WOTEOT master tapes (was Re: Jamun & Spacerocktrading intro)

[Steve Youles]

This doesn't definitely answer Lucidsound's questions, but what Rob Griffin 
(owner of Griffin Records) had to say about it is on this page:

http://www.starfarer.net/griffin1.html

It's located about a third of the way down the page.

BTW I can't prove this, but I'm sure I saw somewhere some information 
concerning ATCO's release of WOTEOT which would explain why that album 
has never been part of the EMI reissues of 70's Hawkwind albums.  What I 
think I read is that Hawkwind's original UA contract was for 5 albums, and it 
thus expired with the release of Hall Of The Mountain Grill.  However, 
Hawkwind were separately contracted to ATCO in the USA, and that contract 
was still running when they came to do WOTEOT - and in fact was the only 
record contract that Hawkwind had at the time.  So, the album was actually 
recorded for ATCO, and presumably this means the master tapes were ATCO's  
property - so they may not be a "copy" at all.  And then, once the album was 
recorded, ATCO licenced it back to EMI for UK (maybe European) release on a 
short-term licencing deal.  Which has long since expired, and hence EMI has 
never had the rights to reissue the album.

Good theory, yeah, but I have no evidence to back it up, unfortunately.

Cheers

Steve
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On Wed, 9 Mar 2011 17:20:25 -0000, lucidsound <lucidsound at IC24.NET> 
wrote:

>The Griffin release is quite likely to be sourced from the ATCO master
>tapes...however that is not all clear cut.  For example, the ATCO tapes are
>not THE Warrior master tapes, they are a copy.  A copy of what?  The
>equalised tape used to master the vinyl? The original stereo master? A third
>generation copy?
>Secondly, it could be that the ATCO tape was digitised using a standard
>issue DAT, as was quite common for the time and which would impart a
>not-inconsiderable reduction in quality. And was the release properly
>mastered or just copied straight to CD? All of these factors could have a
>bearing on why the Griffin release does not have the transparency of sound
>that might be expected.