Anyone can have an opinion...

It's always a worrying time when you are involved in a project waiting for the reviews to come in. From what I've seen so far they have been pretty good for the Who Are You SDE. I've also received a few emails from friends and Who fans, which have been wonderful.

Obviously it's never possible to please everybody and there will always be someone who thinks they could have done a better job or questions why a certain track was included or not. In the end there is only finite space and a decision as to what goes on has to be made. Overall though, the release seems to have gone down well. Some of the reviews have blown me away but if I was to be picky I don't think they have given enough credit to the team behind the project. The main name checks in the reviews seem to be Steven Wilson and myself, even to the extent that Steven was credited with the live tracks on the box, when the credit for those tracks should have been for Richard Whittaker and Bobby Pridden. It really was a team effort and the following people were all involved: Jon Astley, Richard Whittaker, Richard Evans (fantastic design work), Steven Wilson, Bob Pridden, Layla Astley, Steve Hammonds, Johnny Chandler and the supporting team at Universal. The promotion of the release was particularly good and the record company really put a lot of effort into it - kudos to Julian Stockton and Lee Jenson for that.

Louder

It was particularly pleasing that some reviews really praised the set and held it up as a benchmark against which other box sets should aspire to. I thought the critical response to Who's Next was good but some of the comments seemed to eclipse even that. As for my own contribution I really liked the following extract from the review on louder.com:

A special ATMOS playback took place on Thursday 30th October, the night before the release. We decided to do this because when the original album was released in 1978, playbacks were held across the States. It seemed like a good idea to replicate that but with the ATMOS version, as many people don't have the equipment to listen to the mix in that format. The venue for the playback was the DOLBY offices (where else?) in Soho Square, London. The windows to the building were adorned with Who Are You displays and inside was a replica 'Not To Be Taken Away' chair.

Dolby, London 30th October 2025

The playback was sensational. Steven Wilson has done a fantastic job in bring out sounds that were lost in previous mixes. I'm not a technically minded person when it comes to how sound is presented but it sounded like a new album, really fresh. I particularly liked the mix on 905. Afterwards there was a Q&A panel, hosted by radio DJ, Matt Everett. I was on the panel alongside Jon Astley, Richard Evans and Steven Wilson and it was a really enjoyable forty five minutes (for me anyway!). I got to meet up with a few old friends, always a lovely thing to do, and met some new ones.

The promotion continued after the launch, with windows at Record Shops in London (Sister Ray) and Whitstable (Gatefield Sounds) adorned with posters and a replica chair, to entice people inside.

Gatefield Sounds, Whitstable, Kent

All in all it's been a really good few days and I hope you are enjoying the release. Whilst writing this I got an email from my friend Alberto Genaro, who supplied the tape for the 1976 embryonic 'Who Are You' live take. It finished with "The box is magnificent". It really means a lot when the feedback from the fans is like that because in the end that is what it is all about.