Billboard and Cashbox had only brief mentions that Atlantic/Atco had signed the band, and Record World of 22nd March had a photo with a longish caption stating that the agreement was "for the United States", so I take that to mean US only. It is not unknown for artists to sign with a different label for only one country; Dusty Springfield also signed to Atlantic for the US only in 1968, because she was unhappy with the way that US Philips/Mercury handled her releases, so her two Atlantic albums DUSTY IN MEMPHIS and A BRAND NEW ME (a/k/a FROM DUSTY WITH LOVE) were Philips releases in Canada (though it seems that DIM was accidentally released by Atlantic there too!), so maybe Hawkwind were unhappy with United Artists in the US for some reason.
Hi, Phil. Thanks for the research and information you provided. My copy is identical to the one on Discogs, so CDN it is. Now I wonder how Hawkwind were under the Atlantic umbrella in the US but still on UA in Canada. You'd think that it would have come out on Atco in Canada, too, as they had a large presence there.
Hi mojofilter, Discogs tells me that U.A. Records, Limited was the Canadian UA company, founded in January 1972; the US company in 1975 was called United Artists Music And Records Group, Inc., frequently abbreviated to UAMARG, Inc. I don't think US labels ever used the "Recording First Published" wording, so all told, I would say that your copy is Canadian, but compare it to the Discogs entry to be sure.
The perimeter text on the label doesn't give a country of manufacture, it just says "Mfd.& dist.by U.A. Records, Ltd." There is a blurb on the label that says "Recording first published 1975. (P) 1975 U.A. Records, Ltd." There is no record company verbiage on the packaging, inside or out, or on the spine, except the catalogue number printed in white on the rear upper right corner. I had always supposed it to be a US edition, because it didn't say anything about Canada, but you could be right about it being a Canadian issue. If there was a paper inner sleeve with those details, I didn't get one. I have a generic plastic record sleeve made for the collectors' store in Toronto where I found it.
Billboard of 29th March 1975 reported that the group had signed to Atco, and Discogs does not have a US version on UA-LA 465G, only a Canadian version - could your copy be Canadian, mojofilter?
I had no idea this album was issued on Atco. My US copy is on United Artists UALA 465G. The inside cover is a die-cut that folds out into a four-square poster with some suitably trippy artwork. Does anyone know which one came first?