For vinyl-only traditionalists and collectors alike, the decision was made to release Echoes as a (strictly limited) box set.

The exact number of these produced is not clear - but is believed to be just a few thousand. This is a shame, as it is quite a nice package.

Many people across the world seem to be oblivious to this version of the greatest hits package; we have not seen any advertising materials that mention the availability of the set on those funny old black bits of plastic.

Nevertheless, it is something that all Pink Floyd collectors will enjoy adding to their collection - if they can find a copy, that is.

Your best bet is to try some of the specialist music retailers that have a good number of collectibles in their stock. It has now become very hard to source.

Split over four slabs of vinyl, the track listing is as follows:

RECORD 1 - side 1:
Astronomy Domine / See Emily Play / The Happiest Days Of Our Lives / Another
Brick In The Wall (Part 2) / Marooned / The Great Gig In The Sky
RECORD 1 - side 2:
Echoes / Hey You
 
RECORD 2 - side 1:
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun / Money / Keep Talking
RECORD 2 - side 2:
Sheep / Sorrow
 
RECORD 3 - side 1:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7)
RECORD 3 - side 2:
Time / The Fletcher Memorial Home / Comfortably Numb / When The Tigers Broke Free
 
RECORD 4 - side 1:
One Of These Days / Us And Them / Learning To Fly / Arnold Layne
RECORD 4 - side 2:
Wish You Were Here / Jugband Blues / High Hopes / Bike

If you do a comparison with the CD track listing, you will see that the running order is fairly much untouched - with the exception of record 1, where Echoes and Hey You have been moved to side 2, with Marooned and Great Gig shuffling up. This is of course due to the time limitations on a record.

It is extremely pleasing to see how much care and effort has been taken over the design of this box set. Corners have not been cut to keep costs down - the outer slip cover is made from thick cardboard and is well constructed. It should not fall apart, come unglued, or start peeling.

The thickness of the slip cover should be evident from the picture to the right - as you can see, it is almost the same thickness of each disc including its cover.

That is another thing that has impressed with this box set - many typical sets do not bother with seperate, full thickness outer sleeves for the records in the box, relying on the slip cover and the fairly flimsy inner covers to do the job. Typically, that is not the Floyd way.

Seemingly an exercise in trying to use as many different versions of the cover art as possible, you will find six different versions on the different sleeves, along with many smaller pictures and images from throughout the bands career, on the back of the sleeves, and on labels themselves (examples of which are shown below). Some of the pictures are classics, some are unused concept drawings for artwork, and some are just plain weird - such as the back of record four with a picture of someone's foot!

There are clearly a number of pictures that could only have come from Nick Mason's private archives, and as such, whet the appetite even more for the long-awaiting story of the band he has been writing for some years. Nice work all-in-all and definately one to add to your collection!

Each record has labels like these - one side has the tracks and a segment from the cover,
and the other side has slices of covers and images from their history; each one is different.