The CD's artwork revealed!

Here it is hot off the press the CD cover artwork for The Best of the EMI Years: 1961-1972. More details to be announced in the next 7 days.

Oh dear, the stereo version is faulty...

As mentioned previously I now have the entire CD and it sounds wonderful! Proby fans do have a lot to be excited about!!

One slight disappointment is the stereo masters for "Give Me Time" - one of my all-time favourite Proby songs are faulty. So, it has been replaced with a mono version. It is not the end of the world but truthfully you do get a better feel for the orchestra that accompanies Proby in the stereo cut. Two previously unreleased songs of a very Dylan-esque Proby have also been specially mastered by Abbey Road for their world-wide debut.

Finished CD just arrived...

Wow. I now have the remastered CD of songs. Just playing through it now. Amazing to hear songs like "Just Like Him" and "And the Sun Will Shine" cleaned up and sounding sensational!

Abbey Road hunt for the CD's songs

The latest news is Abbey Road are currently hunting for the master tapes for all the songs that are to feature on the new CD. I am also waiting to see proofs of the booklet/packaging. I am now feeling a tad nervous as I do want everything to go well!

Check back in the next few weeks as I plan to provide song clips, full track listing, bio, artwork and links to buy the CD!

Just sent EMI my finished liner notes...

I just handed in my liner notes for the CD. What I have done is written a mini biography and anecdotes for each included song. I hope EMI and PJ likes it all. I must again pay tribute to the Probyans who have helped me along the way. They are some of the nicest people I have met whilst working on a project like this. Full of great ideas and constructive comments. "Thank you" - you all know who you are!

One final thing, this weekend I got a CD of photos from my visit on the 10 April to EMI's archives. I think from what I have now seen we have found the perfect cover and back sleeve. Above is the EMI owned shot I'd like to see used on the back of the CD. Hope you all like it!

Track listing ready to roll

Great news. EMI have today confirmed that the proposed track listing has been approved. This is yet another step closer to the CD release becoming a reality!

Picking photographs for the CD packaging

Well today I met with my contact at EMI Records (UK) and we went through their batch of original promotional photographs, negatives and slides. Although I had done this five years ago I was pleased this time around to find a lot of shots that I simply can not recall having seen before. My aim was to focus on finding images of Proby that were taken during his beard and moustache phase (like the one shown in my blog of the 26 March 2008). This look is said to be Proby's favourite from this era.

The good news is my visit was productive as we did find a nice batch of very tasteful b&w and colour shots. I sincerely think these will really please fans but most importantly do the great man justice. The next step will be for EMI's art department to scan hi-res images that can be reviewed before packaging is finalised.

Whilst there I also got to show EMI my draft booklet notes. They asked me to edit these as we only have a 12-page booklet to play around with. So, I am now working hard to reduce my text!