Understand were a UK band active in the early - mid 90s. They hailed from Southend on Sea, where I also lived during that time for a couple of years, and as a consequence I saw them play a lot of times. For a UK band at that time, they did pretty well, and probably played with every major US band touring the UK at that time. I think I saw them open for Quicksand, Sick Of It All and Into Another amongst others, although they never quite made it big in their own right. Shame as they deserved it. Their were way ahead of their time musically and, aside from their first 7", they still hold up today. Anyway, I was listening to them again last week and decided to check if I could find any records for sale. I found a promo copy of their debut major label 7" for £0.99 (plus postage) so I bought it. It's not overly exciting to look at, as you can see.
I bought this on discogs, so didn't see a picture of it. I was expecting perhaps a 7" in plain sleeve or something, but this is basically a regular copy of the 7" in a PVC sleeve that has a 'promotional' sticker on the front. Slightly disappointing. I even started to think that the promotional copy sticker on the PVC sleeve could have related to a different record completely, and maybe someone at some point just put this record in it.
Well, I also own two different promo copies of the same record in 12" format, so I dug one out to compare.
As you can see, the 12" version has a 'promotional copy' sticker which, despite being a different shape, contains the exact same wording. I therefore conclude that the 7" is/was a legitimate promo copy. Cool.
The only previous copy I owned of this 7" was the US pressing on Equal Vision Records. Fun fact - I read once (or possibly someone told me) that owner of EVR, Steve Reddy, rated this 7" as his second favourite EVR release. That may or may not have been entirely true, but I guess the point is that he liked them. Enough to release this record. Bedard from Bane mentioned this record to me once. Said he loved it, but had no idea that the band were from the UK. Anyway, just for fun I dug out the EVR pressing and put it next to this UK promo copy to compare. If you have two minutes spare you can play 'spot the difference'.
Interesting also how the EVR copy is on wafer thin vinyl. When I was younger I used to think that such records were on brown vinyl. I thought that not many people realised this colour existed. What a dipshit.
If you are interested in hearing this record, I recently uploaded it for a friend. If you like stuff in the Quicksand / Fugazi type ballpark then CHECK IT OUT and show some 90s UKHC love.