The release date for the reissue of Hope In A Darkened Heart is scheduled for 30th September in Japan. A US distributor is planning to release the album on 6th October.

In other news, Virginia has been sampled on the track And So I Pray by Jem. The song samples ‘A Summer Long Since Passed’ and it appears on Jem’s 2008 album Down To Earth. The biography on Jem’s website mentions how this came about:

“Co-writer Kevin Beber plucked the sample from a CD his mother listened to whilst gardening. Her response was immediate. “I had never heard of [Astley], but the song was so beautiful, it just hit my heart.”