First, most artists reserve a certain number of copies of their releases for reviewers.Originally Posted by Brian
However, in the case of the U.K. box, AFAIK, only two reviewers received review copies of the box: me, and someone from, I think, Keyboard Magazine. So it wasn't like Eddie was sending out a whack of review copies while customers waited. I did get an early copy...and Eddie ultimately checked with me, when the box manufacturing issue was identified, to see if mind was ok or not. Fortunately, it was ok.
But it is always a priority, regardless of how many copies are sent out, for artists to get the music to reviewers before release date (if possible), so that they can get timely reviews. It's the way things work, and has no impact on whether or not it was sold out because, as I said, artists reserve a certain number of copies for review purposes.
Hope this helps explain. But I consider myself a very lucky guy to have been able to get a review copy....though I did have to sell Eddie on it. Fortunately, I'd already reviewed earlier UK reissues and had lots of other prog box set reviews to show him what I do with them, so he was amenable to it. But he did not reserve many copies for press (far fewer than most do, with the exception of very limited boxes, like the Family, Hillage, etc, where getting a review copy is close to impossible...so out comes the wallet!).
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