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The Stormbringer multi-tracks have been located. The tapes
are in excellent condition and contain amongst other things three
different vocals for 'Soldier Of Fortune', a powerful instrumental
version of 'Highball Shooter' and Coverdale's original backwards
bit for the start of the title track. Glenn Hughes has asked
to be involved in the remastered Stormbringer, and will hopefully
be able to drop into the studios at the end of the new tour to
work on one or two remix ideas. We would expect this to be out
in Spring 2007.
 
Progress
Report / October 24th 2006
"Photo: Musician Chris Meloche (a member of the Outward Sound Ensemble)
is in the UK for a few shows and staying at Simon's house. He is here
seen with one of the Stormbringer tape masters prior to them being
shipped down to Abbey Road. The label is actually only a couple of
years old and was put on when we first played the tape. Prior to that
the reels had no identification whatsoever, which is why they had been
so hard to locate..."
pic: Simon Robinson
"This is one of the original Stormbringer tape boxes."
pic: DPAS Archive
Progress
Report / November 3rd 2006
A productive day at Abbey Road on October 30th saw Glenn Hughes (in between the Dudley and Northampton shows) get stuck into the Stormbringer tapes as if he'd left the studio just the week before rather than thirty-plus years ago.
 The material sounded astonishing; the studio recording quality is a lot lot better than Burn, much more defined, and the one thing everyone who  came into the studio said during the day is that it was hard to believe the material was from 1974 - it sounded so contemporary. Glenn really wanted to do Holy Man and started out on that, but he soon got into the vibe and in all five songs were done during a long session. The results sound really excellent and there will be a few surprises for fans of this particular album to pick up on, as Glenn brought up some new vocal lines and other unheard bits and bobs, as well as emphasising different aspects of the material.
I left the engineer finishing the remaster of the original album, before copying the quad masters. We'll then have a look at timings and work out a final track list for the new edition.
The photograph here shows EMI's catalogue manager Nigel Reeve, Glenn, and Abbey Road's remastering engineer Peter Mew.
Also shown is the original tape box for the quarter inch album production master for the album.
words & pics: Simon Robinson. (Click the pics to enlarge)
Questions & Answers / November 11th 2006
• "It's great to read that the mixing sessions are going so well, and I can't wait for this release: I always much preferred this album to Burn, I feel the songs from Burn worked much better as live tracks. My request (as a details nut): could the new packaging have shots of tape box details a la Machine Head?" Timothy Campbell
I did photograph the boxes (see the shots at the top of this page) Tim, but there is nothing on them at all - indeed we didn't even know they had the album on as they weren't catalogued. The group had already worked out what they were going to record, so no alternate tracks or left-overs as on pre-Mk 2 days. Simon
• "Just seen the report from the Stormbringer session. I'm sure a lot of people are asking 'why Glenn Hughes?' The Mk3 albums sounded tinny and light, and everyone wants to hear a harder edge to things. Interesting to hear your thoughts on what Glenn has added to make a better sounding album. Just hope he hasn't brought himself up and knocked David Coverdale back!" Neil Cutler
The only thing I can really say is that I can't stop humming the tracks now. As the album was very much centred on some of Glenn's ideas, and is an album he felt very close to, to me he seemed a very appropriate person to be involved. He's given the tracks a bite which the old album mix lacked and while it may be early days, these could well turn out to be the best bonus mixes since RG worked on Machine Head. Glenn was also very respectful of DC's work (they are good mates) and the new balance sounded excellent to us. Simon
• "Is it yet known if the remastered Stormbringer will have a vinyl release?" Andy Butler.
We don't know. Burn attracted a lot of interest from vinyl collectors, but the situation may be different two years on. I'll see what EMI feel about this. Simon
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