Still Screaming

It feels like no matter ho many copies of 'Screaming For Change' I own, there are still more copies that I am looking for. Even though I was only really interested in the colour vinyl copies on Wishingwell, at some point I realised that the first press sleeve was different, so I decided that I wanted one of those too. The main issue for anyone trying to find a first press copy, however, is that it came with both a poster and a sticker, and finding a copy for sale with both of those things is extrememly difficult. I figure that when this came out most people were young punks who immediately put the poster on the wall or slapped the sticker on a skateboard, and they then got separated from the record and probably ended up in the trash. But as far as I am concerned, knowing that the record is supposed to have a poster and sticker, I was never going to buy a copy without either one, no matter how cheap. So I played the waiting game... for years. And then, a few months ago I came across a copy on eBay with a reasonable buy it now price, and the description said that the poster and sticker were included. I took a moment to clarify with the seller, and then once I was happy, I bought it. The seller turned out to be in Orange County and was the original owner, so that's also a nice touch.

The poster is pretty damn huge. This next photo shows it laid out to the right of the record and cover. I also laid the (white) sticker on top of the poster, so that the right half of this picture is pretty rare.

So that's pretty much that. What I have done for the rest of this post is to lay out the sleeve and insert next to a second press equivalent so you can see the differences. In all photos, the 1st press is on the left and 2nd press on the right.

What's fascinating about the front cover is that the first and second press copies are actually different pictures. Both are hand drawn by Gavin Oglesby, but they are different versions of the same picture. I remember that this first came to light on the internet in the 00s on Double Cross, and if I didn't remember reading about it then I'm not sure that I would have ever noticed. But if you look closely, you can see some subtle differences. Turns out that the first press picture was drawn onto leather and then photographed, but they didn't think it looked quite right, so when it came to do the second press, Gavin drewn it again on illustration board.

I ignored the Southern Lord reissue of this record a few years ago, and I still have no intention of going back on that decision. I'm only interested in Wishingwell editions of this record. And even though this is my 10th copy of this record, there is still one more that I am looking for - the grey vinyl version. I've missed a couple over the years but I'm sure that one will come eventually.