As some of you know, l was asked sometime ago to contribute details and background stories to all of the Elvis CD projects I worked on from 1996 to 2004 for Sony, BMG and other third party labels for a new book that was being put together by John Townson and Gordon Minto, and has taken almost six years to research and produce. That book is Elvis UK3, which was launched as a digital online flip book this week.
The book follows their previous works, the groundbreaking Elvis UK, published in the pre-digital era of 1987, and the self published Elvis UK2, published 15 years later in 2002. Both
books were extremely well-received by collectors, earned critical
acclaim, and have become invaluable reference sources for Elvis
collectors all over the world. This latest reference work is
bigger and more comprehensive than either of their two original works.
The new book comprises 1400 pages (containing over a million words), and
features 4,000 plus high quality black and white and colour
illustrations, many of which were provided by my good friend Tony King
whose photo archive is probably one of the largest in the world, and has been utilised by many Elvis authors, book publishers, FTD and Sony. The book
also provides the definitive guide to Elvis’s UK compact disc releases,
and details the development of the medium from the 3 CD set The Legend, which was the world’s first ever Elvis compact disc in 1983, in meticulous and unprecedented detail.
Every single, RCA, BMG, FTD and third party album (all 450 of them!) issued up to 2005 are written about individually in fascinating detail, arranged in chronological order, carefully cross-referenced, while charting and describing company and industry developments along the way. It has been painstakingly researched over many years, and features many contributions by former RCA/BMG personnel who helped with key background information, along with many others, who like myself, have contributed to some of the CD releases featured. In my case they include The Hillbilly Cat, Artist Collection (including discarded artwork and omitted liner note passage), the 2002 JXL remix of A Little Less Convesation, the final batch of Millennium Master sets (Elvis 50s, 60s, 70s, Hits) and the Live Greatest Hits.
The book also includes sections on various artist CDs containing Elvis material, as well as company promos, presenters and BMG in-house CDs. The huge song index is presented in forensic detail, indicating exactly where each master (and any known outtakes) can be located and, in the case of live performances, when and where they were recorded.
And in what is almost a first for such a project, this incredibly detailed book is presented using Flip technology for use on your own digital device – a computer, laptop, iPad, smartphone, Kindle and tablet. Once you have the link, accessing the whole book is simple. The system allows the reader to access any part of the book in seconds thanks to a very sophisticated, but easy to use, range of navigational tools. Hardback specialist reference books of this sort have become extremely expensive to buy and post, and of course are notoriously difficult to handle and store. Not so with Flip. The book can be accessed on any device and has the advantage of being portable: it can go where you go – and once on your device, it does not deteriorate at all. Another major advantage is that the price to buy such a book is much cheaper than an equivalent hard-copy would have been, and as there are no prohibitive post and packing charges to factor in, it is readily available to anyone interested, wherever they are in the world.
As a bonus, the authors have compiled a unique digipak CD to give away with the book, that includes an 8-page illustrated booklet with extensive liner notes detailing the rationale for the content. Beyond The Legend includes 22 UK single chart entries, plus the 1956 Truth About Me interview, not included on the original 1983 Legend set, and will be sent out to all UK buyers free of charge. Overseas fans however will be asked to pay for post and packing costs.
Anyone wanting more details of this magnificent and authoritative reference work should visit the website where many more details are available, including the option of accessing some free sample pages to try out, as well as how to buy the book.
Footnote
Many readers and contributors will find lots of interesting facts and behind the scene stories in the book. For me personally, one of the most fascinating was for the 1992 album From The Heart. I was intrigued to read the back story to the release as I knew Lee Simmonds (who compiled it) from his days of running the RCA International catalogue, during which time, we became friends and allies during my days as a struggling graphic artist. He was among my first encounters with RCA at Bedford Avenue in London. Among other things, he introduced me to Roger Semon, when Roger was a part time salesman and was already loosely involved in the early years of the Elvis catalogue, got me and my ex tickets for the 1984 Bucks Fizz tour and was always giving me freebie albums! Lee and me remained in touch when he moved to EMI, QED and later to Sanctuary Records, when Roger was MD! Beyond Elvis he was responsible for the marketing and promotion of the 1981 Glen Campbell Live album, which featured my gatefold sleeve artwork. In his office he had the original illustration that was used on the cover of the Elvis 56 Sessions Volume 2 album (as shown above). As readers will discover, one of Lee's Elvis projects at QED was The Hillbilly Cat for which he asked me to do the liner notes, and which became the first Elvis album I wrote a liner note for.
Postscript
Back in 1989, I was sitting in a meeting room at Blandford Press in London, with friend, writing partner and co-author, Peter Lewry, waiting for editor Stuart Booth to arrive. We were there to discuss our book project on Cliff Richard's recording sessions. While we were waiting we browsed the selection of books that were displayed around the room, and the one that caught our eye was Elvis UK by John Townson, Gordon Minto and George Richardson. We had both heard about the book when it was first published two years earlier, but the hefty retail price of £45 made it a pretty prohibitive buy that neither of us could afford at the time, even though it was probably the one Elvis book we wanted most. Now in our publishers office, and well aware they were the same publisher that had published this mammoth work on Elvis' record releases, we now had the chance to take a closer look, and wow, the information inside was quite staggering, even for the most serious and ardent Elvis collector. What we found in this book was something else, there were things listed that were completely new to us, and what we discovered took us completely by surprise. Did RCA UK really make that many goofs in the marketing of their crown jewel artist? According to this book, yes they did, and it had been going on for years, long before I started collecting Elvis back in 1963.
Further Reading
Thanks for this blog and the honorary mention Nigel. Always a pleasure to help with such projects and it is a very comprehensive edition of this praised series. I hope fans of this type of comprehensive reference book will enjoy it. Thanks for promoting and caring about such projects yourself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony for your kind words as usual, and thanks for donating so many great photos from your amazing picture archive to the project!
ReplyDeleteHi there. It all sounds excellent, but I wonder if you could clarify something please. You say that once it’s on a device it doesn’t deteriorate, however I’m led to believe that there is no download option and the book can only be viewed online via a website. If true that would mean it was only usable when there’s a working internet connection, and also that If the server ever went down the book may disappear. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteHi Richard. I have now heard from authors regarding your query about the book, and their reply follows below, which I hope will answer your questions...
DeleteThe question of why we chose an access-only book is complex. The decision to go down that route was not taken lightly, but was decided upon once the conventional publishing route was ruled out (owing to unaffordably high production costs).
Compiling the book has taken six years of very hard and intensive work. As with our two previous books, our sole motive was to create something for fellow fans / collectors to share, read and enjoy. However, one important aspect which influenced our final decision was that the system chosen would allow us to continually update the book - as and when new information became available. Essentially, this means that all customers would get refreshed and/or new pages without having to do anything themselves – and at no additional costs.
And in the same way that some people do not like the digital concept at all, equally we are aware that the access system does not appeal to everyone either. However, basically, we want people to read our work and therefore it’s in our interests to make sure that access is available at all times for our loyal customers. Can we guarantee that a server will never fail? Of course, we can’t, but if one did, it wouldn’t be forever. That said, we remain open to change and, in light of the fact that some people would prefer to have the book on their device permanently, we are now looking at providing a download system to address that point and to allay people’s concerns about the book ‘disappearing'.
As for ‘deteriorating’ – what we meant here was that a digital product has many advantages over a physical copy which is, inevitably, subject to wear and tear.