Progressive Rock
Phil Collins has posted the full conversation he had with Steven Wilson in London on 30 September on his YouTube channel, recorded at the launch of the 45th-anniversary reissue of “Face Value”, his solo debut. Over forty-four minutes, Wilson takes him through how the album was made and where it came from, and part of the talk dwells on the often-overlooked jazz fusion of side one’s second half.
The event was held at the Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square. According to Prog magazine, which was there, the audience included Nick Beggs and Craig Blundell from Wilson’s live band, bassist Guy Pratt and comedian Al Murray.
The reissue came out on 18 September in two formats. The Blu-ray Audio carries the original stereo mix alongside Wilson’s new stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos mixes. The four-LP box, “Face Value (Full Value)”, has the album cut at half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road. The other three LPs hold demos, live tracks, remixes and outtakes, among them an outtake of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and the full version of “Over the Rainbow”, the two songs the original album ends on. The twenty-page booklet is by journalist Tom Doyle and includes a new interview with Collins.
In a separate video posted on 1 October, Collins recalls playing the record to his friend Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records: “Now I felt like I had a record.”
Text by Guillem Cardós