Spirits

A friend recently hit me up telling me he had a few classic LPs for sale. I already had most of them, but one item caught my eye, so we did a quick deal.

This is the first LP by Up Front titled 'Spirit'. I always thought of this as a kind of 'tier 2' straight edge record, as it was always overshadowed by Youth of Today, Judge, and Minor Threat, and because the production isn't as strong. But time has been good to this record in my opnion. For one, the artwork has become almost iconic in its own right. And the songs themselves are good, despite the slightly weak production.

This is the second pressing out of 500 copies. The first press had a black and white cover, and on the second press the black was changed to red. I think this is also the rarest pressing of this record, being out of 500 copies.

So after winning this one I had a quick look to see what other versions were available to buy within the UK, and I found a blue vinyl copy in great shape. This is part of the third pressing which was 1000 copies on blue vinyl and 1000 copies on white vinyl.

The cover got slightly updated on this version, with an extra colour being introduced in the printing process to help make the band name stand out.

I can't remember if I ever owned a blue copy of this before. I definitely used to own a white one, which I traded away, and I think I also traded away another colour copy in the late 90s but can't remember if it was blue or white.

Well, as if often the case, I don't set out to collect these things, but over the years I have ended up with a few copies of this LP, and am only missing one... and of course, it ends up being the white vinyl copy that I traded away a few years ago. So I'll probably be on the lookout for one now.