Ever feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the day to get your job done? Well spare a thought for Michael Howe. Prince’s estate manager and guardian of his huge Paisley Park vault has enough work to keep him busy for the rest of his life. After the Prince estate had drilled into the vault following the Purple genius’ deathin 2016, filmmaker Mobeen Azhar claimed there was enough previously unheard music within to release an album every year for the next 100 years. By our rudimentary maths, that’s 100 more Prince albums – the man held an ambition throughout his life to write a new song every day, often succeeding. The vast 10LP 1999 boxset we delve into this issue, withthe help of many of Prince’s former friends and bandmates, is merely the tip of the iceberg. Withthe mindbending scale of unreleased music now clear, a second volume of this year’s excellent Originals is on the cards, while the tantalising prospect of Purple Rain being given the deluxe treatment could well become reality. There’s a lot of scepticism about the vinyl reissue market, but the Prince project is perhaps the best example of why it’s so important, unveiling great tranches of music that fans never got to hear and helping us try to understand Prince’s outrageous productivity. We can’t wait to hear what’s next. Elsewhere this month, I was privileged to spend some time withone of the best new bands on the planet today, Big Thief. You can read about their second new album of 2019 and why this is just the beginning for Adrianne Lenker and the boys on p36. We also speak to Guy Garvey about the darkness that inspired the new Elbow album, meet Adam Green, Jason Isbell and Mark Lanegan, visit the record shop run by a Premier League ref and bring you the story of Island Records – the palm tree label celebrating its 60thbirthday. Finally, we were desperately sad to hear of the passing of Daniel Johnston, another tortured genius who left us too soon after suffering a heart attack. 10p from your purchase of this magazine goes to our nominated local mental healthcharity Mind Bath. Take care and happy reading.