![]() ![]() About 13-14 years ago, I was asked to review and catalogue some GN'R video and film masters that were being moved from a third-party vault facility to our UMG vault – at this time I discovered the 35mm film prints of the Ritz Theatre in New York concert. And then there’s the aforementioned concert film. Considering this era of the band has never released a full concert front-to-start and now fans get two complete concert albums, plus a concert film in glorious HD, is simply an amazing treat for Gunners worldwide and something we’re all proud of producing for the guys. The 1991-1993 UYI Tour truly showcased how amazing this band is live and solidified them as the best hard rock band in the world. The band’s request to focus on live material for UYI as the bonus material was spot on. When we reissued Appetite For Destruction in 2018, the emphasis was on all the incredible studio rarities we found, less so on including live recordings, other than live tracks that were originally released as B-Sides. Typically, the purists usually express their opinions pretty fast and loud – often not in favour of changing something as epic as a song like November Rain, but we’re not seeing that this time the fans truly seem to be loving the song all over again and even more with the real orchestra. “The new and real orchestra in November Rain was something very hard to keep close to our chest for more than a year while we’ve been working on the release, but it’s paid off in dividends as the fans are loving it. What aspect of release are you most excited about when it comes to new unreleased material? The results of the new and real 50-piece orchestra combined with all of the original multi-tracks including the 1991 synth orchestra gave this song a truly impressive and fuller sound – not so new that it’s unfamiliar, but now as it always should have sounded.” ![]() Then, when Axl reached out to us reminding everyone that the orchestra in November Rain was a synth orchestra and he would like to record a real orchestra, that brought another new dimension to that song and UYI I. Upon getting Ted’s remaster, everyone was thrilled and blown away by how the remastering truly made these two albums so much more impactful as rock masterpieces. And as several fans appear to want to point out, these original 1991 stereo analogue master tapes did not get lost in the 2008 UMG vault fire, they are very much safe and sound including the original analogue multi-tracks master tapes – all of GN'R’s music catalogue masters are safe and sound in the UMG vault. To do this, we got the original 1991 flat stereo analogue master tapes transferred to high-resolution 96kHz 24-bit, and Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound remastered from these files. This is the first time in the 30-plus years these albums have been available that they’ve ever been remastered, that is one of the most important improvements we’ve done to both of these iconic albums: making them sound the best they can sound with today’s audio technology. “When we identify iconic albums such as UYI I & II and dive into building these extensive Super Deluxe boxsets, it’s due to the fanbase wanting more of their favourite music. Use Your Illusion 1&2 are already regarded as classics – what do you think this one brings to the table? Does it put the record into a new perspective? Here, Jeff Fura, senior director of A&R at Universal Music Enterprises, takes us inside one of the year’s blockbuster catalogue campaigns, covering remastering, vault raiding and how they plan on bringing their music to a new generation… Since Official Chart Company records began in 1994, Use Your Illusion I has sold 395,834 copies to date, while Use Your Illusion II is on 402,781. And this month, both are getting the deluxe treatment.Ī new box set edition offered by Universal Music includes 97 songs, 63 of which are previously unreleased, plus a 100-page book with unseen photos and more besides. When it comes to rock albums of the 1990s, they don’t come much more iconic than Guns N’ Roses’ double-album opus Use Your Illusion I & II.
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