On Thin Ice

A couple of months ago or so, someone reached out to me via this thing to tell me that they had some stuff for sale. It used to happen quite a lot in the early days of the blog, but these days nobody reads this anymore and any communication from it is rare. So it was nice to get an email from a long time reader, and even nicer when he sent me a list of records which had some nice little items. A few weeks later and they were delivered to my house, but it has taken me over month to take any photos. Such is life. Anyway, I figured I would break the pile into a few different posts else it would be too long.

I thought I'd start with some UK hardcore from 2004/05 era. On Thin Ice were a band from the 'dirty south' of the UK that I saw play a lot in a short space of time. They sound very similar to early Blacklisted, which was a sound I was very into back then. Come to think of it, I still am. Anyway, I picked up a test press of their debut 7", released on Dead & Gone Records in December 2004.

This one isn't a lot to look at, which is kinda surprising for a test from this era, which was when tests really started to become collectible, and most had alternate covers made. So kinda cool that this is just in a plain paper sleeve with a stamp. But this record is one of my absolute favourites from this era. I still listen to this one regularly (which these days means probably once or twice a year). It's every bit as good as anything being put out by similar bands of the time in the States (i.e. everything on Dead By 23 or Malfunction Records).

I also took a photo of this next to the regular cover:

I also picked up three copies of the On Thin Ice / Down To Nothing split 7" that I didn't have, and only 14 years after it came out. The first version is the pink vinyl in the US record release sleeve. Numbered out of 125 copies on Grave Mistake Records.

I also grabbed a red vinyl copy, which to be honest I'm not even sure I knew existed. Discogs tells me that there are only 50-75 of this colour, but I'm not sure I believe that. I'm sceptical of any information on discogs, but that's another story.

And finally, a UK pressing of the same 7" on Dead & Gone Records with a limited tour cover. In theory I was at a show on this tour and could have bought one there, but I never actually saw them for sale.

This split 7" has a crazy number of variants. Discogs contains 15 of the things. I now have 7 and don't think I really need any more, but if someone has a US test press I probably wouldn't say no.