Phil Collins has announced a 30th anniversary box set of his 1993 album ‘Both Sides’, due for release on September 20th via Rhino Records.
The lavish box set comes with five vinyl records – two of which are the original album remastered at half-speed by Abbey Road Studios’ Miles Showell, and three feature demos, B-sides and live recordings from that era.
Some of the rarities included are recordings from Collins’ 1994 MTV Unplugged set, which has yet to be issued officially as a live album, along with B-sides like ‘Don’t Call Me Ashley’, ‘Rad Dudeski’, and ‘For a Friend’.
‘Both Sides’ is notable in Collins’ discography for having been self-produced and recorded by him at The Farm, the now-defunct recording studio owned by his band Genesis. Collins performed all instruments on the record.
The release also includes newly written liner notes by journalist Michael Hann. “Time has magnified its virtues, and perspective has amplified its truths. ‘Both Sides’ may not have been the monster hit its predecessors were, but it might be the most important record in the Phil Collins discography,” writes Hann in a liner notes excerpt shared by Rhino Records.
Alongside the announcement of ‘Both Sides (All the Sides)’ is the reveal of ‘Live From the Board: Official Bootleg’, a limited-edition 10” vinyl due for release later this year on Record Store Day’s Black Friday edition.
This EP was originally released in 1995, featuring recordings from the Both Sides tour in 1994 under the artist name Phil Collins & The Indescribable Din. It features the tracks ‘Sussudio’, ‘Easy Lover’, ‘Separate Lives’, and ‘My Girl’.
‘Both Sides (All the Sides)’ is an expanded version of the album’s 2016 reissue, for which Collins was personally involved in selecting the song rarities that were included.
“I just got an email from [engineer Nick Davis] saying, “These are some of the demos I’ve chosen; give me your choice of which ones you like, and which ones you don’t.” I mean, there’s loads of material,” Collins told Digital Trends in 2016.
“I’m not like a Neil Young, who releases everything (smiles), but there are a lot of versions of different things. He’s gone through a lot of it, and selected the best three or four versions of each song for me to pick from.”