Astoria 2006 DVD Out Here We Are

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 11:38:14AM -0500, Carl Edlund Anderson typed out:
> On 22 Sep 2008, at 10:00 , Ian Abrahams wrote:
> >strange choice of words Jon, it's a 'reissue programme' ... that's  
> >what it is ... why 'supposed'?
> 
> Well, given the history Hawkwind universe -- awash with the best laid  
> schemes of mice and thingygummies that have aft ganged agley -- one  
> might be forgiven for tacking the word "supposed" or "intended" or  
> similar in front of _everything_ until the output is actually in  
> one's hot little hands! ;)

	This was basically the thrust of my scepticism, yes. Is it out 
yet? Then Dave, Doug, Beaky, Mick or Titch could still manage to scupper 
it somehow... But more seriously, the economics of this suggest to me 
that we'll be lucky to see _Love in Space_ any time soon. I can't 
imagine that Cherry Red are actually going to re-release everything from 
ASAM to DH all at once. The vast investment involved in getting that all 
ready before you've sold any copies would be beyond the reach of all but 
the hugest labels, and then you'd see very little return for a long 
while, because the shops would be swamped with slow-moving product. And 
we know the product is slow-moving, because the EMI remasters were still 
around--are still around, a few--in shops years after pressing, and 
those are the maximum-selling albums surely, or all but.

	So the revenue stream for this is not large. Look at BÖC, with 
fewer albums, still struggling to break even in the course of a year or 
two even with their most popular albums. HW probably have a bigger 
buying public still, but that doesn't guarantee much market placement 
against the latest round of cheaper Head of Dave Anderson reissues. So 
they'll release a few at a time, and they'll be the well-known ones 
first, ASAM, QS&C, 25YO (please!), _Levitation_, _Palace Springs_, 
_Xenon Codex_... The EBS stuff must be way down the line, and LiS almost 
last in that line. If the project is still running by then, despite 
revenues that I bet will disappoint the Cherry Red execs, I'll be very 
pleasantly surprised. That's all, yours,
					 Jon

-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk