Released in a standard Parlophone stereo sleeve, a number of copies appeared with Black and White Apple labels. Due to the lack of information, no other details are available.
Images
Number:639080 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:roboleyton Description: Sleeve Front no Parlophone logo
Number:639081 Uploaded By:roboleyton Description: Sleeve Back with Apple Logo, Barcoding sticker
Number:465196 Uploaded By:roboleyton Description: Rubber Soul Apple A
Number:465197 Uploaded By:roboleyton Description: Rubber Soul Apple B
After doing some research, I have found out that these are from the 1987 to 1991 pressings, the carry the same matrix numbers as the standard Parlophone pressing of that time Side 1: YEX 178-8-1-1 D; Side 2: YEX 179-8C-1-1 D.
Hi, just look at the credit: Northern Songs NCB, i don´t think this is a copy for Germany, because we had Original-copies during the 1960s with White-red-Gold Label, and later Editions from EMI-Odeon with blue-labels. NCB indicates possibly the northern countries, like Denmark, Sweden, Norway.
Colour printing is done in layers, red, yellow, black etc. These ones must have just had the black print applied but not the other colours, so they should have been scrapped.
These labels are not the same as the John lennon album versions, they are a colour separation of the print (i.e Black, Red, Blue, Yellow), The labels are printed by a seperate company, not at Hayes Pressing plant.
I've lusted after these peculiar pressings for years! My only theory behind their existence would be that someone in Hayes found a few of John's custom labels, had them printed over and slapped them on a couple of 'biscuits' during the pressing run. Boredom, or wishing to create an instant collectable. It's anyone's guess.