Ready To Get Smashed? - The Latest Newsletter
Hi and welcome to this very special newsletter! Today’s big announcement is the release of SMASH!
You can get the record and merch on the Hi-Lo Records website here,
https://www.hilorecords.co.uk/collections/smash
or follow the link to Bandcamp here.
https://squire.bandcamp.com/album/smash
Yes, the album that was planned as the Squire release of 1985, and later postponed - is out now! That’s a long time coming - and well worth the wait!
You can see from the pictures here, there’s the vinyl versions, Translucent Blue and Classic Black, in limited editions of 200 and 100, so it’s a must have for collectors.
It comes in a gatefold sleeve - a first for us. We’ve done standard sleeves and printed inners, always edging towards the deluxe look of the gatefold. It really is the story of the record. The blue outside, is a mirror of the original red Hits From 3000 Years Ago, originally released as Anthony Meynell and with a big sticker to announce Squire -The Smash Album! We’ve done it again here! Anthony Meynell presents…Smash, and the sticker announcing The Squire Smash Album!
The duotone print method is also copied over from ‘Hits 3000’ and was originally inspired by the Rolling Stones Aftermath sleeve style.
The mixer on the left, just in the photo, is the same mixer I used to finalise the record, and on the floor you can see the neck of the 12-string blue Rickenbacker and there’s my son holding a guitar centre stage!
The strange colour comes from the fact it was the last shot taken at the end of the roll of film in 1985, and some light got in when the film was taken for printing. It wasn't planned like that- it came out like that!
But the accident of over exposure saturated the colours in such a way it looks like the infra red film photography of Karl Ferris, who designed sleeves for Donovan, Jimi Hendrix and The Hollies amongst others.
It was an instant choice, a serendipitous find. It describes what you hear really well. It describes how the record was made, a lot of working with 4-tracks is like painting, your choices are made and they are set when they hit the canvas, and what you see or hear back is distorted, it is sometimes not what you expected, but it inspires you to find something to complement it, as you work your way your way through the process.
Then there’s the CD. It copies the design of the gatefold vinyl in a digifile. I really like this format. I’ve beed sticking to jewel case CDs because they always seemed authentic, but this is much more tactile, and less fiddly!
The cassette deserves special mention. Get Ready To Go was made in cassette format and my brother Kevin always said he preferred that version the best because the tape distortion reminded him of listening to music in the 1970s/80s in the car. There’s a subtle grittiness to it that is unmistakably analogue. It’s much better than the sound of MP3, which is a CD reduced to around 22% of the file size to create a facsimile of the record. On a cassette, nothing has been thrown away to shrink the audio. It is the record!
The T-shirt is also a classic Squire style, navy blue with white print. I have worn navy blue on stage for seemingly decades! And with the blue Rickenbacker on the LP, it made sense to stick with that colour definition.
In the next few weeks, I’ll be digging out some more interesting facts about the recording.
We have four gigs lined up at which I hope I’ll be able to debut some songs live, and every two weeks or so,
I’ll be releasing a special ‘single version’ of some of the tracks on Spotify. Special edits to make them even shorter or more immediate. Although as you can see, some songs are already 1 minute 8 seconds!
If you follow the Anthony Meynell Spotify page - all the new Smash singles (different versions!), will come to you automatically:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6b5xxEgYwumflVVhScSRg7
You can get the record and merch on the Hi-Lo Records website here,
https://www.hilorecords.co.uk/collections/smash
or follow the link to Bandcamp here.
https://squire.bandcamp.com/album/smash
If you want anything signed, a quick email saying where you bought it and order reference if possible to anthony@hilorecords.com will come directly to me!
Thanks to everyone who has already ordered it upfront.
All the best from Squire