Some time in the before times – I imagine it was probably 2019 – Jethro Tull's Stormwatch album was reissued as a deluxe 4-disc book set, with the album and assorted recordings, both previously released and unreleased, spread across the first two discs, and a live show spread across the last two discs, along with two DVDs of the album and associated recordings mixed to 5.1 stereo. (I'm not an audiophile, and I struggle to hear conversations in loud rooms, so the DVDs weren't that interesting to me.)
I'd known, peripherally, that these book sets were being issued for quite a few years by that point, but being only a moderate Jethro Tull fan throughout most of the 2010s, I didn't pick any of them up. For some reason, I have an affinity for Stormwatch, and it was ridiculously low-priced (something like $50, I think, if even that), so I figured I would buy it.
Boy, was I ever glad to have done so – what a bargain, and the remixing actually did sound pretty good, even to my rotten ears. But it was the packaging that really got me – it's just a simple, 100-page book, with photos, essays, track-by-track notations from Ian Anderson, and a brief chronology.
Being obsessed with music box sets since at least the mid-90s, when I first got Pink Floyd's (exorbitantly-priced) Shine On, I fell in love with this set, and immediately tried to get my hands on what I could; only Heavy Horses, another album of theirs I really like, was readily available, so I bought that one and swore that I would keep a look out for future releases as well as any sanely-priced used copies. (But there's no such thing – I wasn't gonna spend $300 on a used copy of Minstrel In the Gallery, no matter how much I want it, thank you very much.)
Since then, I've filled in that collection bit by bit (wisely, the record company reissued a handful of the book sets last year), and now I'm only missing four albums from the original run – Stand Up, A Passion Play, War Child, and Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll (Too Young to Die). It's turned me from a casual fan to a slightly more serious fan, with the essays and notations especially interesting to me.
At some point late in 2021, I found myself unemployed, my latest contract having expired with no option of renewal or full-time work. I'd spent the better part of a year neck-deep in Powerpoint presentations, which I just did not enjoy at all, and I felt that my InDesign skills were starting to slip. I had just gotten Tull's newest reissue, A, and looked at some of the other bands that I like and their reissue programs; one band that I wish would get their finger out is Queen, which was the first band I connected with back in 1993 (not to mention the three editions of the book I wrote about them). I'd been doing the occasional layout design over the years, namely a comprehensive 12-disc singles collection (that was promised to Queen fans back in 2008 or thereabouts, only to be released as four separate, bare-bones box sets), but the Jethro Tull reissue campaign inspired me to come up with my own reissues, and what I would like to see from Queen. A fantasy reissue campaign, if you will.
I didn't know how far I was going to go with it: they have 15 albums and just as many solo albums between three of them, and I didn't think I had the time, energy, or attention span to do 32 box sets (I forgot to count the two albums Brian May and Roger Taylor did with Paul Rodgers)... but it turns out I did: I spent the next couple years, when I was unemployed or had some down time, working on this little project I'd created for myself, and am nearly 100% finished, excepting the occasional tweak here and there. (My next goal was to do live albums and themed live compilations, but that's run out of gas for the time being. Apparently designing 32 box sets is pretty exhausting.)
(I should mention that Queen did release a deluxe edition of The Miracle in 2022: content-wise, it's phenomenal; design- and packaging-wise, it was a lot of nothing for a huge price. I still bought it, and also nabbed the News of the World deluxe edition at a decent price. But I still think my designs are better!)
There will probably be many more uploads over the next few months, but I'm starting with their best album, Queen II. Obviously this isn't the full design; just a sampling. And there are other designs I'm more proud of, but this is a good place to start, I feel.
(I should mention that I don't know for certain if the contents on the associated recordings disc exist or not – that's why it's a fantasy.)
And, hey Queen Productions – if you're reading this, get in touch.