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PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:26 pm
by pdalowsky
After a lot of time contacting every tom dick and harry in a very frustrating few months it has come to the euro tour being around the corner......

no interview is yet in place but i do hope to get to the band next tues an envelope with the following in, setting out what we are asking. I will be meeting someone from their ranks who i think should make this possible.

Its pointed out the interview (below) is so far missing the range as far as our collecting goes, we are not really concentrating on that enough...so I need some more questions specifically on certain items, collecting, etc....more focus on the actual Pj catalogue and what we have the site for...

Dear Pearl Jam

My name is Paul Dalowsky (pdalowsky@.......) and I represent a small group of people who run a Pearl Jam website dedicated to pearl jam collecting around the world. Our site can be found at http://www.pjcollectors.com, and is now well respected now in the Pearl jam community receiving a good volume of daily web traffic

The active members of pjcollectors.com are 100% dedicated pearl jam collectors and between us have managed to put together a database of Pearl jam items all of which are official releases/pieces of memorabilia which we believe is the most comprehensive Pearl Jam database in the world. Our website is intended as a showcase of the bands history on Record, CD, Tape, Minidisc, Memorabilia and Promo items, as well as a comprehensive guide and database to the many related PJ side projects. More than anything else we all love the band and are dedicated in our quest to have the complete PJ discography available online for the world to see. There are many great items available to be seen on our site including signed items, the bands instruments, some exceptionally rare guitar picks, Ten club competition winner posters (Fabien's Honolulu signed poster), and personal items received from you personally.

We have been discussing over on the site how great it would be to be able to grab 5 minutes of your time at one of the venues of the upcoming 4 date European tour or at a time of your choosing, to enable us to ask you a few questions and publish a Q & A interview with them on our website. It has been noted from interviews etc that both Stone and Jeff both have a vault of old goodies themselves including old cassettes, and Eddie has a love of Vinyl which has resulted in an impressive personal collection, therefore we really feel we could have put out an interesting chat with you regarding all aspects of your back catalogue and the backspacer release. Your people at Vandenberg have been extremely professional throughout out requests but have been unable to grant us any media time with you due to your tight schedules and the fact you have major media trying to get a slot with you.

Therefore, this may reach you personally at one of the venues, and if you can give this a read and respond whenever you get 5 minutes after the tour we would be extremely grateful and work with tenclub in linking this back to the main site. It may even make a nice piece for the next Deed magazine – a collectors piece if you like.

As well as looking into the world of collecting you will see we would like to focus on the Pearl Jam catalogue, the upcoming release, and the just commenced rerelease programme. Between us we have combed the world to each own one of the much championed Ten Promo's the 'Reeenk Roink test pressing'...and as you will see from the http://www.pjcollectors.com site we have managed to unearth and identity approximately 20 copies of this rarity and as the most prized Pearl Jam collectible in the world we would sincerely love to put few questions to you on this item also - which would certainly be appropriate right now given the Ten rerelease this year.

More than anything we would like to ask questions from the fans angle and certainly gain a perspective that is often missed by the professional media.

Our Questions: -

General Questions: -

1. As part of an extremely successful international rock band approaching its 20 year anniversary is there any possibility that you may write your autobiography to date recounting your journey to the present. Personally I feel this would be a fascinating read, and a great recount of your road to success, and the trials and tribulations along the way of a band that has rightly become recognised as being the most important live band on the planet. Much has been written about Pearl Jam, much of it fiction, so to have an account from you yourself, or the band collectively would be welcomed by many - especially the fans of the band. The reason I ask this question is that we have had a few extracts over the years in books such as Touch Me I'm Sick Photo Book by Charles Peterson, and as recent as the latest edition of the Deep Magazine whereby Mike reveals that Eddie was close to Brad from RATM in the early days etc. Of course Pearl Jam's history will make a remarkable story, considering the overnight fame, the best selling follow up, the difficult times that followed, the media intrusion, the Bands drummer changes, the ticketmaster episode ( highly documented however rarely from the bands perspective), the world famous Pearl Jam live show, your participation in the vote for change tours, your public support for the Democratic party, and most of all your solid relationship as a band that has resulted in the most dedicated fanbase in rock.

2. A Question for Eddie - Following your huge success with your solo tour stateside, do you have any plans to bring this to Europe for some special nights for example somewhere like the Albert Hall in london. Springsteen played this on his similar jaunt on his Devils and Dust outing, and the acosutics of the venue seemed to compliment him beautifully, which led me to think the venue would be perfect for your voice. After playing there with the who previously, is this something that might be on the radar?

3. can you add anything re the 2010 touring plans yet?

4. What is your personal favourite from the Pearl Jam back catalogue? both to sing live and the studio version?

5. Is there a gig over the last 18 years that stands out as your favourite/most memorable?

6. As a band who is big on their concert art via posters, do you have your own favourite PJ poster over the last 15 years?


Future releases and plans

7. The band has recently released details of the back catalogue release project, which saw the brilliantly repackaged Ten rerelease, can you confirm anything further on the release program and when V's can be expected? Is it likely this will be a joint release with Vitalogy as has been rumoured?

8. Do the band plan to continue their bootleg release program with the 2009 dates and are there any plans to extend that to the 2007 shows that have so far not emerged? Not so long ago the Ten Club announced that the PJ Vault would be opened and older shows offered, however this hasn’t materialised? Is this still in the planning stages?

9. Do you ever intend to offer DVD boots of the shows? or is this logistically impossible?

10. Will there will be b sides for the next record? Or is the plan to keep the material for the EP Mike recently mentioned?

11. Is it possible there will be a second part to the lost dogs release for the B sides that haven’t seen the light of day since Lost dogs was released? Or do you anticipate using such materials in the reissue boxes?

Collecting


12. Do you collect anything or items from bands like we do ? do any of you collect Vinyl?

13. Are you aware of the most sought after PJ collectibles, does this interest you at all ?

You may well be aware of the value of the reeenk roink, the blue V’s, and the many promo items like the vitalogy jack daniels bottles, the Vitalogy jars, the ten basketball hoop and mini basketballs etc

14. Could you tell us all the story behind the production of the famous Reeenk Roink CD ?

15. Do you recall how many RR's were pressed? We have tracked down around 22 now, all with slight differences. (see attached annex showcasing this)

16. Do any of you still own a copy? and did you consider including a copy in the reissued Ten super deluxe box?

17. Can you confirm if it was Jeff Who wrote the Green RR sleeves, and Eddie who mostly wrote the blue ones? (see annex)

18. Do you have any favourite collectibles of your own, both PJ and by other artists?

19. There has been much said about the lack of cd singles from Avocado? (Only the 7" of Life Wasted) ? Is this a conscious decision to move towards digital formats? and a response to the falling sales of singles?

20. There is information about a black vinyl pressing of the Green River 7" from "Together we'll never". Is there a black pressing, or only the green version?

21. In how many quantities were made of the "together we'll never" green version?
Were these sold as well, or only handed out at shows?

22. Can you tell us a bit more of the so called "Polish Postcard" singles? These were 7 inch singles that came out during Ten.
Are these official?




Reeenk Roink Schedule


Fabiens picture is printed already to go to them

Re: PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:49 pm
by massimo
I belive that some of this questions will remains without answer but I'm courious to know what they think!
Great job Pual, thank you.

Re: PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 6:13 pm
by VicSpeed
Perfect. 8-) 8-)

Well done. Let us know if we can help in any way.

Re: PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:50 pm
by pdalowsky
I wrote ten more collector based questions. Will post in the morning

Re: PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:21 am
by Yuri
I can send you a file without spelling errors etc if you want me to?
Don't want to sound mean, I mean it well. ;)

Great interview. Great intro as well.
I remember Mike McCready telling me about how he collects Rolling Stone bootlegs and records. He has hundreds of them as well.

Re: PJ interview - looking for input

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:00 pm
by pdalowsky
updated version available, anyone wanting a look please post your email address and I'll send as a final version attachment.

Its much more collector themed now