Now arrived. It's a G&L laminated sleeve and from what I can see identical to the one used for first pressings. There is as I suspected a clear sticker noting 'coloured vinyl' with the Motown big M icon on the top right hand corner. The only hint as to the likely issue date is probably the '1/79' notation on the EMI inner sleeve. So, very much the era of coloured vinyl mania but not sure it would have been quite in time for the Mod revival.
I've not looked to see whether other Motown compilations were similarly pressed - this one just sort of fell into my hands.
The seller described it as a first pressing but my first thought was surely a late '70s press when coloured vinyl was all the rage. From the image (front page only) I can see some sort of Motown icon in the top right which possibly states 'coloured.........'??. I do like original first pressings of anything but I'm inclined to hang on to this one when it gets here.
Wow, that'll be cool. I remember seeing a lot of this series in coloured vinyl, but I was either still at school or just leaving and just didn't have the funds. This would have been the early eighties and to this day I still haven't bought them! Volume 3 was as clear and I think I saw it more often than the others. Can't recall seeing the whole series in coloured, but a fair few. I think most were translucent, including a rancid looking brown.