For a while this year I noticed that the most recent Quintessence archive CD I worked on, ‘Spirits From Another Time: 1969-71’, wasn’t appearing when one searched for the band name on amazon.co.uk in their CDs & Vinyl section – weirdly, though, when one searched using the album title a note came up saying ‘some adult items may be restricted’ and if one carried on, there it was – a Quintessence album, hidden from the world for no good reason!
Brian at Hux Records just rang to tell me that he’d noticed orders for this release (but not other Quin CDs on his label) have fallen off a cliff and he couldn’t figure out why.
I explained the amazon thing. We both checked the site, while on the phone, and – deeply weirdly – while I can now find the album (seven down the page when searching for ‘Quintessence’ under CDs & Vinyl), Brian couldn’t! He read out what he could see and everything was in the same order as on my screen EXCEPT that ‘Spirits from Another Time’ was missing.
I emailed him the URL of the pge I was seeing and when he looked, he was still only getting the version WITHOUT the album there.
The most recent review (of a flurry of 9) on the album on amazon.co.uk was back in February. Not conclusive, but it backs up my thought that somehow the album has not been visible/searchable for many people in the past few months.
So… would some Afterworders like to help out by going on to amazon.co.uk and searching just for ‘Quintessence’ in ‘Cds & Vinyl’ – and let me know if you can see it.
Hidden for me as an adult item, but it does appear if I click on “show all results”.
Same here. Perhaps contacting Amazon might help.
Definitely didn’t come up when just searching the band name. When I added the name of the CD it did show but I also got the ‘you dirty little man’ message
Doesn’t appear under “Quintessence.” When I searched for the title it is “currently unavailable.”
Yes, looks like it’s out of stock with a title search, but if found under a general search for Quintessence CDs it says 2 in stock and more on the way. Very odd.
Edit: Oh, now it’s back. Bizarre.
Odd – and actually quite damaging for a small label’s income, especially considering this particular release was Hux’s most expensive.
I get the same as deram. Nothing under Quintessence and unavailable when I type in the album title.
Ditto.
Is it because the music causes listeners to liberate themselves from their clothes? You can’t be too careful, it’s parky out.
This is really helpful, everyone. Brian will contact his distributor and they’ll have to sort out the amazon fiasco – but it certainly bolsters any wag who might wish to claim that Quintessence have a ‘limited’ audience!
Looks like that ‘excluding adult items’ thing comes up on amazon.com too – whenever one keys in the band name PLUS the album title. Anyone just searching casually for ‘Quintessence’ CDs just wouldn’t know it existed…
Got the same “adult only” result on Amazon.uk – but not on Amazon.de.
BTW, the Hux CD is the second item if you search for Quintessence on JPC (better, bigger & more reliable online retailer here in Germany).
Reported to Amazon for Incorrect Product Information.
I blame the cover. It is clearly the product of a filthy mind. Beautiful filth but filth nonetheless.
😉
I can’t think that there anything on it of a restrictable nature – clearly, a bizarre faux pas at amazon’s end. Yet it WAS correctly/normally listed for the first few months of release so something changed at some point. One wonders why.
If I search for “Quintessence” is doesn’t show up.
Search for “Quintessence spirits from another time”, get the ‘currently unavailable’ item, click on that and it shows me an advert for lacy lingerie.
If I search for “spirits from another time” it shows up as normal.
Back in the day, I sent out an Amazon pre-order link to Boo Hewerdine’s mailing list (about 100 people). Next time I looked, the ‘other people also bought’ thing showed a load of Italian mucky-‘lady’ DVDs. I never did work out who it was who bought both.
I get the same old “adult” mis-steer, and then a click through reveals Peter’s stunning cover and lo! only 2 copies left! I’ve reported it to them as “Incorrect Information” as well.
This is confusing.
I can’t see Spirits From Another Time: 1969-71. The first item I see is Move Into The Light: The Complete Island Recordings 1969-1971(Re-Memastered), which is listed as 2017 release.
Below that there are the individual albums Quintessence, Dive Deep & In Blissful Company followed by sundry Quintessence albums including a Complete BBC compilation.
Of Spirits From Another Time: 1969-71 there is no sign on the first nor any of the following pages I looked at.
Just tried this and got the same results as Carl – lots of albums listed
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=quintessence&sprefix=quintess%2Caps%2C3486&crid=ZJT7OSBGKB5J
I just followed Mr Pole’s helpful link and there it was, fourth down on the left hand side. Seems odd. Are we all on Amazon UK?