Bane - Holding This Moment 12"

When I heard that Bane's so-called "first record" (which was not actually their first record at all) was being repressed, I was not happy. Not because I don't like the record, you understand, but more because Bane are one of two bands (the other being Integrity) for which I made a conscious decision to try to own absolutely every version of every record they ever put out. And all of a sudden, it seems that both Bane & Integrity seem to be putting out new records (or new pressings of old records) pretty much every week these days. Even worse, every record each band releases seems to have at least fifty four versions. It's starting to get ridiculous, and I HATE that I am getting sucked in. If I had less money, no doubt I would not get sucked in. But because I can afford it, I buy it all. If you're not a collector then you won't understand (although, if you're not a collector then why the hell are you reading this blog in the first place?), but all I can say is that it's not so much that I WANT these things, but more that I feel that I HAVE to have them. To any rational human being, this obviously sounds stupid. I mean, clearly nobody is making me buy these records except myself. But still, the situation is that I have somehow convinced myself that I have own every Bane record that exists or else my life will not be complete. And if I purposely do not buy one then at some point in the future the one that I don't have will irritate me and I will regret not owning it and then I'll have to go to eBay and buy it for ten times the original price. So yeah... as I have said many times before - I am an idiot.

But anyway... getting back to the start of the story... I found out a while ago that Hurry Up Records were repressing Bane's 'Holding This Moment' CD as a 12" vinyl record. For those who don't know, 'Holding This Moment' was the band's third 7", although marked their first release for Equal Vision Records. It is undoubtedly the record that raised their profile significantly, and almost overnight propelled them onto every hardcore kids' radar. In the late 90s when this was released, Equal Vision was one of the three biggest labels releasing this kind of music (the other two being Victory and Revelation), and they had good international distribution. Any band getting signed to EVR was pretty much guaranteed to sell 20,000 or more records and CDs... which, for bands who were previously shifting 500-1000 copies of a self-released 7", represented a pretty big step up. And when EVR released the Bane 7", they also put it on a CD which came with 6 extra songs... which just so happened to be all the songs from their first two 7"s that had been released on Life Records (the label owned by guitarist Aaron Dalbec). So technically this 12" vinyl pressing represents the first vinyl release of the 9 song version of 'Holding This Moment', but it is not the first time that these 9 songs have appeared on vinyl. They came out on three separate 7"s before you were born.

So now on to the vinyl. There are three versions. Two of them seem acceptable whilst one looks like tiger vomit. Let's see if you can tell which is which...

First up, and my favourite, the clear green vinyl. There are 500 of these, making it the most common version. I always think there's an irony when the most aesthetically attractive record is the most common. I like this one best because the original 7" also came on clear green vinyl.

Next is the red/white split vinyl. 250 pressed. Again, this one looks alright. It reminds me of the red/clear split vinyl of 'Give Blood'.

The third version is out of 250 copies and is fucking horrible:

And me being a total dick also picked up the special fourth version - the test press. This one came in a regular sleeve with some hand writing on the front:

Finally, and for no good reason, here is a picture of all four copies together (taken right before I put them in their sleeves and onto a shelf where I shall no doubt never look at them ever again):

Also, because I bought so many records and sent the label a million dollars, they kindly threw in two more versions of one of the recent 7"s for free! Seems kind of them since I would have obviously paid for them anyway, because (as we have already discovered) I am an idiot. But hey. Both of these second press colours of the 'Dublin' 7" are out of 250 copies each:

To wrap this post up I thought I would help those people who are wondering what has stayed the same and what has changed with this release. If you really want to know that then you came to the right place.

The front cover. This is the same as the original 7" and also the CD version. But I guess that's to be expected.

The back cover. This is largely the same as both the original 7" and the CD. However, there are two small changes. Firstly, there is a sketch of some hands now sitting behind the E.E. Cummings quote.

Secondly, the Hurry Up logo has been inserted next to the EVR logo:

Next, the lyric sheet (which is the inner dust sleeve on the new 12" version). This is more like the 7" lyric sheet on one side, as you can see:

But it then looks more like the CD insert on the other side... mainly because the 7" version only had lyrics for three songs.

And finally, the record labels. Side A is a full colour version of the label from the original 7" (and the graphic on the CD itself and picture sat behind the CD tray). This is a great photo because it features Dalbec from a time when he seemingly had a smaller head and generally looked a lot more like Ben Affleck:

The B side label is nothing like the B side label of the original 7". Instead, it features a piece of the artwork from the front cover.

Overall I would say that Hurry Up has done a pretty good job with this release. The only thing that lets it down (aside from the disgusting vinyl colour) is that the inner sleeves are the glossy printed type that have the lyrics printed on. And these almost always get ripped in transit. These are no exceptions. My three copies all have inner sleeves that have split down the side, on both sides. I just know that this is going to bug me forever more.