Iron Maiden’s 1988 Tour Film Gets Lovingly Expanded for Deluxe Reissue

Twenty-five years after embarking on their 7th Tour of a 7th Tour, Iron Maiden are commemorating their 1988 tour with an expansive, multi-format 25th anniversary package at the end of March.

Maiden England ’88, filmed over two nights at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, sees the band touring in support of the polished, prog-influenced Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Featuring nearly all of the album – including U.K. Top 10 hits “Can I Play with Madness,” “The Evil That Men Do,” “The Clairvoyant” and “Infinite Dreams” – as well as other favorites like “Number of the Beast” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” Maiden England was a high watermark for the band, and they’re celebrating it in style.

The two-disc DVD of Maiden England will feature a remastered and expanded presentation of the original concert on the first disc. Iron Maiden bassist and concert film director Steve Harris oversaw a complete remaster of the original picture, as well as the addition of the complete encore to the show, with “Running Free,” “Run to the Hills” and “Sanctuary” appended to the 15-track set list. The audio will be presented not only in the original stereo track, but a newly-commissioned 5.1 surround mix by producer Kevin Shirley, who’s co-produced every Iron Maiden album since 2000’s Brave New World.

Additionally, a bonus disc is packed with old and new features, including remastered promo videos, the third installment in the band’s History of Iron Maiden documentary series and Twelve Wasted Years, a 1987 documentary on the band making its DVD debut. The show’s audio will also be released as a double-disc CD and double picture vinyl set as well; the first home audio release for this material since a limited reissue of the Maiden England video in 1994.

Maiden England is unleashed on March 25. As far as domestic pre-order links, only an import of the picture vinyl shows up on Amazon. But Amazon U.K. has pre-order links for all formats, which you can find after the jump!

Vinyl Watch: Kenny Rogers’ “Gambler” Gets 180-Gram Reissue, Duran Duran Single Announced for Record Store Day

Vinyl heads rejoice! Capitol recently announced a pair of upcoming vinyl titles – one especially for Record Store Day – from two wildly different artists.

With a thumping drum line that sounded like Phil Spector gone New Wave and one of lead vocalist Simon Le Bon’s wittiest lyrics, it’s no surprise “Is There Something I Should Know?” became Duran Duran’s very first chart-topping single in their native England. Released as a non-LP cut in 1983 toward the height of Duran-mania, “Is There Something I Should Know” is a jewel of the Duran catalogue, three decades on. (It was no slouch in the States, either, peaking within Billboard‘s Top 5 30 summers ago. For American audiences, the song was an admittedly incongruous bonus track on the Stateside release of the band’s 1981 self-titled debut.)

For the 30th anniversary of the single, EMI will issue for Record Store Day (April 20 of this year) a faithful 7″ vinyl recreation of the original single (EMI 5371/Capitol 8551 (U.S.)) featuring non-LP instrumental B-side “Faith in This Colour.” (Two mixes of “Faith” exist; the original 7″ used an “alternate slow mix” that does not, unlike the version heard on the 12″ single, use sampled dialogue and effects from Star Wars. The band’s Twitter account confirms the 12″ “fast” version will be the B-side.) As a special twist for collectors, this single will be pressed on blue vinyl.

After the jump, Kenny Rogers dispenses some of the most important wisdom of his career on 180-gram vinyl.

Come Blow Your Horn: Herb Alpert’s “Fandango” Returns to CD

Between 2005 and 2007, the beat of The Brass was alive and well at Shout! Factory. The label’s Herb Alpert Signature Collection restored eleven classic titles from the celebrated trumpeter to the catalogue on CD in deluxe remastered editions, plus a rarities compilation and a remix album. Three further releases were also made available, albeit in digital download form only. Shout! is kicking off 2013, however, with the surprising reissue (due February 19) of Alpert’s 1982 Fandango, one of the most vibrantly colorful albums in the pop-instrumental titan’s canon.

Longtime Alpert fans know that many of his original A&M CDs, including Fandango, are among the most difficult CDs to find secondhand, and frequently sell for high prices online. This is all the more unfortunate, because even after the Tijuana Brass’ sixties heyday, Alpert continued to make fresh and exciting music with a range of collaborators. Fandango arrived between 1981’s Magic Man and 1983’s Blow Your Own Horn, two more of those hard-to-find titles that deserve the reissue treatment. For Fandango, Alpert was joined by a crack band including Abe Laboriel on guitar and bass, Carlo Vega on drums, Paulinho da Costa on percussion, Bill Cuomo on keyboards, and Miguel Peña on guitar. Old friends Michel Colombier and Julius Wechter joined in on keyboards and what else, marimba, respectively. Six of the album’s eleven tracks came from the pen of Juan Carlos Calderón, a Spanish-born songwriter who also wrote for artists including Luis Miguel and Julio Iglesias.   The trumpeter produced the album in tandem with Jose Quintana, the then-chief of A&M’s Latin label, and recorded it primarily in Mexico City.

Do the Fandango after the jump!