Chain Of Strength 'WHUA' 7" on Blue

Chain of Strength 'What Holds Us Apart' 7" First Strike Records pressing on blue vinyl. This record is a funny one for me. I've had three copies of this before over the years and traded them all away.

I remember trading one to Anthony Pappalardo back in about 2000 for a couple of 7"s (one of which was the first Rain On The Parade 7" on clear numbered out of 100, not sure what the other one was though, possibly a release show version of the In My Eyes demo 7"?). I also traded a couple of these with dudes from the Revelation trade board back in my trading glory days. But since then I haven't owned one for myself... which is funny considering this is the most common version of the First Strike pressing.

It always seemed relatively easy to pick this record up over here in the UK, probably because the label, First Strike, was based here. So I would pick them up cheap and then trade them for good stuff with my American cousins. But then at some point the stream dried up and these things became harder to find... and then I realised that I kinda wanted one for myself. But I always used to be able to pick them up for like £4 or so, and then in the past few years the price on eBay started going up, but when you're used to paying £4, paying over £20 seemed crazy. So years went by with me not wanting to pay for one. But here we are, ten years later, and finally I got one at a fairly decent price. I guess I could have picked one up sooner if I had really wanted, but it wasn't high priority I guess. God knows why though. A great record. Every home should have one.

The colour itself is pretty bland, but I held mine up to the light and it looked WAY cooler, so I decided to snap a shot for you. Not sure if they are all like this:

I'm extremely close to having a full set of the First Strike pressing now. Only need the blue vinyl in the red sleeve to complete the set. Come on!