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 Wes from New England posted on Thursday, 01 September, 2005 - 06:23 pm
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| Wow, you really can find anything on the web! First heard Sky's music as a soundtrack to the PBS series "Nature". This must have been about 1981, I was probably 13 or 14 years old. I made sure to watch the end credits to find out who did the music. Promptly went to Musicland in Auburn, Maine and bought Sky (after looking around this site, I now realize most know it as "Sky 2")on double vinyl. After that, found Sky 3 then Forthcoming. Lost touch for many years (!!!) Then just a couple days ago pulled out the vinyl. For laughs I did a search - now here I am learning a lot and ordering Sky (#1)on CD from Amazon!!!!!!!! I always thought the double album Sky was the first one. My friends never understood why I liked this band.....THE FOOLS!!! I want to get all the studio releases on CD (G.B.R., Mozart, and Cadmium) Doesn't sound like this is going to be easy though. |
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| Wes from New England posted on Thursday, 01 September, 2005 - 06:43 pm
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Just one small item: Sky3 and Sky4 could not have been both released in March of 1981 could they have been? Check release dates on respective album pages.
-Thanks again for putting this site together for us. |
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| Tricky
posted on Thursday, 01 September, 2005 - 08:17 pm
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The Mozart CD is usually easy to get hold of. Both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk have it listed at the moment. GBR, Five Live (particularly the double CD) and Cadmium are hard to get. I only managed to get Five Live recently by googling and rooting through hundreds of results (and buying a german/english translation dictionary). Cadmium comes up now and again on ebay, GBR less so.
Don't be put off looking though. The "ebay alerts" section is usually up to date.
Most of my friends don't understand why I like Sky either - but, there again, they don't understand a lot of things 
You'd be surprised at the cultural diversity (oh, no! - not BIG WORDS again) of Sky fans. Before I finally managed to get the CDs, I P2P'd the tracks with eDonkey. Others were connected from worldwide locations I didn't even know existed. (If anyone wants to know more about setting up P2P, let me know)
Happy hunting !! |
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| Bill D posted on Thursday, 01 September, 2005 - 09:43 pm
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Not everyone from New England likes Sky. A friend of mine from near Boston had Sky2 (US: Sky) on LP but wasn't impressed.
Pity, because he and I share a lot of musical tastes (incl. JW) and he plays (and used to teach) classical guitar. He also wasn't too impressed by Changes, The Height Below and Travelling either.
Still, you can't win them all and he DID introduce me to (the playing of) Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Antigoni Goni and The Austin Lounge Lizards. |
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| Wes from New England posted on Friday, 02 September, 2005 - 01:33 am
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Hey Tricky, thanks for that information . I'll see what I can find. I have never used e-bay...a friend got a bit screwed on an item he bought so I'm a tad wary.
Bill D, you just listed a bunch of names I know nothing about, maybe I'll investigate. To give you an idea of what I have been listening to lately, the last 3 music purchases have been:
Rush "Hemispheres" (the only Rush I have on CD)
Go-kart Mozart "Tearing up the Album Chart"
Fripp and Eno "No Pussyfooting"
It's weird, same thing with me, friends that I have such close tastes and passions on certain music have said some rather nasty things about Sky. I DO hold it against them though!
Aloha! |
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| Bill D posted on Friday, 02 September, 2005 - 09:14 am
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Aloha? From New England in September?
Sorry to go all classical/non-Sky but...
Manuel Barrueco is highly regarded. Not a famous as JW (and prone to more string squeak) but an excellent player.
Antigoni Goni was recommended on the basis of her version of Domeniconi's "Koyunbaba" (on Naxos). Well worth searching out. I already had JW's version of the piece but it hadn't stirred me. Once I got Goni's, I wanted more so I bought her "Music of Barrios: Vol. 1" (also Naxos). [I LOVE Barrios! BTW, her name is pronounced An-tee-HO-nee Goa-nee. Heard her say it on the radio!]
Sharon Isbin was one of Goni's teachers. Very smooth and elegant. So is her music! :-)
The Austin Lounge Lizards are a comedy bluegrass/country band from Texas. Yeah, I know. Sounds awful but they are great. Very funny (but with excellent musicianship). |
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| Wes from New England posted on Friday, 02 September, 2005 - 01:10 pm
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Sunny and 85 here in Boston today, that won't last long I'm sure.
Thanks again for the recommendations, wrote the names down and will keep an eye out.
Salut! |
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| Tricky posted on Saturday, 03 September, 2005 - 09:16 am
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Ebay's not that bad these days - most of the sellers of "genuine backup copies - 200 available - only £40 each" are being told to take their business elsewhere.
You do, however, have to make sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot. Have a look at the Essential John Williams Collection on this site for a cracking example. This is unlikely to happen with 5 Live, GBR or Cadmium, as there are no new releases. Getting hold of these seems to be more a case of "Dead Man's Boots".
Auctions of these have gone a bit quiet on ebay at the moment - I guess everyone's holding back for Christmas. |
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| Natalie in England posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 12:21 am
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Oh my goodness! I never thought I would have so many problems finding CD-albums from one of the most memorable groups in my life; How on earth do I stand a chance of ever affording their elusive albums on CD with so much competition? - not to mention I'm scared of website-purchasing pitfalls!
It must have been the early 80s when Sky really influenced my own musical talents; a result of even earlier inspiration from John Williams. Their first five albums were addictive; with the result that I played them (cassettes) until the tapes deteriorated so badly they broke!
I even saw them in concert in Brighton
So can anyone explain why the music of 100s of artists from years gone by survives to be reproduced on up-to-date technology and sold for many years afterwards, while the diverse talents of Sky have virtually faded from the universe?
If only I could turn back time! |
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| Bill D
posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 12:56 am
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Don't despair. All of the various Sky albums appear on e-Bay or on re-releases every so often.
I'm lucky. I was 'into' John Williams in the late 70s so I was primed for the advent of Sky and bought the stuff as it appeared. When I could find it: some of the singles, with the non-album tracks, didn't make it to the shops around here.
However, I know that some people are willing to make CD-R copies of the unavailable abums. I suppose that it is illegal but those same fans will probably buy any legit re-releases of 'Cadmium' or 'Great Balloon Race' if they ever re-appear. |
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| Tricky
posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 12:27 pm
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You can usually get CDs of Sky 1, 2, 3, 4 Forthcoming and Mozart for £5 - £15 from Amazon - although you may have to wait until some become available. Like ebay, Amazon is also a middle-man for local and international businesses, and deals with "issues" professionally.
5 Live, GBR and Cadmium sell at up to £55 on ebay. It's wise to check the seller’s negative feedback before bidding. As with Amazon, you are usually OK.
Online shopping's quite safe these days. My bank actually contacted me once, over a (fraudulent) transaction that didn't fit my "buying pattern". 2 minutes of form-filling resolved that. They even posted me the form – with a return envelope. Not bad in 35+ years. (I didn't know I was being watched so closely!)
Re: “scared of website-purchasing pitfalls” I recently purchased, over ebay, a DVD of John Williams's Seville concert (+ "Film Profile") - and prepared myself to be stung. The seller's description (and point of origin) made it obvious this was some sort of bootleg (the same that Richard Sliwa mentions - it's of Chinese origin). It's a video that was only officially released on VHS and Laserdisc. I took a chance. It's remarkable. The presentation, packaging, playback and even disc printing are of commercial quality. It could not be economically produced outside of a factory - i.e. mass produced. The only negative feedback for this seller mentioned bootlegs, NOT a failure to deliver or fraud. Just goes to show - what exactly? - that not even the bootleggers want a bad name?  .
(I wouldn’t recommend doing the same unless you are prepared for a rip-off!!) |
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| Bill D posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 03:27 pm
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I would call it a 'pirate'. The terminology varies but bootleg afficionados use three terms:
Counterfeits are illegal copies of the the original release that pass themselves off as the real things.
Pirates are also copies but don't pretend to be authentic.
Bootlegs (in the CD world at least) are usually unreleased stuff.
Bootleggers (in the above sense) are a pious lot. Well, some of them. They argue that they are not like the pirates, who deprive the artists of royalties. They point out that people who buy bootlegs (unreleased material) probably already have everything that was officially released so they are not denying the artists any revenue. Some bootleggers even put the "royalties" into bank accounts for the artist to collect, if they want.
Most of the stuff on the Beatles' 'Anthology', for example, was widely available on bootlegs. |
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| Chris posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 06:07 pm
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I have nothing but admiration for and gratitude to eBay. A few years ago I sold an Olivia Newton-John picture disc LP for £155. I would have let it go for £25, but two serious collectors were bidding against one another. Great if you're selling, but not so great if you are buying! I've picked up some things on eBay that I never believed I'd be lucky enough to own; sky concert programmes from 1979, for example, and a Shadows album on 8-track cartridge (OK, I can't actually listen to it, but that could be remedied, courtesy of eBay, I suppose!).
As to friends who like/dislike sky. Many years ago I played drums in a heavy rock band (or two). I recommended the first two albums to our bass player, Russ, who was into deathmetal and, strangely enough, Rush. He bought them (on LP), but didn't like them. On the other hand, another ex-band mate, who now lives in London, (and whose song 'Another Cold Beer' is currently being used by Rimmel for their Kate Moss/mascara advert) loves them and not only saw them on their sky2 tour, but also recorded the Bremen gig off the TV when it was first on. So, opinion seems to be equally divided, in my experience. |
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| Tricky posted on Sunday, 23 October, 2005 - 09:35 pm
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Pirate it is Bill, as due to its origins there's no chance of anyone getting royalties. The quality's such that it looks like it's been ripped from laserdisc. Dual Chinese/English DVD menus. Even the packaging looks automated. (I've spent too much time in factories!)
Ebay: I got a Westminster Abbey laserdisc off ebay. It was so badly advertised, it didn't show up in a search. I actually trawled all the laserdiscs, daily, for about a week. There were only 2 bidders - including me. In my usual fashion I waited until the last few seconds before bidding and got it for £6.78 (if I remember correctly). I was sweating when I hit the "confirm" button. |
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