Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is releasing a limited edition, super-deluxe box set of his 1992 second solo album, Main Offender. The expanded collection is due out on March 18 on BMG and will feature an 88-page book with never-before-seen photos, Main Offender tour guitar pick, bumper sticker, promotional posters, reproductions of handwritten lyrics, reprinted essays from the album’s release and an archival envelope with exact replicas of promotional and tour material from the 78-year-old rock icon’s archive.
In addition to the 10-track original album, the collection will also feature the previously unreleased 12-track Winos Live in London ’92 — recorded at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town — which features nearly all the album tracks in performance, plus the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and several cuts from Richards’ 1988 solo debut, Talk Is Cheap.
“This is the second time around & the Winos are kind of developing — and if I can keep those guys together for as long as I can, it’s one of the best bands in the world. It’s a very intriguing band and the potential is only just starting to show itself,” Richards said in a statement about the crack X-Pensive Winos backing band, which included drummer Steve Jordan, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Charley Drayton, keyboard player Ivan Neville, singer Sarah Dash and backing vocalists Bernard Fowler and Babi Floyd.
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“If I hadn’t have taken the Winos on the road, this record would probably have been totally different than it is. I tried to avoid making too much sense on this record because to me that ambiguity and mystery, and a little provocation to make you think, is something far more powerful and more important than just wagging your finger and saying, ‘I know what he’s saying don’t do this, do that.’ If you’re a musician, silence is your canvas and you never want to fill-in the whole thing because then you’ve just covered it all … One of the most interesting parts about music is where you don’t play.”
The super-deluxe Main Offender boxset includes an exclusive collector’s case, which features a removable, hand-numbered print of the original, uncropped album cover portrait, as well as a unique art book with the album pressed on smoke-colored vinyl. The LP and CD are newly remastered under the supervision of original producer & X-Pensive Wino, Steve Jordan.
The collection is also available in a two-CD mediabook, limited edition LP on red (or black) 180g vinyl, CD digipak and digital formats. See the track listing and watch a live video of “How I Wish” below.
Main Offender Tracklisting
- 999
- Wicked As It Seems
- Eileen
- Words Of Wonder
- Yap Yap
- Bodytalks
- Hate It When You Leave
- Runnin’ Too Deep
- Will But You Won’t
- Demon
Winos Live In London ‘92 Tracklisting
- Take It So Hard
- 999
- Wicked As It Seems
- How I Wish
- Gimme Shelter
- Hate It When You Leave
- Before They Make Me Run
- Eileen
- Will But You Won’t
- Bodytalks
- Happy
- Whip It Up