It's been a long time since I added anything to my Bane collection. There's barely anything I don't have is the main reason for that. But this particular version of the second 7" has eluded me for long time. To be honest, it was only a couple of years back that I realised that it existed and that I didn't have one. I watched a few on eBay but was never motivated enough to bid. But eventually I saw one that looked to have been missed by the rest of the world, so I grabbed it.
This is the eleventh copy of this 7" that I own. I have no idea where this fits in terms of pressing info. I always thought that the first press was black and the second press yellow. However, there are black copies with stamped white labels numbered out of 300, and then there are black copies like this with the bane logo labels. No idea if both variants are first press, or whether one is first press and another second. Anyone? Murphy?
11 comments:
Oddly, on my list (and that section hasn't changed in 10+ years), I have this record labeled as first press. And the black & yellow eps with stamped labels as 2nd press. And then there is a nagging voice in the back of my mind that's telling me the green eps were a 4th press, but now I'm thinking they were a 3rd press. You may have to call in Dalbec on this one ...
I'm not sure Dalbec would know. Remember about 6 years ago when, in all seriousness, he told me that the green was pressed at the exact same time as the yellow?
It somehow boggles the mind that you had all these absurdly rare test presses before this one... I also had the black vinyl with BA/NE labels pegged as first press and the yellow & black records with blank labels as second press, but then again I think I took the pressing info from hows yr edge's howsyouregde list. Dude that does the banerecords blog lists it also like this though.
I had another look at the records and the addresses on the back covers don't match up. The ones with the 'BA/NE' labels have a different address than the yellow ones and stamped black ones. So these two versions most likely were a separate pressing. The green ones show yet another address on the back cover. If you want to make absolutely sure which pressing was the first one you should ask Dalbec where he lived when.
Good work, detective. I didn't think of that. Given that we know that they yellow was a 2nd press, then the black with bane labels must be first press. And I know for 100% definite that the green was a later pressing that came out in (I think) 2002. So I guess that pretty much wraps that mystery up. Thanks!
Insert wrench here
I have 4 eps
black ba/ne label - east mountain st
yellow #ed - east mountain st
Black #ed - 34 john st
Black #ed buffalo press - 34 John st
Here's the thing. I'm 99% certain that Dalbec and Tre lived at the East Mountain St apartment BEFORE the John St apartment. But maybe I'm losing my mind.
Not losing my mind. Tre just confirmed it. They lived at the East Mountain spot BEFORE John St (RIP).
Which would make my yellow ep have the wrong sleeve, right? The inserts on the yellow and ba/ne are much higher quality too. Card stock instead of photocopied paper.
And now that I look at the first ep, I see the Shrewsbury address on 2, and the east mountain rd address, stickered over the original address on the other.
That helps to pull it together.
@hows yr edge
Could be that your yellow copy has a 'wrong' sleeve. The inserts of my yellow and black numbered ones are definitely the same, but they're both of lower quality than the insert that comes with the black one with printed labels. Maybe there had been some leftovers from the first pressing? Who knows.
My third press copies have the same insert as the first press as far as the paper goes. But the black in the pictures is much darker than on the original insert, which is rather a dark grey. And this is probably the nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna write: the inserts are folded differently, haha.
I just got all my copies out to check addresses. This is what I found:
Black w/ bane labels - Mountain St
Card sleeve, glossy insert
Black #/300 - John St
Photocopied sleeve & insert
Yellow #/200 - Mountain St
Card sleeve, glossy insert
Green #3/100 - Essex St address on sticker
Card sleeve, glossy insert
* Green vinyl #8/300 (!) - Essex St address on sticker
Card sleeve, glossy insert
Green #27/100 - Essex St address on sticker (green ink on sticker)
Card sleeve, glossy insert
Green #38/100 - Essex St address on sticker (green ink on sticker)
Card sleeve, glossy insert
** Green #54/100 - John St address
Photocopied sleeve & insert
Green (not numbered) - Essex St address on sticker (green ink on sticker)
Card sleeve, glossy insert
*** Solid Green vinyl - Essex St address on sticker (Sticker printed in BLACK ink)
Card sleeve, glossy insert
So yes, my yellow vinyl copy also has the a different sleeve to my black / 300 copy. Like Murphy, my black vinyl w/ bane labels has the same sleeve as my yellow copy. I'm now starting to wonder what the hell is going on here.
Other anomalies I noticed (marked with * above) are as follows:
* Green vinyl but numbered out of 300 rather than 100. I got this from Dalbec a year or so ago. My theory is that he 'made' it from a green one with blank labels just so he could sell it to me, but he messed up and used the wrong stamp, numbering it out of 300 rather than 100. This theory will obviously never be proven.
** Green vinyl in photocopied sleeve. Number 54 has a different sleeve to all the others. Doesn't make sense that one in the middle of the range of numbers has a different sleeve. The sleeve is not in great shape and is tatty round the edges, so my theory on this one is that someone decided to sell their green one but keep their black one, and switched sleeves in order to keep the better condition sleeve, without realising the sleeves were different.
*** The only one with black ink on the address sticker. No idea what this means. An earlier or perhaps later sticker? No idea. Just noticed it so I thought I would note it.
Pandora's box right here, haha. Looks like the sleeve to my yellow copy is probably the wrong one. As I said before, maybe they had some sleeves left over from the first pressing?
Just to add to the confusion even more, both my 3rd press copies (numbered and unnumbered) have address stickers printed with black ink. The numbered one used to be yours btw.
Ok, so I have a new theory on this based on the info we have cobbled together.
My guess is that the black vinyl with 'bane' logo labels is the first press, then the second press was the black and yellow with stamped labels.
To explain the sleeve differences, I would guess that there were some proper (card) sleeves left over from the first press, and (to explain how me & Murphy have proper card sleeves on our yellow vinyl copies, whilst Ralf does not) I also would guess that the remaining sleeves were used to house the yellow vinyl copies... but at some point, the leftover sleeves ran out. Rather than pay the printer to make an extra 200-250 sleeves, they just made them on a photocopier, at which point they took the opportunity to change the address on the sleeve and bring it up to date. I think this 'running out of sleeves' theory would definitely explain how the yellow copies have a mix of proper card and photocopied sleeves. After they yellow copies were stuffed into sleeves, all remaining second press black vinyl copies ended up in the photocopied sleeves.
In my mind this seems plausible and likely, meaning none of us have the 'wrong' sleeves on any of our records.
The green vinyl copy I have numbered out of 300 still bothers me though. I want to ask Dalbec, but there's no way he will have a clue what I am talking about. When I saw him recently I asked him about selling a 'Give Blood' test to this kid Daniel in Australia (the guy who has a blog on his Bane records). Dalbec flat out denied selling him the record, and said he didn't know who the kid was... except he DID sell Daniel the record, and Daniel is a kid who went on tour with the band as their merch guy like three years ago. I love Dalbec, but his memory seems to malfunction badly when it comes to records.
As long as he remembers how to play the songs... What I'd really like to know is if there are any more solid green copies out there. Would love to have one of those.
Post a Comment