crisp

Embryonic.

Now up again to £67.24, sadly. I shan't post any more changes unless it gets very low. One to keep an eye on I think.

Now £51.70 at Amazon UK. How low will it go I wonder.

This set is a fairly reasonable 39.99 euros at Amazon France.

Good point!

Nice, but I would have preferred it in a long box like the previous Original Jacket big boxes, Horowitz, Heifetz and Gould* *Sounds like a firm of lawyers...

Not as cheap as it has been but a good price by Hip-o standards: Nat King Cole Riffin' : The Decca, Jatp, Keynote And Mercury Recordings 29,98 euros at Amazon France.

I do and I shall! I'm glad it's being sold at B&N -- it's usually possible to get 10% or even 20% off coupons for that site and if you order through an affiliate, you can a little bit more off besides.

Good-ish (for a Hip-o) prices at Amazon UK (£59.87) and Amazon France (55,79 euros) right now.

I've just learnt that this will be sold only through Bennett's own website and Barnes and Noble, which has some more precise information and an album listing here. Sorry if this is old news to some people.

Yeah, but they bring them into the house already dead, or else in order to finish killing them. The point is that if they find mice in the house, they will kill them; and mice, smelling cat, will avoid entering. But maybe you were being tongue-in-cheek? I'm sure you know better, Tom. I put "apparently" as it's just something I've heard. Not all cats are especially interested in catching mice and those that are are not necessarily that good at finishing them off them once they do. In any case, wouldn't well-baited snap-traps be more humane? Cats are charming but they are pretty cruel towards their prey. Edited to say: don't tell your wife this, Kevin, otherwise you won't get your pet cat!

It's probably the same mouse. My advice to you is to bait the snap traps with bacon rind, so the mouse stays in place, pulling on it, to be killed. Sounds harsh, but mice spread disease, are incontinent (leaving urine wherever they go) and nibble through electric cables, causing fire hazards. Once in your home they will also set about invading your neighbours', so please think of the people next door too. Cats are no use, apparently: they bring mice INTO the house. Kill the mouse, It's him or you.

Some more info on these titles at the excellent Second Disc blog.

Haydn: Complete String Quartets by the Aeolian Quartet (Decca), £34.73 for 22 discs at Amazon UK.

Thanks Stompy. I'll email Amazon.

Can anybody here who has this set tell me if it has a booklet? I've just received it from Amazon UK, and while there is a space for a booklet in the digipak, it's empty. Thanks in advance.

Full details now on the Hip-o Select site. Slightly more thorough track listing here.

I have a lot more time to listen to -- or hear -- music, but the backlog never gets smaller.

I used to do routes like that. Thinking back I shudder at the time wasted trawling around the West End (thought life would stretch on for ever back then), but I do have a fine CD collection -- that I very much enjoy -- to make up for it. The web certainly killed my London shopping habits. First I learnt how much more we were being charged for CDs in the UK compared with the US (as did everyone else, leading to the tabloid phrase "rip-off Britain"), then the Jersey tax loophole made everything cheap on UK sites. I feel sorry for the high street retailers and their staff; squeezed between the web and high rents they haven't a chance, and I got a lot of good stuff in HMV back in it's heyday, but as you say, it's much better for the consumer these days. Perhaps, as someone wrote in The Times yesterday, they could turn the shops into affordable housing...

More comprehensive details now on Tony Bennett's website and available to preorder here. This looks absolutely gorgeous. And people say that Sony doesn't do new reissues any more! Edit: there's a Bennett discography here.

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs. Thanks for the updating, albeit depressing! It is sad. As with others here, one of my earliest memories of visiting London alone, in the mid-1980s, was HMV in Oxford Street. Even with Tower and Virgin, it was still the best and compared to my local record shops in Watford -- Woolworths and Our Price -- it was like Aladdin's cave: multiple copies of everything, boxed sets all over the place, loads of imports, the best sales and promotions. One upside, however, is that once HMV goes, that will be the last of the interesting shops in the increasingly grotty West End -- I need never go there again!

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs.

These "Perfect" boxed sets come from France, so perhaps therein the confusion lies.

Natalie Cole: Original Album Series (5 CDs): £4.99 at HMV. Includes the tributes to her father.

I wonder if it's just the Miles Davis name that acts as a red rag in these situations. The thread on the equally done-to-death Coltrane boxes over in the Reissues forum isn't generating nearly as much opprobrium. In fact, the comments are very positive, and those Coltrane boxes aren't nearly as good as this one.