Vinyl Albums - Comments by The Record Press

Vinyl Albums - Comments by The Record Press

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
The Record Press 9th Oct 2021		Vinyl Album The Four Bucketeers - Tiswas Presents The Four Bucketeers (1980)	Believe it or not, this was an almost complete reunion of Vertigo label group, Patto. Mike Patto died in 1979, but Ollie Halsall, Clive Griffiths and John Halsey, all play on this (along with Queen's keyboard player, Morgan Fisher).
The Record Press 3rd Oct 2021		Vinyl Album Genesis - From Genesis To Revelation (1969)	Decca's post-1974 catalogues still credited 'In the Beginning' as 'From Genesis to Revelation' despite the new sleeve with new title.
The Record Press 2nd Oct 2021		Vinyl Album Neville Dickie, Quentin Williams, Pete Davis - Ragtime Piano (1966)	RIP Q. I was a bit late hearing the news thanks to various lockdowns. Another Bristol legend gone.
The Record Press 2nd Oct 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - The Rest Of British Barbershop (1979)	The CP sequence denoted a contract pressing, to be marketed by the artist.
The Record Press 2nd Oct 2021		Vinyl Album [no artist listed] - The Limonaire Fair Organ (1970)	This was a contract pressing, marketed by R. Finbow at his museum at Stowmarket.
The Record Press 29th Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Blind Lemon Jefferson - Blind Lemon Jefferson (1926	All the sleeves (even for the UK pressings) were manufactured in Austria with English credits, as were the labels. Also, the UK pressings were done using the original Austrian-produced metalwork, so there is no way of telling if this is an Austrian or UK-pressed LP! Unless, it includes the mimeographed insert, which has a "Saydisc" credit, that is. (Any copies with four less tracks are easier to deal with because all those were Austrian pressings.) If this is a UK pressing, it was released around October 1970 in the UK. Saydisc had two runs pressed, one of 500 copies and the other of 502.
The Record Press 29th Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Al Jones [Folk] - Jonesville (1973)	Hi @Gian-paolo - a couple of tracks were issued on the All My Friends Are Back Again 2-CD set, though I don't have a copy so can't read the sleeve notes to work out which. More have recently been released on the Something Inside of Me box set on Wienerworld, which was compiled by Pete Moody and also has otherwise previously unreleased Matchbox/Saydisc-era tracks by Dave Kelly and Simon & Steve.
The Record Press 24th Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick (1972)	I may just have answered my own question. A copy with full newspaper and blue labels has just appeared on eBay, so I'm assuming that a few of these slipped out prior to the sleeve being redesigned as a normal single sleeve.
The Record Press 23rd Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick (1972)	Ah, I have a copy with the full newspaper sleeve but the record has the later blue labels. I bought it second-hand, so I'm wondering if this is how the later press came or whether someone along the way has simply slipped a later LP into an earlier sleeve at some point?
The Record Press 14th Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Van Der Graaf Generator - The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (1970)	There may be an earlier version to the Shel Talmy mix - unsubstantiated rumour suggests that copies of John Anthony's original mix exist with no matrix on side 1 run-off. Whether these exist or not as full copies (and not just as white label test pressings), the original cut (done at HMV) had some top end problems so Tony Stratton Smith asked Shel Talmy to sort it out (without telling Anthony or the band). What Talmy did, instead of simply re-cutting the LP with de-esser on stun was to remix all bar two tracks and this was pressed and pushed out to retail, still without the band knowing. When the band found out they were (with justification) very unhappy with the new mix so Anthony was asked to recut the original mix, which was done at Trident. It is possible that Anthony did some further fiddling with the mix, because the two tracks that Talmy did not remix, 'Whatever Would Robert Have Said' and 'Out Of My Book' exhibit distinct audio differences between the two pressings, though perhaps that is down to the different mastering cuts, which could easily be the case - if comparing B&C-era pressings with copies recut and pressed by Phonogram, the latter sounds a lot less 'immediate' (e.g. you have to keep turning 'White Hammer' up on Phonogram pressings, whilst it hits right between the eyes on the +A+G pressing). (Until getting in contact with Denis Blackham - "Bilbo" or "DB" in the run-off - for help with one of my discographies, I'd had no idea that the actual cut could make such drastic differences to the sound of the same master tape, but this is evidently the case!)
The Record Press 6th Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Clear Blue Sky - Clear Blue Sky (1970)	UK copies were also pressed on the spaceship label design. I found a copy new in Apostrophe Records, St. Nicholas Market, Bristol, in 1984 for £3.50 (it was in a batch of unsold stock that had been bought at auction from a long-closed record shop). I bought the pink label Spooky Tooth and Blue Horizon Fleetwood Mac LPs, but didn't bother with this one because it wasn't on the spiral label. D'oh!
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Big Road Blues (1973)	Gef Lucena says that the normal number of supplied test pressings was three, so, that's all three accounted for now. Also note that the photo of Mott Willis, mentioned in the notes above, had to be removed for copyright reasons. However, you can see a larger version of the photo at https://www.amazon.com/Big-Road-Blues-Tradition-Creativity/dp/0520034848 - the image with the LP was a cropped version showing only Willis and a pair of disembodied legs in the top, right-hand corner.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Emerson, Lake And Palmer (1973)	Next set of labels are from a slightly later copy, post-hybrid. Still has K 35503 matrix numbers crossed out and replaced with the number as released. Side 1 publishing details are different to the first pressing. Also, though the scans do not show this quite as well as could be wished, the chocolate brown is distinctly lighter on this issue. E.J. Day sleeve credit on this one.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Emerson, Lake And Palmer (1973)	Hybrid original (thin band)/not quite so original (thicker band) light cream/dark chocolate brown labels added. On this pressing, K 35503 matrix numbers are crossed out and replaced with the number as released. Side 2 label is possibly a leftover from the original Island deal days. Sleeve has Shorewood Packaging credit.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition (1973)	Original light cream/dark chocolate brown labels added. On this pressing, K 35501 matrix numbers are crossed out and replaced with the number as released. There are also differences in sleeve credits, though too numerous/petty to go into for now.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Trilogy (1973)	Original light cream/dark chocolate brown labels added. On this pressing, K 35505 matrix numbers are crossed out and replaced with the number as released. there are also differences in sleeve credits, though too numerous/petty to go into for now.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Trilogy (1973)	K 43 505 version is a 1980s German-pressed 'Euro' copy, so not strictly a UK copy, though intended specifically for the UK market.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition (1973)	The labels shown are post-1974 ones. The first Manticore press had very light, glossy cream/chocolate brown labels. These 1973 copies are are very hard to find.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Pete Sinfield - Still (1973)	Front and rear pictures glued on, as per first WEA version. Apologies for the original owner's pencil markings on the a-side label.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Premiata Forneria Marconi - Photos Of Ghosts (1973)	Release date probably 4 May 1973 - advertised in the music press as out now (along with Pete Sinfield's LP) on full page adverts in 5 May editions.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Pete Sinfield - Still (1973)	Note that on the pink version, the front and rear images are glued on, whilst on the blue version, they are merely printed. ANTI 2001 version also has images glued on.
The Record Press 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Pete Sinfield - Still (1973)	Full ANTI 2001 copies exist - i.e. sleeve, labels and matrix (matrix shows it to be an EMI pressing with "U" suffixes). The original Island/EMI-distributed pressing was available for at least a couple of weeks in early May 1973, as per Photos of Ghosts (advertised first week of month in music press - whole page adverts). I'll hunt out and scan labels, plus the relevant portion of the rear sleeve (I can't do whole LP sleeve scans). There are likely more hybrid copies out there, as per ANTI 2003 - i.e. ANTI sleeve with WEA sticker over ANTI cat no, plus crossed out ANTI matrices and added WEA ones.
The Record Press 5th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - P.X.R. 5 (1979)	Sleeves started to be censored quite early on - long before the first blue label copies appeared in October 1979. The Virgin-era Charisma Classics version reinstated the full rear sleeve!
The Record Press 5th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - P.X.R. 5 (1979)	As per notes above, it was me (in The Famous Charisma Discography) that mentioned the claim form for the family tree. One of these came with my original copy. I filled it in dutifully and sent it to the supplied address but no family tree ever arrived...and worse, I'd also lost the now super-super rare claim form as well!
The Record Press 5th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Charisma Keyboards (1974)	A1 is not quite the same edit as that from CAS 1030. You get all the music but you also get some audience participation at the beginning that does not appear on the original record - this also appears on the edited version on Repeat Performance (BG 1).
The Record Press 5th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Gordon Turner - Meditation (1970)	First issue pressed by Orlake, second by Philips, by the look of it. The sleeve notes of the second LP, 'Sleep', intimate that this LP sold 20,000 copies...until you read the sleeve note again and look at the choice of words. This used to be £1 car-boot fodder. Not any more, it isn't! (Though the odd, if usually tatty, copy of 'Classical Heads' still pops up in the cheap boxes, along with occasional copies of 'The Velvet Gentleman' on Deram. It's always worth ploughing through the cheapo section.)
The Record Press 28th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Genesis - Foxtrot (1985)	The September 1983 date comes from a later 1980s Music Master publication (the '89 Labels List, I think) and is incorrect. The date related to Virgin's blanket redistribution of all Charisma titles still on catalogue when they took over from Phonogram in the August, and at the redistribution date actually related to CAS 1058. Somehow MM managed to transpose that date to the March 1985 CHC release later on (probably down to removing catalogue number information in the 13th edition of the main catalogue in 1988).
The Record Press 15th Apr 2021		Vinyl Album Cuckoo - Iona (1978)	Crackingly good LP, which I hunted out after seeing James Lascelles and Kuma Harada with the Breakfast Band in 1981...but I have to admit that this is the first point at which I've discovered that the band is called Cuckoo and not Iona! Some great Globs and Riff Raff connections on this - and Kuma Harada went on to play on the highly underrated White Flames LP by Snowy White - have a hit single and no-one takes your LP seriously! In the Snowy White/Breakfast Band camp, another cracking LP is Richard Bailey's 'Fire Dance' (Shed Records ‎– MML-89007-7) from 1989, which includes the tambourine player from this album on congas!
The Record Press 5th Apr 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Big Road Blues (1973)	The full story of how the LP came to be unissued is included in my upcoming book, "Blues from the Avon Delta: the Matchbox Blues Story", which is to be published by The Record Press, August 2021, distributed by Nimbus/Wyastone. The book covers all blues releases on (in order of appearance) Saydisc, Sunflower, Kokomo, Highway 51, Matchbox, Village Thing, Ahura Mazda, Flyright-Matchbox and Matchbox Bluesmaster - over 100 blues records in all between 1967 and 1987.
The Record Press 5th Apr 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Big Road Blues (1973)	Update to the Notes section - there are now THREE known white label copies. Tony Russell, author of the influential November Books' Blues Paperbacks series book, 'Blacks, Whites and Blues', also has a copy (the LP was intended to support and illustrate an upcoming book from the same publisher).

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