Last year I had an impulse to buy the ELO album Out of the Blue. The whole ‘guilty pleasures’ phenomenon and the Peter Kaye episode of Dr Who had put them back in the public eye a bit and I remembered the day when Out of the Blue was released and Kenny Everett played the whole thing on his Capital Radio show. I never owned it but someone else in the dorm at school had it so I heard it a lot.

Back in 1988 I had discovered the album again when I bought it on vinyl. I can vividly remember having a discussion about music on the ferry to Sydney, en route to see Pink Floyd play, when the topic of this album came up. As soon as I got back the the UK I went out to get it.

As my vinyl is now in the loft and the turntable stashed in a cupboard I can’t listen to the double album any more so decided to look for it on CD. I could not believe that none of the shops had it. Today I saw an advert for the 30th anniversary re-issue of Out of the Blue…

So that’s their game! Let the supply of what would have been a cheap or mid-range oldie dry up so that the field is free for the undoubtably full-price re-issue. I’m not going to play that game – I’ll wait until the new re-issue ends up in the sales at the sort of price a 30-year-old album deserves to be.

Of course, if the re-issue had a 5.1 remix on SACD it might be a different matter.