It’s still not an ’80s record but we’re claiming it anyway: the seminal Beatles album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of its twentieth anniversary in 1987 by returning to number 1 in the album chart, setting yet another chart record in the process as it last held the top spot back in February 1968! Further down Pearls – The Very Best of Elkie Brooks enters at 14 and Kraftwerk’s live box set 3-D: The Catalogue débuts at 24, while a limited gold vinyl pressing sees David Bowie’s Hunky Dory re-enter at 25.
More anniversary celebrations this week as U2 release their thirtieth anniversary deluxe editions of The Joshua Tree including a double CD which adds a recording of the band live at Madison Square Garden in 1987, and a 4CD or 7LP super deluxe box set which includes B-sides, outtakes and a disc of new remixes. Two more ’60s survivors return with new albums this week: ex-Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters releases Is This The Life We Really Want?, his first studio album in 25 years (unless you count the recording his 2005 opera Ça Ira), and Hank Marvin returns with new album Without a Word. Erasure’s recent digital single Love You To The Sky gets a CD release with a new B-side track and six remixes; while Status Quo release a box set of twelve 7″ singles The Vinyl Singles Collection 1980-1984. In compilations, The ’80s US Playlist includes 60 American hits, Essential 80s is a rather opportunistic LP of twelve random ’80s hits and last year’s Top of the Pops 1980-84 triple CD is distilled to another twelve track vinyl LP.
