There are new sections for singles on pink Island, CBS orange, B&C Records, Charisma pink scroll and Mooncrest as well as a rare addition on Vertigo. Click the labels to go to each singles section featuring Traffic, Titanic, Atomic Rooster, Nazareth, Rare Bird and Manfred Mann.
More singles to be added to each section as they are acquired. Keep coming back for updates.
Thanks to Jonáš Zdenēk from Prague who’s spotted another Led Zeppelin label variation, this time on the Swan Song “The Song Remains The Same” UK release.
The labels are nearly identical, the publishing credits and band name and album title are positioned differently. Both of these pre-date the later label style which is shown below:
featuring Santana, Andy Roberts, Canned Heat and The Sunshine Company. Click the labels to go to each album’s page:
just come back from a weekend away and happened to call in at Mapledurham water mill…
but it looks so much more atmospheric if you give it Marcus Keef’s ‘false colour photography’ treatment, like this:
Unfortunately the estate was closed at the time and I couldn’t get to the exact same location as Keef to shoot his album cover shot for Black Sabbath’s debut album. But it’s only about 40 feet away (the other side of the tree hanging down on the left) from where Keef was in early 1970…
…along with The Gun from 1968. A couple of hard to find UK original 1st pressings on the orange CBS label. The Gun is also available in a mono version. Notable for a couple of reasons; a very young Gary Moore (17 at the time) plays on Skid Row, and The Gun’s LP features a successful single release of “Race With The Devil” which was covered by female metal band Girlschool in 1980 as part of their debut album “Demolition”. The cover art for The Gun was by Roger Dean and is reputed to be his very first album cover
a few updates to the Vertigo Swirl singles section with some rare demos added:
click the labels to go to that record’s page.
Purple Records and Swan Song labels were created to give the artists Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin (respectively) more artistic and creative control over their musical output. As it happened, neither artist released much (if any with regards to Led Zeppelin!) output at all on their own labels (Deep Purple actually had more singles released once they’d split up!).
Click each label to see the label discography:
featuring King Crimson and Brian Augur:
There are two versions of Judas Priest’s seminal 1976 LP on the Gull label (GULP 1015). I have found an alternative version from the Decca pressed version, one pressed by Pye Records. Both Decca and Pye manufactured and distributed for Gull but I am now wondering whether Decca was the original pressing and Pye a later reissue…? And therefore, does that follow for ALL releases on Gull…are there two versions of each original release? Watch this space for developing news!
Here are both label styles (and the rear sleeves differ too, go to the album page here to see the variations):
Oh, and by the way…the Pye pressed version glows red when held up to the light (just like all mid-70s pressed Pye records).
Yet another version of Led Zeppelin II’s label design, this time on the green and orange reissue from the 70s. Thanks to Stuart Carson for supplying this 3rd issue label from 1979; here are the three green and orange reissues in order (click the images to see full size):
Note the copyright statement on the 1st reissue (above left) is within the orange segment. The subsequent two versions extend through the white band and into the green. They also feature the ‘w’ lozenge of Warner Communications Company.
1st and 2nd reissues (left and centre) feature “Made in UK” wording below ‘STEREO’ whilst 3rd reissue (right) features “Manufactured in the UK”. This is consistent with Swan Song labels making the same change from “Made in” to “Manufactured in” sometime in 1979. Swan Song was also manufactured and distributed by Atlantic. The first Swan Song lp to feature this change was SSK59408 Bad Company ‘Desolation Angels’ issued in 1979. So the 3rd reissue is most likely to have been produced around the same time (c. 1979 onwards).
Note also the difference in publishing credits on the 2nd issue and also the track listing denotes “Killing Floor” whilst the 1st and 3rd feature “The Lemon Song”. Side Two of this 3rd reissue also features songwriting credits to ‘Baldwin’, John Paul Jones’ real name, echoing back to earlier red/plum label variations.
Rare Record Collector 