“Fireball” 1971
Sleeve notes:
Textured gatefold sleeve, date code 7109 (September 1971) and printer’s credit on inner gatefold.
“Printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd.”
Label notes:
There are two versions (see above) but both have the correct 1st press information:
Uk 1st pressing information must include the following –
“THE GRAMOPHONE CO. LTD” around rim of label
EMI box logo on label
“MADE IN GT. BRITAIN” at bottom of label
Matrix notes:
UK 1st pressing (with label as above)
S H V L 7 9 3 A – 2U PEK (P L at 3 o’clock in deadwax, 3 at 9 o’clock)
S H V L 7 9 3 B – 3U (H A at 3 o’clock in deadwax, 1 at 9 o’clock)
OTHER NOTES:
First pressing comes with a double sided lyric insert:
There are 2 sleeve variations, one has the inner gatefold textured as the outer outer gatefold, and the other version has a smooth inner gatefold. All text is identical.
There is also another label version which looks almost identical to the UK 1st pressing, but it does not have the ‘MADE IN GT. BRITAIN’ wording at the bottom of the label and it has hand etched matrices featuring the ‘IE 064 92726’ code that appears on the rear sleeve beneath ‘SHVL 793’ – I suspect this is a German pressing for the UK market, possibly to meet the soaring demand for this album:
Rare Record Collector 