Another Breakdown

Last year (2025) some colour vinyl copies of Black Flag 7"s started popping up. Quite early on I managed to work out that these were not labelled as colour vinyl, and a lot of the sellers didn't realise that they had them. It was a bit chaotic, but thankfully I had some help and advice from a couple of fellow Black Flag collectors, and I ended up with a few different colours of each. Near the start of the year I picked up four different colour copies of the 'TV Party' 7", and then towards the end of the year I managed to find four colour copies of the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7".

Nobody really knows how many different colours exist, but I figured that if I came across any different colours then I'd probably grab them. Recently I spotted a copy on eBay on a nice orange colour. Turns out it was being sold by one of the fellow collectors who helped me previously, so I was more than happy to take this spare copy off his hands.

This now takes me to five copies of this 2025 repress. I mean, two of them are pretty similar really, but it still counts.

I'm pretty sure that these were all just one pressing, and there are definitely other colours out there. Another collector I know has amassed a much bigger collection of these, including a couple of much lighter browns, a couple of light greys and also a pinkish copy. So plenty more to keep a nerd busy for a long time to come.

Everything Went Purple

With unannounced and unexpected colour vinyl pressings of the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7" and the 'TV Party' 7" appearing in 2025, it was only a mater of time until one of the Black FLag 12"s would also receive the colour repress treatment. So here we are, with a weird purple / black vinyl mix pressing of the 'Everything Went Black' 2x12".

This was a crazy one. A couple of weeks ago someone sent me a post by someone on instagram of a pinkish/purple/black mix copy of this record. It immediately felt like it would take forever to find one. But in a lucky and bizarre turn of events, by the end of the day I had placed an order for a copy, which arrived two days later.

The photo I saw on instagram was pretty cool looking, but this particular copy is slightly disappointing, as the amount of purple within the black is minimal. Ideally I will eventually find another copy of this for sale with more colour in it. But for now, I'm just glad I managed to get one of these at all.

Nervous Breakdown 2025

Earlier this year I posted 4 newly pressed different coloured copies of Black FLag's 'TV Party' 7". Despite these clearly being new records pressed in 2025, as I type this near the end of the year, these were never really widely available or publicised, which I think is due to them all being sold sealed and not being marked as colour vinyl in any way. Well anyway, the same thing also happened with the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7"... some colour vinyl copies were made, and have not been officially listed anywhere. I had a bit of help from other collectors and have (so far) ended up with 4 copies, although two of them are practically the same.

I bought two brown copies, and in real life they look a little different, although in photos it is difficult to tell.

Here are the four lined up next to each other:

Someone else I know also has a bright orange copy, which looks really cool. I'm assuming that they are all part fo the same pressing. I emailed SST Records to ask abot it but got no reply. They don't seem to bother replying to anyone on such matters so it seems. So we will probably never really know any detail about these. But take my word for it - these things are out there right now. They are all shipped sealed and so most stores or distros probably don't even now they have them. There may be other colours other than these (and the orange I mentioned), and if you know anything then please drop a comment.

TV Party 2025

Back in 2020 I completed a collection of Black Flag colour vinyl 7"s, which was a journey that took me 12 years. One of the problems with record collecting these days, however, is that collections may not remain complete because represses and reissues are being churned out at an alarming rate.

So a couple of months ago I got an email from a UK record store containing a list of their latest stock, and I noticed that they had a copy of Black Flag's 'TV Party' 7" listed on yellow vinyl. My first instinct was to look around on the internet to find out more, but there was literally no information about this anywhere. I then thought that perhaps the listing was an error. But I also know that this shop always lists vinyl colours, so there was a strong possibility that it was a new pressing and they were the first place online to have it. So i decided to buy a copy and take a chance. But then I also decided that it would make more sense to buy two copies, thinking that I could potentially gift one to a fellow collector if this turned out to be rare. So I ordered two copies of the yellow vinyl pressing and this is what I received:

As you can see, one copy is definitely yellow, whilst the other is definitely not. It's a dark greenish teal type colour.

Well, then I started chatting to a fellow Black Flag collector and he went into full on chase mode and ordered copies from a record store and also from SST directly. I'm not sure exactly how many copies he ended up with, but in the end he let me know that he had a couple of spares on slightly different colours, and asked if I was interested. Well, of course I was. So this is what I ended up with:

The first copy is a slightly reddish, greyish brown colour, whilst the second is a greenish greyish colour.

What's kinda funny about this is that in the whole of time up to this year, there were only 3 different colour vinyl copies of this record - red and yellow vinyl (from the 90s) and an orange vinyl from 2011. And here I am in 2025 with four additional colours. I'm pretty sure that these are all part of the same pressing, which I would guess is from a 'scrap' or 'random' pressing, but still, there is no denying that these are different colours. No other variants of this pressing have yet surfaced, but it wouldn't surprise me if some did. But without doubt this all feels a bit low key and given the lack of information, how few people have added it to their collection in discogs and the lack of places selling it, this could turn out to be a pretty rare version of this record, so worth grabbing one if you have the chance.

Jealous Again Again

It seems that Black Flag records are like buses. You wait three years for one, then two come along at once. After picking up the final colour vinyl 7" that I needed (the clear blue 'Six Pack' 7"), I then managed to find the only other colour vinyl Black Flag record that I felt that I needed - the clear vinyl 'Jealous Again' 12".

I've known about this one for maybe a year or two. I lose track of time, so it's hard to say exactly, but the point is that it was only relatively recently that it came onto my radar. A fellow collector tipped me off and told me that it existed. Information on this record is pretty much non existent, but the other Black Flag collectors that I know are sure that this is a semi recent repress. I tried to contact SST Records via different channels to ask, but got no response.

I picked this up via a trade initiated via instagram. Someone I follow posted a pic of some Black Flag records, and this one was in the shot, so I sent a message asking if he would consider letting it go. I was expecting that the answer would be 'no', but the answer was more like 'i might be into trading'. A few days later a deal was agreed, and then a week or so later the record landed at my door.

As the photo shows, this is on clear vinyl. One of my pet hates in recent years is people insisting that clear vinyl is 'clear green' or 'coke bottle clear'. These terms never used to exist. Clear is clear. Sometimes it seems to have a slight green tint to it, but that doesn't make it green. It's clear, ok? [/Rant over]

To wrap this one up, a (non) interesting fact is that this is the first copy of this record that I have owned in probably 25 or 26 years. The first copy of this record I bought was the pink vinyl 10" pressing, which I bought in about 1992. I then sold it probably in around 1994/5, because I found out that the 10" pressings were just reissues of ealier 12"s or 7"s. I had 3 or 4 of the colour vinyl 10"s, but always hated 10"s, so finding out that they were not original pressings made getting rid of them an easy decision. After that I never bought another version, as a black vinyl 12" never really seemed high up the agenda. So it's great to finally pick up a copy of this record, because all things considered, I think this is probably my single favourite Black Flag record.

Black Flag Colour 7" Collection

So the first thing to say is that I've been anticipating and looking forward to making this post for the past 8 years. Ever since December 2012 when I 'completed' my Black Flag colour vinyl LP collection, I have been trying to also complete the colour vinyl 7" collection. Back in 2012 I probably thought it would take a couple of years, yet somehow it has taken 8. But with the addition of the clear blue vinyl 'Six Pack' 7" in my last post, the time has finally come.

Anyway, I always planned to do what I did with the LPs, and put them all into one post, for no other reason than for this to be used as a reference guide for anyone else interested in this stuff. So I'm going to go through each of the 7"s in order.

First up is SST Records Number 1, the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7". This one comes on four colours. I'm pretty sure that the earliest colour pressing is the one in the red sleeve on gold vinyl. Then there are two different clear red vinyl pressings - one with a large hole, one with small hole. I have no idea if these were pressed at the same time or separately. I would guess that the gold vinyl and red vinyl copies were made in the early 90s, although this is pure speculation, based on the fact that this is when most colour vinyl SST records were pressed. And then the clear blue vinyl copy was the most recent and dates back to 2011.

Second is the 'Six Pack' 7" (SST Records number 5). Again, there are 4 different versions of this one. The three copies in the red sleeves probably date back to the early 90s, but again, I'm guessing. They may have been pressed at the same time, or they may be different pressings that were made in a relatively short period of time. The whiteish copy was pressed in 2011.

Third is the 'TV Party' 7" (SST Records number 12). There are only 3 colour versions of this one, but it follows the same pattern. The clear yellow and clear red probably date from the early 90s, whereas the solid orange copy is from 2011.

And finally, the 'Louie Louie' 7" (SST Records number 175). This one slightly bucks the previous trend, in that there are 5 versions of this one. The 'original' colour pressings are the white, turquoise and red vinyl copies, and just like the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7", there are two different red vinyl copies - one with large hole and one with a small hole. There is then a grey vinyl repress from 2011.

What is perfect about this collection is that there are 16 records. So once I had taken records out to take the photos above, all I had to do was slide all 16 together to make a nice 4x4 square.

Of course, the down side to 'finishing' a collection is that it means that there are no more records to chase, which is half the fun. But now that I have acquired all of the colour 7"s, I think I now may move on to collecting the first pressings of each of these as they are on different labels. That said, I'm probably not going to chase an first press 'Nervous Breakdown' as that one goes for a lot more than I'd like to pay. But at least I have an excuse to buy more 7"s and carry on completely ignoring the 10"s.

Clear Blue Six Pack

It's been 3.5 years since I last added a Black Flag record to my collection. It was a copy of a 7" that I already had, but with a different sized hole. Prior to that variant that I didn't know about, it the previous last FLag record I had picked up was a baby blue vinyl copy of the 'Six Pack' 7" back in October 2015. At the end of that post, I wrote this:

I'm now only one 7" away from a complete colour 7" collection. The last one I need, however, seems to be stupidly rare. I only know that it exists as a fellow collector emailed me a picture which he had grabbed from popsike. It's the 'Six Pack' 7" (again!) on clear blue.

Well, somehow it took 5 years, but a clear blue 'Six Pack' finally made it's way into my house yesterday. Here it is:

I have no idea how many of these exist, but it definitely feels like it is the rarest of all the colour vinyl Black Flag 7"s. In all of the time I have been collecting them, I have only seen this one for sale once (well, technically twice, although both times by the same person). I ended up paying about double what I would have been happy to pay, but sometimes you have to pay more to end the hunt and regain your sanity. Plus the seller is a fellow UK Black Flag collector, so it was good to help him out.

I was relatively late to collecting the colour Black FLag 7"s, with the first one I picked up being in 2008, and here I am in 2020 adding what I believe to be the last of them to the collection. It seems crazy to think that collecting all of the 12"s took me 6 years from start to finish, but the 7"s took double that time.

Hole

A few short years ago I decided to start collecting colour vinyl Black Flag 7"s. This was pretty much when I had completed (as far as possible) a collection of colour vinyl Black Flag LPs. I figured this 7" journey would take a while, which isn't a problem as I learnt to have patience years ago. So I sat back and started slowly scooping them up, one by one. Anyway, I thought I was getting pretty close to a complete colour 7" collection when I realised that there were two different red vinyl copies of 'Nervous Breakdown'. And finally I've managed to track down the one I was missing.

So what's the difference between this new one and the one I already had? Well, rather than explain, I thought we could play a game of 'spot the difference'. First up, the front (new record at the top):

And secondly, the back (again, new record at the top):

I had the exact same issue with two red vinyl copies of the 'Louie Louie' 7" - one with large hole, and one with small hole. You'll have to trust me on this, but it's an odd moment when you realise that you've crossed a line between collecting records and collecting different sized holes.

I've Heard It Before

It's been a little over a year since I added a Black Flag record to my collection. The last one was a gold vinyl copy of the 'Six Pack' 7". And my latest is another copyof the same record, but this one is on baby blue vinyl.

This one was a tough find. I started trying to collect the colour vinyl Flag 7"s in 2013 after (pretty much) completing the colour vinyl 12" collection and this copy was the first I saw for sale in two and a half years. It was worth the wait too, as this copy is in really great condition.

I'm now only one 7" away from a complete colour 7" collection. The last one I need, however, seems to be stupidly rare. I only know that it exists as a fellow collector emailed me a picture which he had grabbed from popsike. It's the 'Six Pack' 7" (again!) on clear blue. It looks like this:

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone reading this has one of these and would sell or trade it then please get in touch. I'm sure we can work out a deal.

My Girlfriend Asked Me Which One I Like Better...

I hope the answer won't upset her...

SIX PICK!

Another Black Flag colour vinyl 7" for the collection. I don't think I've seen this one up for sale before, so when I saw it I knew I had to grab it or I could be waiting a long time for another to surface.

I'm not sure exactly how old this is, but the condition is great. I don't think I could ask for a better copy. I don't know the pressing info either, but what I do know is that there are two other colours of this 7", both of which come in the same red cover as this one. One is on dark, clear blue vinyl and the other comes on a solid baby blue vinyl. I need both. If I get them, I'll have a complete colour 7" collection. So come on, people, help me out here.

Gold Breakdown

Slowly I've been chipping away at the color vinyl Black Flag 7"s. At the end of 2012, I finished collecting the Black Flag color vinyl LPs, and realised that I had next to no 7"s. So I made a list of what I was missing, and started out shopping. I've picked up a few, and here's the latest... 'Nervous Breakdown' on gold.

I'm not exactly sure why, but this gold vinyl and red and white sleeve combination looks great. Definitely one of the nicest looking Flag 7"s I have.

I'd been looking for one of these for a while and never so much as seen one. Then two appeared on eBay at the same time. One appeared listed at $150. The other started at $0.99. I wrote off the expensive one and watched the cheaper one, which I won for $21 in the end. I was happy enough with that.

I only need three more colour Flag 7"s now - 'Six Pack' on both blue and yellow vinyl, and 'Nervous Breakdown' on red vinyl with large hole. If anyone has any leads, get at me.

Big Hole

A couple of years ago I picked up a Black Flag 'Louie Louie' 7" on red vinyl (see HERE). Recently I saw one for sale and did a double take. It looked different to mine. Then it hit me - it had a big centre hole, whereas mine had a small centre hole. So obviously I had to buy it as it qualified as a different record.

This is actually the third copy of 'Louie Louie' I've picked up this year. I'm still hoping that one day I can do a photo of all the Black Flag colour 7"s like I did last year with the colour LPs.

Gold TV Party

I'm pretty happy to have bagged another colour vinyl Black Flag 7". This time it's 'TV Party' on gold to go nicely with the red and orange copies I already have.

This copy is in great condition and I'm very happy to have tracked this one down. This is how I like collecting. Slowly adding one at a time every now and again. None of this buying everything in a couple of weeks malarky. Now I only have four more coloured Flag 7"s to find - two 'Nervouse Breakdown' and two colours of 'Six Pack'. They'll come. Eventually.

So I also bought a couple of other small 7"s from the same seller as they were both pretty cheap. The Guilt 'Empty' 7" on Initial Records was definitely one of the first 50 7"s I owned. I always liked this band, and I always wondered whether the cover was supposed to be a 90s take on the Minor Threat 7", complete with baggy jeans and hair. This version comes on white vinyl and in a blue sleeve. I also have white vinyl in a red sleeve.

I also grabbed this Set To Explode 7" on white. This was one of the best records of the 2006 era, and even though I have three copies I somehow missed this later pressing on white.

White Flag

I'm still trying to collect the color vinyl Black Flag 7"s. Somehow they seem harder to get than the LPs. But every once in a while one of them will pop up. Here's the latest - a white vinyl copy of 'Louie Louie' with large centre hole:

This is the first 7" where I have acquired all the color variants - white, greenish grey, red and grey. But rather than take a picture of them all, I figured I'd save the collection shot until I have all of the Black Flag color 7"s. So probably sometime circa 2016...

Greyish Green

I haven't picked up any Black Flag records since December when I 'finished' collecting the colour vinyl LPs. But despite now having almost every colour LP variant out there, I have next to no 7"s. For the six years or so that I was collecting the LPs (and religiously searching eBay every week) I probably saw every colour 7" for sale, and I pretty much ignored the lot of them. For some reason that I can't even explain, I just wasn't interested. But now that there are no more LPs to collect, I've consciously decided to move on to the 7"s. Here's one I have just picked up - a seldom seen greyish green pressing of 'Louie Louie'.

For some reason it's really hard to photograph this colour. It looks greener in real life, but the camera just won't pick it up accurately. This final pic is the closest of the three.

In case anyone has any coloured Black Flag 7"s that they aren't overly attached to, here are the ones I'm looking for:

Black Flag 'Nervous Breakdown' (SST) - Red vinyl w/ large hole in blue sleeve
Black Flag 'Nervous Breakdown' (SST) - Yellow vinyl in red sleeve
Black Flag 'Six Pack' (SST) - Blue vinyl in red sleeve
Black Flag 'Six Pack' (SST) - Yellow vinyl in red sleeve
Black Flag 'Louie Louie' (SST) - White vinyl
Black Flag 'TV Party' (SST) - Yellow vinyl

Hopefully these 7"s will take less than the six years that it took to collect the LPs.

Black Flag Colour LP Collection

I don't usually pull out things from my collection to post. This blog has always been an online diary of new things I pick up. But due to just completing my Black Flag color vinyl LP collection, as well as the fact that my girlfriend is sick and it's raining outside (hence I'm bored), I figured I would spend some time taking photos today. So here's the culmination of 6 years of patience and sniping...

First up, 'Damaged'. The purple marble copy has blue labels, which means it is an earlier press (apparently from the late 80s according to Lins). The pink, red & clear purple copies have red labels and are all early 90s pressings.

Next, 'My War'. The red vinyl has no barcode on the back, the blue does. The red is an earlier pressing for sure, but the blue seems harder to come by and sells for more on average.

And now, three copies of 'Slip It In'. The clear, dark red copy is from the early 90s, whereas the green and grey were pressed this year.

Next is 'Loose Nut'. The first blue vinyl copy (which is the early 90s pressing) that I bought on eBay (for about £6) arrived broken. I complained to the seller about poor packaging and got a refund, then I framed it. In 20 years of buying records, this is the only one that's ever arrived broken.

So not long after the broken blue vinyl copy of 'Loose Nut', I found another for about the same price. Then, this year, they repressed it on a million different colour variations. I stupidly bought three of them.

It's a similar deal with 'In My Head'. Until this year there was only one colour version, which is an orangey pink colour. Then this year it got pressed on several colours. I bought two. I like the dark brown as it matches the cover.

Not so great a record, but essential if you want a complete Flag collection, it's the inevitable live record - 'Who's Got The 10½?'. There are two colours of this one - clear pink and clear purple (which looks black here but is definitely purple, I assure you!).

Possibly the most pointless record to own if you have all the others, 'Wasted Again', which is a greatest hits album. I do love the colourful cover on this one, even though it's completely out of step with all the others. There are two colours of this one - gold vinyl and blue vinyl. The blue vinyl copy of this is pretty rare. Not even the ultimate Black Flag discography seems to know about this one. Ironically, this was the first piece of colour Black Flag vinyl I picked up back in 2006 when I decided to start this collection.

And here's a few odds and sods. Each of these (currently) only exists on one colour. 'Family Man' on yellow, 'The First Four Years' on gold, and 'Everything Went Black' on white.

And finally, the money shot. The whole lot in one go. It's a good job I have a king sized bed.

In total, this post must have taken about 3 hours to put together. After all this time and effort I can safely say that I don't want to see another colour vinyl Black Flag LP for quite some time.