News of an LP release!

We are today announcing the forthcoming release of an LP! For the first time in 40 years we are going to issue a TN album on VINYL…

The album is question is the 40th anniversary version of Smiling At Grief, the first album we recorded with Geoff, which we will be releasing in 2022.

Smiling At Grief – Revisited

Some years ago we digitised all the reel-to-reel multi-track tapes in the band’s possession, which were the Live And Let Live and the Smiling At Grief recordings. Smiling At Grief was recorded in two sessions at Woodcray Manor Farm Studios, Berkshire in November 1981, between which Rick decided to leave. The original album contained 9 tracks, mostly recorded live-in-the-studio with a few extra vocal and guitar overdubs, and keyboard parts added after Rick left.

With the 40th anniversary of those sessions coming soon, we decided to celebrate Smiling At Grief by releasing a ‘brand-new’ version of the original cassette album, by asking friends and peers if they would remix the album using the original master tracks. The response has been really amazing and rather humbling… as over the last few months, we have received contributions from Steven Wilson, Peter Jones, Simon Godfrey, Tim Bowness & Brian Hulse, Rob Reed, Lee Abraham & Stu Nicholson, Karl Groom, Dean Baker, Mark Spencer and Andy Tillison, with more to come!

Some are straight remixes, some have been enhanced with new instrumentation, and some have been radically reworked. We feel that all of them more than do justice to the original versions, so if you want to find out who has done which track… head over here for the full listing.

We plan to release three versions in 2022: A heavyweight vinyl version reproducing the original Smiling At Grief album track by track with new mixes, followed by CD and download versions to which we will add several alternative mixes.

We inviting pre-orders for the LP in advance because demand for vinyl currently far exceeds supply, and as a result lead-times are over 6 months. As it will be a one-off pressing (and a strictly limited edition), we don’t want to make too many, or too few! So by pre-ordering now, you will not only secure a copy, but also give us a good idea of how many LPs to manufacture.

UK customers can pre-order from the Twelfth Night website: £18 + £ 4 p&p = £22 here.
Please select the UK shipping option (+75p) so the p&p totals £ 4. Thank you.

Non-UK customers: Unfortunately at the moment we are not able to accept full pre-orders from anyone outside of the UK. This is because of the various different costs of overseas postage. However you can still reserve a copy by using PayPal to send the cost of the LP (£18) directly to us using my email address brian@twelfthnight.info If you describe it as a payment to a ‘friend’ it should arrive without any fees being deducted. Don’t forget to say in the message that it is for a copy of SAG.

If however, you do order from the website we will need to advise you of the extra postage charges later. This will incur two sets of PayPal fees, which is why we would prefer customers outside the UK send the LP money (£18) now, describing it as a payment to a friend. I hope that makes sense!

When the album is ready we will contact you individually to let you know what the postage and packing costs will be. At current prices it would be around £8.50 for the EU, £17 for the USA, and £13 for most of the other countries in the rest of the world. It is frustrating that it will be at least 6 months before the LPs are ready, and that the overseas postage costs are so high, but sadly there’s nothing we can do about this.

Posted Sep 1st 2021