Brotherhood Swirled LP

This is one of my favourite ever straight edge records, and one of the most under-rated too - the Brotherhood 'Words Run... As Thick As Blood' 12".

Me and this record go way back. It's a story of records bought, traded, three UK scenesters and a seemingly fixed price.

I first picked this record up on on black when I was discovering straight edge hardcore in about 1993/4. Then, a couple of years later I picked up two different colour versions in a short space of time. The first was a pink vinyl copy from Tony, vocalist for ABOVE ALL. I'd been to his place and flicked through his records and known that he had it for some time, and every time I saw him I would badger him about it. But he was never interested in letting it go. I remember offering him twenty five quid for it once, which was a LOT of money for a record back then, but he always said no. But then, in the end, he sold it to me when he sold most of his straight edge records in order to finance the purchase of some Techniks turntables. The price? A tenner. Somewhere around about the same time, I remember getting a letter from Lecky telling me he had a green vinyl Brotherhood LP in his shop (the first incarnation of Wisdom Skates in Bradford). It was a Saturday morning, so I got straight on the phone to tell him I wanted it. He told me he would hold it for me. I then went into town and caught the train to Bradford to pick it up. The price? Ten quid. Sold.

At that point I had both known colours. I was happy. But then, a couple of years later, I was involved in major trading games via the Revelation trade board, and I was letting lots of things go, most notably things that I had more than one copy of. And because I had two Brotherhood LPs, I decided to let one go, which was the second press pink vinyl. The thing is, somehow I ended up trading it away for the first Throwdown LP on green. I mean, fuck me, what was I thinking? As I recall, Indecision was a pretty hot label at that point in time and Throwdown seemed to be THE new band, and the colour copies of the LP sold out super fast. So I just figured that I needed to get the LP before it started going for big money. So I let somebody have a pink Brotherhood LP for it. This remains the worst and stupidest trade I ever did beyond a shadow of a doubt. Clearly, only a total spastic would do that. But bizarrely, at the time, I was happy. Insanity.

Probably about three years later, circa 2003, luck was on my side once again when I found a pink vinyl Brotherhood LP for sale on eBay uk. This was in the days when not everyone had a digital camera and not all auctions had pictures. And because there was no picture on the auction, and it was listed on eBay uk, I knew this record was destined to be mine. As it turns out, I was right, and I ended up being the only bidder. The price? Yes, that's right - standard Brotherhood LP price - ten quid! Once again I was happy. Even better, the seller turned out to be Ian Simpson (who used to do Subjugation Records), and he lived right near me, so rather than have it sent through the mail I took a stroll down the road one evening to pick it up. Once again, I was happy.

And that's pretty much it. My history with the Brotherhood LP. Well, until recently that is, when my eBay travels had me stumble upon a listing for one of the lesser-known swirl versions, of which only 52 exist. As soon as I saw it, I decided I wanted it. So I took it. And here it is:

Unfortunately for me though, the price of coloured Brotherhood 12"s seems to have gone up a bit since I last bought one. Although, to offset that, my income has gone up quite a bit. So in real terms, the price has probably stayed pretty stagnant.

I also took a pic of it with the regular pink vinyl to show the difference, which is more pronounced than I first thought:

Funnily enough, there was a white vinyl repress years later which I was never interested in when it came out, because at the time I thought it was only made to make some new money from an old release. Except now I want one! There's also a few copies on solid (rather than clear) green. And also one with a limited silk-screened sleeve. Clearly I need to find all of these now. I mean, come on, why have one (or three) when you can have six?