Wild Swans "Coldest Winter" Deluxe edition

We've recently posted pictures of the top-of-the-range Super-Deluxe Edition (SDL) of our Wild Swans The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years reissues. and it's a thing of staggering beauty and presence. However the Deluxe (DL) is also gorgeous and will cost around half as much. In addition to the Standard (SD) version, which is "just" (!) a double LP in a heavy-duty gatefold sleeve with inner sleeves, the Deluxe includes the following extras, which are pictured above:

1) A shrinkwrapped CD containing all 22 tracks

2) A poster

3) A postcard

4) A badge

5) A special insert with the lyrics to the title track

6) A specially-printed full-colour outer box.

The DL edition isn't quite as limited as the SDL - though it is limited and only available from us and a few selected partners - and we hope to have stock of the LPs over the next few days (there've been delays at the pressing plant, there's nothing we can do about this, technical hitches, we're told) and we'll then be ready to start shipping them. The SDL will take a little longer as we've had to commission special protective packaging for it, to make sure it arrives safely. 

The Standard 2xLP and CD editions will be available in shops in a couple of weeks' time.

Wild Swans "Coldest Winter" Super-Deluxe - latest

Yes, we know, it's all taken far longer than expected... The thing that's holding it all up is the actual double LP, there've been delays, totally beyond our control, at the pressing plant but we've been promised we'll have them in a week or so, and we'd hope to start shipping the "Super-Deluxe" edition around the official release date of 29/9/13. 

We now have almost all the other components and, to prove its existence, we thought you might like to see a few photos. First this is the box with most of what goes inside it, but minus the main letterpress insert and the double LP:

The letterpress insert has been printed but needs to be left to dry for a few days before it's sent to us, to make sure there's no smudging. The artist responsible has sent us this picture:

As we hope you can see, this is the work of a craftsman, not some mass-produced plastic tat. You don't really get a sense of how special the boxes are from these photos, but wait until you've got them in your hands.

Now this is the bit where you need to pay attention: those of you who put your names down for these will be getting an e-mail probably over the next week or so, with details on how to pay for the Super-Deluxe edition. You'll then have a limited time to place your order. We'll send the payment details out in the order in which people signed up to the list but it'll be first-come, first-served and we're unlikely to have enough for everyone. We're just waiting for confirmation of the cost of insured courier delivery and for special protective packaging to be custom-made as we want to make sure these reach you in perfect condition, wherever in the world you are. We're keeping prices down as far as we can and we're not charging for all the hours we've put into this, but they've been very expensive to produce as so much of it is custom-made and we've got to send them by insured courier delivery to be safe.

As soon as we get the LPs we'll also have the Deluxe and Standard editions available. We'll have news on those soon. 

Finally, as some of you will know, Paul Simpson will be making an in-store appearance at Rough Trade East on Friday 4th October, a few days after official release, any of you in the London area on that day are more than welcome to come along and say "hello", it'd be lovely to see you.

We're almost there and it really is going to be worth it, when the boxes arrived the other day we were absolutely stunned at how gorgeous they are.