONUS TRACK SOURCES:
"Fight For Your Life" is an early demo, recorded during the 1984
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH sessions at Ibiza Sound Studios, Spain
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"This track never made it to any album as it stands, but part of it was
used for 'Rock Hard, Ride Free'."
- KILLING MACHINE RE-MASTER liner note, 2001
"It
was like a prototype, but we later changed it, mainly the lyrics and chorus.
But we felt that it was kind of valid in a way to include it, because a lot
of fans didn't just wanted to hear stuff that hadn't been released. And that
track in particular obviously later turned out to be 'Rock Hard, Ride Free',
and we thought it might be of interest to the fans...or maybe not. But there
is a lot of different instrumentation on that track. And the lyrics, 'Fight
for your life, Fight for your money...' - you can see why we changed it! But
we didn't care. We dug out all the last stuff we can find with Rob on it, so
now everybody has everything that is available on Priest."
- K.K. Downing,
Shockwaves, 2002 |
"Riding On The Wind" is from a live
MTV broadcast at US Festival, Glen Helen Regional Park, Devore, California on
May 29, 1983
UNLEASHED IN THE EAST:
-
UK/European CD released October 22, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia Records (UK
Cat. # 502130) -
North American CD released
November 6, 2001 by Sony Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK
86182)
BONUS TRACK SOURCES:
The four live bonus tracks are from the Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan show on February 10,
1979. They were originally released on a special bonus EP in Japan as a part of
the album PRIEST IN THE EAST
BRITISH STEEL:
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UK/European CD released May 7, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia
Records (UK Cat. # 502131)
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North American CD released May 29, 2001 by Sony
Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK 855752)
"Red, White & Blue" is from the July 1985 Turbo sessions at Compass Point
Studios, Nassau
"Grinder" is from a live ABC Rock Network broadcast at Long Beach Sports Arena,
Long Beach, California on May 5, 1984
The original vinyl pressing of BRITISH STEEL opened side A
with "Rapid Fire" and side B with "You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise", but
with the success of two of their singles, CBS changed to a more familiar running
order. Now with THE RE-MASTERS, Judas Priest have restored the track order to
what they had originally intended:
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"The album was originally pressed
with the order as we had it originally then CBS changed it when we had success
with 'Breaking The Law' and 'Living After Midnight' and next thing, we saw
pressings with a different order without our knowledge or approval."
- Jayne Andrews,
Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002 |
Known Errors:
-
There's a very slight glitch at around 40 seconds into the song "Steeler".
This one is almost undetectable, but does exist.
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The back cover says that the live "Grinder" is from the 1980 UK tour (US
versions say 1980 US tour), but it is actually from the 1984 DEFENDERS OF THE
FAITH US tour.
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"We are aware of the mess up of the dates of the live tracks - we didn't
think the dates were important, just the tracks themselves."
- Jayne Andrews,
Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002 |
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Pedro Brognara reports that his UK copy of the British
Steel Re-Master has a printing error on the front cover, where the printing
colors didn't align properly, leaving little white areas not filled in with
color (see areas circled in red). Not all copies
have this error, but be aware it does exist.
 
POINT OF ENTRY:
-
UK/European CD released May 7, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia
Records (UK Cat. # 502132)
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North American CD released May 29, 2001 by Sony
Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK 85436)
"Thunder Road" is from the December 1987 Ram It Down sessions at PUK Studios,
Jutland, Denmark.
"Desert Plains" is a live recording remastered from the May 23, 1986 King
Biscuit broadcast from the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri.
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"The re-releases
are filled with photos and it’s a great package. I had to pick out the photos
‘cause they didn’t know from when they were from. I was such a huge Priest fan
growing up. They said, 'Hey, Tim, where is that from?' 'That’s from POINT OF
ENTRY.' They didn’t know! They were going to add some songs that they didn’t
even know they had already released. They said, 'We are going to put as a bonus,
this song.' And I told them, 'Hey, this is from the POINT OF ENTRY album.' They
thought it was some song that was left on the shelf. What happened was, I was
singing it and they asked me, 'How do you know that song?' 'It’s from the POINT
OF ENTRY album.' 'It was?!' "
- Ripper Owens,
Metaleagle 2001
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Known Errors:
The song "On The Run" has a glitch at about 2:03 into the song.
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"We are aware of the glitch in 'On The Run' and told Sony not to let it out like
that but they had already shipped a bunch out - needless to say we are not happy
about it at all".
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2001
"A very few defective copies did get out, much to our chagrin. The
problem was quickly corrected, and new CDs have been manufactured with the
correct master. For a replacement CD, please call our Quality Management
department at (800) 255-7514."
- Sony Music, 2001
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In the booklet, the last line of lyrics to the last verse for "Heading Out To
The Highway" are missing.
The back cover says that the live "Desert Plains" is from the POINT OF ENTRY
tour in 1981, but it is actually from the 1986 Fuel For Life tour. Again, as
Jayne says, the dates aren't as important as having the actual songs...
SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE:
-
UK/European CD released May 7, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia
Records (UK Cat. # 502133) -
North American CD released May 29, 2001 by Sony Music/Legacy
Records (US Cat. #
CK 85435)
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"I
only found out today that it's the 20th Anniversary of SCREAMING FOR
VENGEANCE. Have you heard THE
RE-MASTERS yet? There's twelve albums altogether that were re-mastered.
SCREAMING in particular sounds really good. Obviously, the better the albums
were produced originally, the better THE RE-MASTERS sound."
- K.K. Downing,
Shockwaves, 2002 |
"Prisoner Of Your Eyes" is from the August 1985
Turbo sessions at Compass Point Studios, Nassau
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"This is
one of two versions of this particular song - the second version having a
different chorus. The majority of this track is still as it was put down
at the time but with lead breaks from Glen and K.K. added at a later date.
It's very emotional and epitomizes the light and shade style of Judas
Priest which is the trademark of the band."
- Screaming For Vengeance
RE-MASTER liner note, 2001 |
"Devil's Child" is from JUDAS PRIEST LIVE,
recorded at Midsouth Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, December 12, 1982
Known Errors:
There is an over-application of noise reduction that causes the quiet intros
and fade-outs to be muffled, choppy, and to cut out prematurely.
A photo of Glenn from two years later on the
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH tour appears in the booklet:
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"Glenn wanted that photo used - and as there was no room in the DEFENDERS
booklet, he wanted it in the SCREAMING one."
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2001
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DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH:
-
THE RE-MASTERS UK/European CD released May 7, 2001 by Sony
Music/Columbia Records (UK Cat. # 502134) -
THE RE-MASTERS North American CD released May 29, 2001 by Sony Music/Legacy
Records (US Cat. #
CK 85438)
"Turn On Your Light" is from the August 1985
Turbo sessions at Compass Point Studios, Nassau
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"This track
was recorded by Glenn and Rob one night, in one take, and
captures the sentiments and emotions of the song beautifully. Glenn added
the middle and end lead at a later date."
- Defenders Of The Faith Re-Master liner note, 2001 |
"Heavy Duty/Defenders Of The
Faith" is from a live ABC Rock Network broadcast at Long Beach Sports
Arena, Long Beach, California on May 5, 1984
Known Errors:
The audio channels on DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH are swapped, putting K.K. in the
right speaker and Glenn in the left. This is the opposite of the original. In
the METAL WORKS liner notes, K.K. confirms that Priest albums have always been
done with Glenn in the right speaker and K.K. in the left speaker. This is one
error that Sony and Priest see differently -
Personally, I think the label is trying to cover for their mistake in order
to avoid having to fix the problem and lose money on replacing the bad CDs:
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"We're concerned Priest fans here, too... You're right, the channels are
reversed. This was a creative decision of the band themselves, who were
totally involved in the remastering of their CDs."
- Sony Music/Legacy Recordings, 2002
"I spoke to Glenn about the audio channels being swapped around the wrong
way and he is not happy about it at all - unfortunately when the labels get
hold of it they often try different things without our knowledge!"
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002 |
In the booklet, a couple of the words are ran together: "decidedto" instead
of "decided to" and "albumin" instead of "album in":
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"I'll check those errors in the DEFENDERS booklet, because when I
checked everything, they were not there. I know Sony's art people played
around with a couple of things, so I'll check this out as well."
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002 |
On the US version, Bob Halligan Jr. is not
credited for writing "Some heads Are Gonna Roll", though he does get credit in
the UK version.
TURBO:
-
THE RE-MASTERS UK/European CD released February 21, 2002 by Sony
Music/Columbia Records (UK Cat. # 502135) -
THE RE-MASTERS North American CD released March 19, 2002 by Sony
Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK 85437)
"All Fired Up" is from the August 1985
Turbo sessions at Compass Point Studios, Nassau
"Locked In"
is from a live King Biscuit broadcast at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri on
May 23, 1986
"You may recognize part of this track which
we used elsewhere but the song as a whole is unheard and a brand new old track!"
- TURBO Re-Masters liner note, 2001
"All it means is that the band used an idea from
'All Fired Up' and wrote a different track around it which was released but
had never released the song as it was originally until we used it on The
Re-Masters!"
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for JUDAS PRIEST, via email,
September 3, 2003 |
As to what part of the song was used elsewhere is unknown, but it the drum track
does seem to closely resemble the drum track on "Ram It Down"...
PRIEST...LIVE!:
-
UK/European CD released February 21, 2002 by Sony Music/Columbia Records (Cat. #
502136) -
North American CD March 19, 2002 by Sony Music/Legacy Records (Cat. # CK 86378)
"Screaming For Vengeance" is from JUDAS PRIEST LIVE, recorded at Midsouth
Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, December 12, 1982
"Rock Hard, Ride Free" is from a
live ABC Rock Network broadcast at Long Beach Sports Arena, Long Beach,
California on May 5, 1984
"Hell Bent For Leather"
is from a live King Biscuit broadcast at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri on
May 23, 1986
Known Errors:
The back cover says the live bonus tracks were from the 1986 Fuel For Life
tour, yet only "Hell Bent For Leather" is actually from that tour, while
"Screaming For Vengeance" is from the 1982 World Vengeance tour and "Rock Hard,
Ride Free" is from the 1984 Defenders of the Faith tour. Once again as Jayne says,
the dates aren't as important as having the actual songs.
The booklet is missing the lead breaks credits for "Love Bites".
RAM IT DOWN:
-
THE RE-MASTERS UK/European CD released February 21, 2002 by Sony
Music/Columbia Records (UK Cat. # 502137) -
THE RE-MASTERS North American CD released March 19, 2002 by Sony
Music/Legacy Records (US Cat. # CK
86381)
"Night Comes Down" is from a live ABC Rock Network broadcast at Long
Beach Sports Arena, Long Beach, California
on May 5, 1984
"Bloodstone" is from JUDAS PRIEST LIVE,
recorded at Midsouth Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, December 12, 1982
PAINKILLER:
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THE RE-MASTERS UK/European CD released February 21, 2002 by Sony
Music/Columbia Records (UK Cat. # 502139) -
THE RE-MASTERS North American CD March 19, 2002 by Sony Music/Legacy
Records (US Cat. # CK 86382)
"Living Bad Dreams" is from the
early 1990
PAINKILLER sessions at Miraval
Studios, France
"In fact, we were gonna
put a ballad on the PAINKILLER album, but there really wasn't any space for
it, so the nearest thing we got was 'Touch Of Evil', which really isn't a real
ballad as people expect, you know...
It wasn't like 'Beyond The Realms Of Death' or 'Before
The Dawn', that kind of stuff... Or 'Night Comes Down'. It was a really
intense back-beat of a solid heavy metal riff. But yeah...I mean, we may use
it on the next record possibly. It's a really good song, a really good ballad.
But we wanted to make this record very strong, very powerful, with no space
for slow, kind of cigarette-lighters and mirror balls, you know... We didn't
wanna do that."
- Rob Halford,
Radio MCB,
February 2, 1991 |
"Leather Rebel"
is from a live KNAC broadcast at
Foundations Forum, Los Angeles, California on
September 13, 1990
Known Errors:
The song "A Touch Of Evil" removes the reverb tail at about 1:35, cutting-off to
a hard silence before going into the next verse. While it gives the section a
sharper contrast, it is not as originally released
COLLECTOR'S BOX:
-
Released October 22, 2001 by Sony Music/Columbia Records (UK Cat. # 502140) and
March 19, 2002 by Sony Music/Legacy Recordings (US Cat. # CBS0086390 - limited
to 1,000 copies of the UK version)
When all 12
CDs are lined up in the box, their side-splines form a flaming image of the
Judas Priest cross symbol and spell out the name JUDAS PRIEST along the bottom.
UK vs. US RE-MASTERS set:
The US versions have flat
plain
silver logos and titles while the UK versions have embossed chrome foil logos
and titles that look many times better.
The US version side-spline letters that spell JUDAS PRIEST do not align at equal
consistent heights.
The US SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE and DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH CDs both have the same
portion of the Priest cross image, causing a repeat that does not
look right when all the CDs are in the box together. This problem
does not appear with the UK versions.
The US version COLLECTOR'S BOX uses a
re-badged UK box with a yellow sticker on the outer shrink wrap that says,
"Special UK collector's box set containing four US albums".
This is
due to a limited run of boxes made in the UK only.
Therefore,
the box lists the album KILLING MACHINE instead of HELL BENT FOR LEATHER on
the contents.
"We are extremely concerned about the problems we are hearing about the US
RE-MASTERS artwork - ALL artwork logos were meant to be foil embossed,
the COLLECTOR'S BOX was meant to be released worldwide and the artwork on the
spines of the CD's once you had them all showed the flaming cross emblem with
the words 'JUDAS PRIEST' printed below. I am investigating to find out what is
going on because this is definitely not what we wanted.
"You can imagine how we feel when we spent so much time
on putting together a great package to find out that once it left our hands
not very much care was taken. All we can do is apologize and hope it doesn't
spoil THE RE-MASTERS for you. Still, I suppose it's par for the course, as we
always had these sort of problems with labels!
"All I can suggest is that you all write
to Sony/Legacy and complain to them, as I don't have any control of the product
they ship out. We get the samples/proofs in for approval, which we always make
sure are correct, but then if they make some errors in the factory, I don't know
about them until some of you let us know - so contact the label
www.legacyrecordings.com
and complain to them - hopefully
they'll do something about it for us all."
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002 |
When Phase 3 released to the US, it seemed
the COLLECTOR'S BOX was not made readily available as was promised by SONY/Legacy.
Only 1,000 were made available to the States and they were re-badged UK boxes at
that!
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"Sony/Legacy US didn't see the
potential and only ordered 1000 boxes for the whole of the States, which needless
to say, went in a flash. We keep telling them they should order more. I don't
know what the problem is - we have chased this up on numerous occasions. We'll
get on their case again and see what we can do; otherwise, all I can suggest is
that you complain directly to the label and hopefully they'll take note!"
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2002
"Unfortunately the US only took a few of the boxes - we
tried to get them to take more due to the demand, but it was Sony/Legacy's
decision to keep the numbers down, not ours!! All of the albums are still out
there in the stores; if your particular store doesn't have the one in that you
want, just order it - they are all very much available."
- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest, 2003 |
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