Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Best Of...

Well, I THINK that the original plan was to remaster and reissue SC and TOPE this summer. (We'll need to provide a glossary soon!)

Then when it was decided to remaster/reissue - let's just call it "re" to save time... when they decided to "re" Metamatic, the next logical step would be The Garden - John's most successful album followng Metamatic.

Because John's (and Louis!) later work is, shall we say somewhat obscure - certainly anything prior to C&B, then just "re-ing" SC and TPOE might not be the best plan commercially. If people don't know about those albums, they might miss them or not buy them. A financial failure.

So it makes sense to issue a new, more up-to-date and comprehensive "best of" type album, which covers John's solo work and work with Louis – which backs up the need for further remasters.

There's nothing more frustrating than hearing some songs on a compilation CD then finding out the album they were originally on, is long since deleted.

So all the other albums that need "Re-ing" should follow soon after the best of. So there should be more of a chance of people buying them, having had their profiles raised via the best of.

I don't even know if what I'm typing makes sense any more, but I'vegot some kind of point somewhere along the way!

...or maybe we just need a new best of because John and Louis have done some smashing work since Modern Art was released!!

And the end of the day, I still see the purpose of a 'best of' compilation is to attract new fans - or reintroduce the artist to older fans who might have lost touch.

Somebody who might have jus bought Underpass or Metamatic, or somebody who thought John vanished like Lieutenant 030, in 1985, might not have known that he's been back and better than ever for a while.

In such cases there could be the question "what's he doing these days... am I going to like it?" so buying an album you didn't know could be a 'risk' (for sake a of a better word).

Whereas a best of gives you a taster of all the albums. and, repeating my point from earlier, when certain tracks off an album appeal, you want to hear the rest of the album. And so it goes from there.

Ultimately it's a marketing tool for the back catalogue, rather than something for the fans. But I guess that's a pretty obvious statement!

Right. I think it's time for my lunch!!

I think that's what Garry said, and I agree.
But again to re-iterate a point - how wide REALLY is the market beyond fans? And how to reach them and do we want to go there long term??

Enjoy your lunch Alex, I'm off for mine too.
Would be cool if we could just step outside the office and meet in real life to chat over coffee and a cake

Coffee and cake sounds very good to me!!

I think the market could be quite wide, especially the current generation of students who buy the music of 'cool older' artists such as Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan.

John obviously fits into the same category but hasn't had the same profile in recent years, and I think that anybody who likes that sort of music - and bands like Goldfrapp and Ladytron etc, would just love John's music. My guess is they just don't know about it.

With bands like the Klaxons namechecking him though, it could all be about to change. (That's what happened to Gary Numan back in '97 anyway!)

I'm sure, as I said earlier, that there are fans of Metamatic (from the time) that didn't keep up with what John was doing. This is probably a minority, by simply having a good best of on the shelves everywhere, his profile is raised, and repeating myself once again (with a mouthful of M&S crisps) buying the best of hopefully leads to buying albums...

...and when there is a new best of, then a good ad campaign in the music press would not go amiss.... Q, Mojo, NME, Record Collector etc....

At this moment im eating mini cheddars.

ooooooh, can I have some?

With regards to 'Best Of's', i agree its a very good marketing platform. The hope is fans will go out and buy the back catalogue, but for me it does the reverse. There are loads of groups i 'quite like' so im happy enough to buy their 'Best Of' as it saves buying all their albums just for the tracks i do like.

I am torn on the idea of "Best Of's". On the one hand, I am a purist and would rather hear the whole album, each song in its proper context. On the other hand, there are many groups that listening to the whole album doesn't work for me.