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Special Edition 'Abbey Road' To Hit Stores



Shops to sell 5,000 copies of Beatles album

U.S. independent record stores will sell a unique LP boxed-set edition, limited to 5,000 copies, of the Beatles? ?Abbey Road? on Saturday as part of a series of promotions designed to drive foot traffic into stores hard-hit by the boom in digital music sales.

Exclusive 40th-anniversary vinyl edition of the album, licensed and produced by EMI, includes a T-shirt and poster featuring artwork from the collection?s two-sided hit single, Come Together/Something.

The Vinyl Saturday promotion is the latest stunt in the campaign dubbed Record Store Day involving 200 indie music retailers across the country.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said he was happy to support the cause with what is sure to be a collector-coveted edition of Abbey Road.

When I recently played Amoeba (musicstore) in L.A., I realized what fantastic memories such a collection of music bring back when you see it all in one place, McCartney said in a statement.

In other Beatles' news:

EMI has won a temporary injunction against BlueBeat, the digital-music vendor selling Beatles tracks without permission. According to Billboard, a temporary restraining order demands the company cease selling all EMI tracks, including Beatles songs.

US District Court Judge John Walter has ordered the internet site Bluebeat.com to remove the Beatles songs that they were selling for 25 cents on their site. Bluebeat had argued that they owned the copyrights to what they were selling as they had re-recorded them as "audio visual performances with related sounds."

The judge issued a restraining order barring the site from any further streaming or selling of the songs and stated that he believed EMI would most likely win in a lawsuit against Bluebeat.

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AC/DC Fans: For Those About to Rock, Play Something New


The very active and vocal fans at ACDCfans.net have written an open letter to their favorite group requesting that they change things up a bit. Specifically, they say that the set list used show-after-show, year-after-year is getting a bit stale and true fans would like to hear a little more variety.

It all started back in August when a board member posted a set list that they would like to see, one that included both the hits and some deep album cuts. The list set off a flurry of other comments and suggestions that eventually came down to the open letter.

Dear Malcolm, Angus, Cliff, Phil and Brian

acdcfans.net represents an extremely vocal group of your most loyal fans. Just a handful of us have collectively attended more than 157 of your concerts (and counting) since 1978 and estimate we've contributed more than USD$84,000 (and counting) to the AC/DC juggernaut. We are just the tip of the iceberg.

Now while those numbers may seem insignificant given your touring history and estimated wealth, for us the numbers represent a passionate investment of time and hard earned money in your music. We are AC/DC fans for life, and we wouldn't change that for the world.

However, there is something we'd like AC/DC to consider changing...

The setlist.

On the current Black Ice World Tour, during which some of us having travelled across Europe, the United States and flown between the two continents (with flights already booked to Australia to catch the Australian leg), we have listened to you play the same great songs each and every night. We absolutely appreciate every song you play, but we can't help but wonder if the band is getting a little bored of playing the same songs night after night.

Are you aware there are thousands of fans just like us who have spent months discussing the Black Ice World Tour setlist, every one of them hoping that the band will play something other than songs geared towards casual fans? - the sort of fans that put money in your pockets, but who don't have the same level of passion for your music as us. They may cheer at the concerts, they may go home happy... but they only came to hear Thunderstruck. They don't eat, sleep and shit AC/DC like we do.

As the greatest band on Earth, we think it is a travesty that you are not playing songs that are dear to yourselves and your long term loyal fans - the songs from albums that critics wrote off, but which we both know are some of the finest from your back catalogue.

So, we'd like you to consider changing the setlist. We won't be rude and say "play this" or "don't play that" - we'll leave it to you to decide - surprise us!

Please give us, and the many thousands like us, some hard hittin', heavy rockin' tracks that we, the true long term fans of AC/DC, know and love.

Thank you for your time and your music.

Yours respectfully in rock

acdcfans.net

Interesting, I wonder if the band will change the set list, time will tell, but if they listen to what their fans want; they will.

Author Robert Benson writes about rock/pop music and vinyl record collecting. He also serves as a contributor to SoundStageDirect, LLC at www.soundstagedirect.com. Mr. Benson also operates www.collectingvinylrecords.com, where you can download a FREE copy of his ebook entitled "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting."