The Band Stage Fright 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe 180g LP, 7" Vinyl Single, 2CD & Blu-Ray Audio Box Set

On February 12, 2021, Capitol/UMe will celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Band's classic third album, Stage Fright, with a suite of newly remixed, remastered and expanded 50th Anniversary Edition packages, including a multi-format Super Deluxe 2CD/Blu-Ray Audio/1LP/7-inch vinyl box set with photo booklet and 180-gram black vinyl.

All the Anniversary Edition releases were overseen by principal songwriter Robbie Robertson and boast a new stereo mix by Bob Clearmountain from the original multi-track masters. For the first time, the album is being presented in the originally planned song order. The box set, CD and digital configurations feature a bevy of unreleased recordings, including Live at the Royal Albert Hall, June 1971, a thrilling full concert captured in the midst of their European tour as the band was at the top of its game; alternate versions of "Strawberry Wine" and "Sleeping;" and seven unearthed field recordings, Calgary Hotel Recordings, 1970, a fun and loose, impromptu late night hotel jam session between Robertson, Danko and Manuel of several Stage Fright songs recorded while the album was in the mixing stage.

Exclusively for the box set, Clearmountain has also created a new 5.1 surround mix and a hi-res stereo mix of the album, bonus tracks and the live show, presented on Blu-ray. All the new audio mixes have been mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. The set also includes an exclusive reproduction of the Spanish pressing of The Band's 1971 7-inch vinyl single for "Time To Kill" b/w "The Shape I'm In" in their new stereo mixes and a photo booklet with new notes by Robbie Robertson and touring photographer John Scheele, who recorded the Calgary Hotel Recordings; plus a reprinting of the original Los Angeles Times album review by famed critic Robert Hilburn; three classic photo lithographs; and a wealth of photographs from Scheele and several other photographers.

As with the acclaimed 50th anniversary collections for Music From Big Pink and the self-titled record, Clearmountain and Robertson's approach to remixing the beloved album was done with the utmost care and respect for the music and what The Band represents. "Doing new mixes on these songs with Bob Clearmountain has been a gift and special opportunity," Robertson writes in the new liner notes. "Glyn Johns and Todd [Rundgren] did a terrific job on the original mixes in England while The Band was on the Festival Express train tour across Canada with Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. We had always been part of the mixing process before, which left something on this album feeling a little unfinished. Clearmountain has taken this music and given it the sonic lift it deserves. The album has become a whole new listening experience with the original song order and the depth of these mixes." The result is a new mix that allows listeners to hear these timeless songs clearer than ever before. "There may be some purists that prefer 'the way it was,' and of course that's always readily available," adds Robertson. "I'm enjoying this new version, this story, this musical journey. It feels like a fulfillment and I know my brothers in The Band would definitely agree."

In the spring of 1971, The Band set off to Europe where they hadn't played since their tumultuous tour with Bob Dylan in 1966, where they were booed every night as the folk rock purists felt betrayed by Dylan who had gone electric, backed by The Hawks who would soon after become The Band. Not having played there in five years, the guys were understandably weary and didn't know what to expect, but instead of boos they received a rapturous response at their first concert in Hamburg, Germany and would go on to play for one enthusiastic crowd after another. "Each member of The Band was on a musical high. Everybody playing and singing at the top of their game. Each night, from Amsterdam to Paris to Copenhagen, the spirit kept rising," remarks Robertson.

When it came to the band's concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, they wanted to document it so EMI taped it on a 4-track machine. For the first time ever, this concert recording is being released as Live At The Royal Albert Hall, 1971, an exhilarating 20-song set that captures the band firing on all cylinders and delivering rousing performances of songs from their then-recently released third album alongside their most popular tracks from Music From Big Pink and "The Brown Album" such as "The Weight," "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," "Up On Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Across The Great Divide," "Chest Fever," and inspired covers of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" and the Stevie Wonder-penned, Four Tops hit, "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever."

With the help of Clearmountain, these recordings have been restored nearly five decades later, allowing listeners to experience what Robertson calls, "One of the greatest live concerts The Band ever played." Whereas this electrifying concert showcases The Band playing as good as they ever did, The Calgary Hotel Recordings, 1970 offer a glimpse into a different kind of performance, the kind of fun, spur-of-the-moment jam sessions that were bound to happen whenever the guys were together in a hotel room or backstage on tour.

As Robertson started to run through some of The Band's new songs recently recorded for Stage Fright, photographer John Scheele, who was traveling with the group on the Festival Express, hit record on his portable cassette recorder and captured the spontaneous performance late at night on July 3, 1970 in Calgary, the last stop of the legendary tour. The field recordings, which feature Robertson on guitar and vocals with Danko harmonizing and playing rhythm and Manuel joining in on vocals and harmonica, are a fascinating document that lets fans hear the friends letting loose and having a good time together doing what they loved to do.

Fifty years on, lifelong fans and those just discovering The Band can experience the album in a whole new way, sounding better than ever, or for the first time.

All told, this may be the best released representation of the Band as road warriors: they're vigorous and vital, giving even the softer tunes a bit of an edge.

If their first two LPs inspired the Beatles and Stones to return to basics, Stage Fright connotes an entirely different sphere of influence: it's a nonpareil boogie album, whose in-the-pocket playing establishes the Band as the equal of groovemaster peers like Booker T. and the Meters and sets a predicate for followers like Little Feat and NRBQ. The Band's signature was always the telepathic interplay between bassist Rick Danko, guitarist Robbie Robertson, drummer Levon Helm, pianist Richard Manuel and multi-instrumentalist-shaman Garth Hudson. This is Stage Fright's great selling point. The group never sounded more effervescent or imaginative than on tracks like the strutting 'Strawberry Wine' or the layabout-anthem 'Time to Kill,' a rollicking tribute to a week off the road that serves as a subtext to the punishing touring schedule that would eventually become the Band's undoing. What Stage Fright lacks in history lessons it makes up for in palpable joy. They would never seem so happy again... Fifty years on Stage Fright is an oasis, an exhalation, a genial respite from the ongoing crucible of the Band's accumulating days. The final moment when the music came easy, before the weight became unmanageable.

The new mix, it's safe to say, is an utter triumph. The album doesn't sound a little bit better than the original - it sounds like a completely different recording. Indeed, if you didn't know otherwise, you'd think the remixed Stage Fright was a brand-new, audiophile-quality release. Now, you can clearly hear everything - technically and emotionally - these stellar musicians put into the music. Regardless of your choice of format, I would strongly recommend springing for the Deluxe Edition. The voice-and-piano rendition of 'Sleeping' alone is worth the price of admission. But there's also an entire Royal Albert Hall concert that ranks with one of The Band's best - and that's saying a lot. On that occasion, the group was in peak form, unencumbered by additional horn sections or guest artists. If you didn't already know it from Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz, this concert hammers home how formidable The Band was as a live act. Between its enduring songs, unmatched musicianship, newly-sequenced tracks, valuable bonus material, and vastly-improved sound, the 50th anniversary edition of Stage Fright is one of the most rewarding rock reissues ever released. Along with the likewise successful reissues of The Band's first two albums, the new Stage Fright is a testament to one of rock's greatest groups. Only the certified-classic status of The Band's first two albums relegates Stage Fright to bronze medal status. Don't let that deter you. Most bands would kill to have put out an album anywhere near this good. Highly recommended.