Priest reclaim the rights to Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny, new 50th anniversary edition of Rocka Rolla out in November...

[treeduck]

...Re-mixed, Re-mastered and Re-balanced by Tom Allom.

 

https://www.metaltalk.net/judas-priest-reclaim-rocka-rolla-and-sad-wings-of-destiny.php

 

[JohnRogers]

3 hours ago, treeduck said:

...Re-mixed, Re-mastered and Re-balanced by Tom Allom.

 

https://www.metaltalk.net/judas-priest-reclaim-rocka-rolla-and-sad-wings-of-destiny.php

 

Hmm, not available on Amazon Music. I was going to give the original mix a spin.

[Nova Carmina]

4 hours ago, treeduck said:

...Re-mixed, Re-mastered and Re-balanced by Tom Allom.

 

https://www.metaltalk.net/judas-priest-reclaim-rocka-rolla-and-sad-wings-of-destiny.php

 

 

TL; DR

 

How'd they lose the rights in the first place?

[treeduck]

13 minutes ago, Nova Carmina said:

 

TL; DR

 

How'd they lose the rights in the first place?

They had a contract with Gull Records, who released the first two albums. Then in 1977 they got an offer from CBS/Columbia but they could only take the new offer if they ended the contract with Gull. Once they ended the contract it meant that Gull records owned all rights to Sad Wings and Rocka Rolla, and it's been Gull records that has been releasing various versions of these albums over the years, or licencing them to other record companies such as Koch records in the US.

[treeduck]

42 minutes ago, JohnRogers said:

Hmm, not available on Amazon Music. I was going to give the original mix a spin.

 

[Nova Carmina]

4 hours ago, treeduck said:

They had a contract with Gull Records, who released the first two albums. Then in 1977 they got an offer from CBS/Columbia but they could only take the new offer if they ended the contract with Gull. Once they ended the contract it meant that Gull records owned all rights to Sad Wings and Rocka Rolla, and it's been Gull records that has been releasing various versions of these albums over the years, or licencing them to other record companies such as Koch records in the US.

 

Thanks! Ah, the machinations of the music biz . . . 

[Segue Myles]

I love Rocka Rolla more than Sad Wings

[treeduck]

4 hours ago, Segue Myles said:

I love Rocka Rolla more than Sad Wings

I can imagine you singing Cheater while doing the ironing!

[zepphead]

I was 16 when it came out and my mate bought it.

A reasonable debut, but Sad Wings of Destiny (which I bought when it was released) was light years better!!!

I'll be interested to hear how this remix sounds.

Edited September 12 by zepphead

[treeduck]

2 hours ago, zepphead said:

I was 16 when it came out and my mate bought it.

A reasonable debut, but Sad Wings of Destiny (which I bought when it was released) was light years better!!!

I'll be interested to hear how this remix sounds.

When you first heard Rocka Rolla did you ever imagine they'd become the huge band they've become, and would you have expected them to be still going strong 50 years later?

[grep]

Looking forward to both of these remixes. 
 

[treeduck]

23 hours ago, grep said:

Looking forward to both of these remixes. 
 

[treeduck]

[chemistry2024]

Awesome 

[zepphead]

On 9/12/2024 at 4:32 PM, treeduck said:

When you first heard Rocka Rolla did you ever imagine they'd become the huge band they've become, and would you have expected them to be still going strong 50 years later?

To be honest no on both counts. It was a decent rock album but no more.

However, when Sad Wings Of Destiny was released, I knew they were something special, and I was hooked.

[treeduck]

22 minutes ago, zepphead said:

To be honest no on both counts. It was a decent rock album but no more.

However, when Sad Wings Of Destiny was released, I knew they were something special, and I was hooked.

Did you see the 1975 Whistle Test performance when it was first broadcast? 

[chemistry2024]

Interesting Rush and JP never gigged together

[treeduck]

36 minutes ago, chemistry2024 said:

Interesting Rush and JP never gigged together

Yeah I've looked for possible examples many times but they just didn't seem to cross paths.

[zepphead]

9 hours ago, treeduck said:

Did you see the 1975 Whistle Test performance when it was first broadcast? 

Yes I did watch it on the night it was broadcast in 1975.

For the benefit of some of our US/Canadian members who may not be familiar with The Old Grey Whistle Test, it was a BBC programme which was broadcasted in the 1970s.

There was no other rock offering on UK network TV at the time so BBC would put it out on a late evening midweek slot so that it's standard viewers would not see these noisy, hairy upstarts!!

[treeduck]

21 minutes ago, zepphead said:

Yes I did watch it on the night it was broadcast in 1975.

For the benefit of some of our US/Canadian members who may not be familiar with The Old Grey Whistle Test, it was a BBC programme which was broadcasted in the 1970s.

There was no other rock offering on UK network TV at the time so BBC would put it out on a late evening midweek slot so that it's standard viewers would not see these noisy, hairy upstarts!!

What did you make of them on there at that point?

[zepphead]

1 hour ago, treeduck said:

What did you make of them on there at that point?

I thought Dreamer Deceiver/ Deceiver were awesome and a real pointer to everything great about metal and it's potential going forward!

Young Rob's vocals were superb! Probably one of my favourite performances on OGWT out of all it's many broadcasts.

Oh and BTW , Rocka Rolla was pretty damn good too!!

Edited September 14 by zepphead

[treeduck]

K.K. Downing on How Judas Priest’s Debut Album ‘Rocka Rolla’ Got the 50th Anniversary Remix It Deserves

By

Bryan Reesman

 

September 13, 2024 6:46 am

Although not the most auspicious debut ever, Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla and its eclectic songs set the stage for the career of one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time. The album was made under stringent circumstances—small budget, no overdubbing, quick mastering. Black Sabbath producer Rodger Bain and engineer Vic Smith were brought on board, and while the mixes sounded good, the mastering process muted the power of the recording. Additionally, guitarist Glenn Tipton had joined a short time before the recording of the album, so their celebrated twin guitar attack and distinct songwriting style would cement itself more on Priest’s sophomore album Sad Wings of Destiny. But Rocka Rolla had some solid tunes, from the rollicking title track to the somber, epic ballad “Run of the Mill” with its uncharacteristically subdued guitar solo.

 

Gull Records held the rights to these first two Priest platters until 2023 when Michael Closter at Reach Music obtained them. Although a publishing company, Reach chose to invest money into remixing and remastering these albums, bringing in Priest’s acclaimed 1980s producer Tom Allom to give these recordings new life. Through modern technology, Allom opened up the mixes more and enhanced the grittiness of the guitars while also revealing some musical elements that had been excised or buried in the mix. Reach is reissuing both albums, starting with Rocka Rolla, under their own Exciter Records label.

 

Priest co-founding member and original guitarist K.K. Downing—who co-wrote every song on Rocka Rolla with either Tipton, singer Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill, or original vocalist Al Atkins—spoke to American Songwriter about this remixed reissue that comes out today (September 13) on digital, and CD and vinyl on November 22. Downing is headlining a North American tour with his current band K.K.’s Priest.

 

What can you tell us about this 50th anniversary reissue of Rocka Rolla?

 

Fortunately and gratefully after all of these years, the first two records are now in the hands of new owners, which is a very accomplished publishing company called Reach. They found the original recordings, the master reels, and everything. I’ve seen them, I’ve touched them, and they managed to transfer everything successfully into Pro Tools. They got Tom Allom to go in there and remix them. I feel very much a part of it now because, from the publishing side, I’ve signed with Reach. I think it’s very honorable of them because they could have kept everything to themselves, but they essentially are acting like a label in respect of these two albums now. So there’s been a rebirth after all of this time, and I actually feel a part of it again which is fabulous. I’m sure the rest of the guys feel the same. And after all this time, we actually see a little bit of benefit because we never earned anything at all from those records.

Priest had to break their deal with Gull to sign with CBS, thus forfeiting future royalties. Why did Gull decide to sell the recordings now?

 

[Gull co-founder] David Howells is probably in his early 80s now, and I think he’s rinsed them enough. He’s done well, and obviously he got an offer that he was not able to refuse.

 

None of the songs fade out anymore. They all end. Tom’s mixes have more space. You can hear a lot more. The drums have a warmer feeling, and you can hear how they resonate.

 

I was invited down to the studio to meet with Tom again and had a play-through. Having the original masters in such good condition, there were a lot of ways to go with those remixes. Tom and Reach and everybody had the consideration that we should keep the original integrity of the recordings, but as you said, just give them more light and more space and basically, [make them] a more pleasurable listen. I think that’s been achieved.

 

Obviously, there will be the same thing happening with Sad Wings which is pretty exciting. I’m glad that they’re in friendly territory now. I’ve met Michael Closter, who owns Reach, a few times. He’s a good guy, and he does the right things. All credit to him. He doesn’t do cost-cutting. He’s very proud to be the owner of these records, and he’s enjoying it.

 

 

With the instrumental “Deep Freeze,” I actually hear little flittering sounds that weren’t in the original mix. At the beginning of “Cheater,” there’s harmonica where there wasn’t any before. The guitar sounds are not necessarily a lot heavier, but they are grittier.

 

The guys certainly kept it within the realms of what it should be. I think that all makes sense, and I hope the fans can get the value on it with a new listen. It was a bit daunting being in those studios, in Island and Olympic and Trident, where all of these amazing artists—the Stones and Queen and so many bands—had been before us. It was done on a very small budget originally. We just had to play. Nothing was done to click tracks. Everything was just a live performance, so if somebody made a mistake we had to start again, which was fun. [laughs] You can imagine how many bands must have split up after that first studio experience, if somebody kept f–king things up.

 

Were you guys involved at all in the mixing on this album back in the day, or did you just hear it later on?

 

We were very involved with the mixing, but the mastering is where it all went wrong. We finished all of the mixes, and we were very happy with everything, but [for producer] Rodger [Bain] it was a long session. That last session, Rodger fell asleep. It was like seven o’clock in the morning the next day. We had been awake all night, and we said, “Rodger, we’ve done the last mix.” Vic Smith, who was the engineer, was there. Rodger just took the two track masters upstairs into a little cutting room, but he wasn’t a cutting engineer. He cut and basically mastered the record there. We all took an acetate home with us, and it sounded small. All of the energy and the heaviness had gone out of the record. We were just a bit disappointed. It was a cost thing as well because the budget for the record was like 2,000 pounds. But I’m happy to be involved with these records now at long last, and that makes me feel good to be a part of them.