The sands of time keep on dropping away, darn it!

Can anyone remember where I was this time last year?

Well I was desperately trying to get my want list down to below 900 items. Time is running out quicker than you may at first think between now and 4AD's 50th anniversary in 2030. I know what you are saying, 900 items in 15 years, that should be so easy. But I'm still discovering as many new items as I am finding, as last year's countdown to the new year showed. 

I really wanted to be able to strike off a 100 items per year and at least stay ahead of the falling sands. All year I have been giving myself a hard time as the reduction in my wantlist just didn't seem to go down that much month on month. 

Now at the end of 2015, a year on from trying to get below 900 items ....and failing and now have my wantlist down to...wait for it....

893

Hold on though, despite the awful lack of stuff to buy at record fairs and shops around the country, I have been buying online all year through (well except for December as I was a little strapped for cash). So I have I ended up only 13 items lower than this time last year. All year I've been perplexed as to why this is happening until I looked at how many items I have acquired this year, nearly 130. 

This is why I don't have much time left until 2030. It doesn't help of course that I have such problems finding the stuff I need to get on top of everything else. Thankfully I got some great Aussie releases, thanks to a cousin in Oz (thanks Sophie and Tom) and travelling family. Postage from Australia is so expensive!

There's a few things I ought to be adding to this blog by now. I have some amazing posters, I have actually got some complete releases now other than Cocteau Twins Peppermint Pig and Bauhaus's Dark Entries. I have actually visited and had a nice discussion with an actual professional trader, so it would be nice to get a trader's perspective from him. And, of course, I still have many duplicate items that I need to give away, including a very nice Japanese Cocteau Twins vinyl edition of Treasure, worth a reasonable amount I'll tell you. So I have plenty to blog about in 2016

So a Happy New Year to you all and all the luck for this year in all your crazy collecting ventures!

You bought it for how much?

It's been a long time since my last entry. Ah what can I say, I have no real excuses. But interesting things have happened on ebay this week. Three early Bauhaus test pressings went up for auction in the week and I watched with suprise and dread as the bids sky rocketed for them. Take a deep breath, if you have any of these on your radar...this could induce a wallet attack.

First up is a test pressing of the flexi-disc 7" of God In An Alcove. This was released in 1982 and was blue in colour and was part of the flexipop magazine that gave away a single with each copy of the magazine. The song came from their debut album In The Flat Field which was released under 4AD, so although released in 1982 after the band moved to Beggars Banquet, it still fits into my collecting criteria. On Discogs the test pressing for this release has sold twice in the last year, once for €15.00 (around £10) and again for $10 (around £6.40). These were sold in February and June of this year, so not so long ago (I can't believe I missed those).

The ebay auction finished at a whopping £180....ouch!

The three auctions were all from the same seller. All looked as genuine an item as they could, but I do always wonder how easy it would be to get the regular release and paste a white lable onto it. The next item was a white label test pressing of the 7" single Telegram Sam. I haven't seen a test pressing for this before, so I was quite eager to see if the bidding would stay in the sensible area or sky rocket like the item above also did. When going into an auction, I always think it best to think rationally beforehand of the absolute maximum you are willing to go to before you get involved with the bidding process, as many times a sort of primeval instinct takes over and you can easily convince yourselve that this is the only moment in your life that you will ever see this item for sale and start bidding accordingly. I judged that the item might be worth around £40, seeing as you can easily pick up the full release for a couple of quid. it was already at £45 by the time I found it listed....arse!

The final winning bid .....£205....what???

I know smart ass, this isn't the uk version!!

The final item, the one I could easily have arguments with myself over about how willing I was to push the spending limit on, was a white label test pressing of one of the first pressings of the 7" single Dark Entries. I have reviewed the versions I currently have here and it looked as though this could be the crowning piece as the matrices showed it either to be the first Axis version or the blue 4AD labels version. As with the Telegram Sam release, I had never seen a test pressing of this before. It was hard to know what this would be worth so as to set myself a reasonable limit. I actually thought £50 would be a reasonable upper limit, as this would very likely be the only test pressing of this release I would ever see. This is what you have to be careful of with auction sites such as ebay, you can so easily argue with yourself into bidding more and more and if you dont make up your mind beforehand about your upper limit and leave the decision until near the end of the auction, you can easily argue even more with yourself. The typical argument is, "wouldn't be a shame if it just went for £1 more than I was willing to go to" or "I'm losing, I'm losing". It's so easy to get drawn into a bidding war with someone. As usual the bids went through the roof on the final few seconds.

The winning bid .......£361.....!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, I came away from the bidding empty in basket.

Following from my previous submission, I did promise further research into CD production and the ability to be able to spot newer prints from older ones. There were a few little things I spotted at the time, such as the change from the black print text on the CD to later having colour picture CDs. One very interesting piece of infomation was about the introduction of SID codes in 1994. These are 4 character codes on the inside ring, near the hole of the CD itself. These are usually marked with the letters IFPI followed by the 4 character code marking the mastering and replication source of the CD. Becasue this standard wasn't introduced until 1994, it's a very good identifier for later re-prints. Here is an official PDF which introduced the standard to the industry.

I have found that I have a number of CD's myself that I thought were original copies but have SID codes. This is a really useful piece of infomation for those trying to identify an original.

In the last few months, I toyed with a visit to the Netherlands in the autumn and the Utrecht International Record Fair. This has to be one of the largest record fairs in Europe and has been on my radar for many a year now, but I easily talk myself out of things. The typical argument with myself is how poor every other record fair has been and this was likely to be just as bad, but on a larger scale. But then if I dont give it a go, I can't really have an informed opinion can I? The window of oppurtunity passed me by and I managed to talk myself out of it, but my lovely, long suffereing wife persuaded me to perhaps have a more serious attempt to go next year. So there is a good chance I will go sometime soon. When I do, I will certainly report back.

For two reasons I have another giveway for anyone that fancies a slice of history. The first reason is the fact that it's been way too long since I gave anything away on this blog, I'm piling up quite a pile of duplications. The second reason is down the usual bumbling uselessness from a trader, making out they were selling a white label test pressing then sending the standard release,... numpty. I've had my money back and the trader doesn't want the item returning.

So I'm giving away a copy of a Greek pressing of the Cocteau Twins album Treasure on Polygram. If tens of thousands of copies of this album were sold in the UK, then thousands must have been sold around northern Europe and by the time the album filtered down to Greece I would not at all be suprised if the number of pressings were in just the hundreds. So in my estimation this vinyl copy is a rarity indeed. Not stupidly rare, but a lovely item to own none the less.

It also has those unusual Greek labels that seem to be either poor copies of earlier 4AD releases in the UK or left overs from the same period sent to the Greek manufacturers. Anyhoo, in the usual fashion, if you want to get your hands on this, just get in touch with me and I'm sure it will end up in a good home, I already have this anyway. Facbook, email, comment on this blog or carrier pigeon will do.

Thanks for reading as always

Throwing Muses - Dizzy

I will try and show all the versions of a release when I complete collecting them. I've decided to make an executive decision though and not hold out for matrices variations and test pressings. If I have or notice any of these, I think I will add them, but as we saw with the Bauhaus - Dark Entries, it gets to a point with matrix variations where you wonder if the development of yet more discoveries mean that collecting it never ends.

Now I have an awful confession to make. While I find most bands that signed to 4AD in the first decade of its existence brilliant, interesting, beautiful, inspiring and many other heart or mind activating words, throwing muses always left me a little cold. I have lived through a period of explosion in music and while still listening to new music in the late eighties and early nineties and also trying to catch up on three decades of already released music by that time, I made a conscious effort to not be swamped with an impossible task of listening to everything. I learned very early on in my musical exploration that some music reveals its greatest depth and life after tens of hours of repeated listening. Some music just gets better and better the more you listen to it. This means that the battle of getting the real meat out of a piece of music takes so much time that new discoveries have to be limited or picked carefully first from the ocean of music available. 4AD was always a pretty good bet for me, the label gave a kind of partial guarantee of satisfaction.

My introduction to 4AD was mostly through the Lonely Is An Eyesore compilation in 1987. On that compilation was a track by Throwing Muses called Counting Backwards. From all the amazing music on that album, the Throwing Muses track along with the Wolfgang Press and one of the Dead Can Dance tracks left me a little unsure as to whether I liked them or not. The Dead Can Dance and Wolfgang Press tracks just grew on me the more I listened to the compilation. The Throwing Muses track however, just didn't do anything for me to the point that I started to get annoyed by it getting in the way of the rest of the great songs. Because of that track, I never gave Throwing Muses a chance really.

Listening to Dizzy now, The Throwing Muses single from 1989, it still reminds me strongly of that track from the Lonely As An Eyesore compilation and still leaves me cold. Now I know.....this is sacriledges, I'm dissing a band from the sacred 4AD vaults. But this is only my personal opinion and I'm sure there are many, many 4AD fans that absolutely love Throwing Muses. A 4AD collection wouldn't be very complete if I decided to leave a band's releases out just because I didn't get their music.

So for those that do like the Throwing Muses 1989 single Dizzy, here is the complete list (so far) of all the versions of the single

(1) UK 12"
(2) US 12" Promo
(3) UK 10" Gatefold
(4) UK 7"
(5) US CD Promo
(6) UK CD

As far as I know, all these releases were all released in 1989.

(1) UK 12" - 4AD - BAD903

(2) US 12" Promo - Sire - PRO-A-3395

This US promo only sleeve used part of the sleeve design from both the Hunkpapa album and part of which can be faintly seen in the UK singles sleeves. Dizzy wasn't released to the general public as a single in the US, so I assume that the promo 12" and the US promo CD were used to promote the Hunkpapa album, which had the Dizzy single included.

(3) UK 10" - 4AD - BADD903 - Limited to 5000 copies

(4) UK 7" - 4AD - AD903

(5) US CD Promo - Sire - PRO-CD-3618

This CD Promo from the US has a grey back sleeve, but no front sleeve, with the single title and release code printed.

(6) UK CD - 4AD - BAD903CD

The full details of all these releases can be found Here

Listen Here

This is all I have on this release so far and, as far as I know, is everything released for this single. If I find anything else, I promise to add it to this page. There will no doubt be a test pressing for each vinyl release, but these will be hard to come by

Thanks for reading as always

From a time when music was inventive...Bauhaus

Years ago, as a young lad hungry for music, I spent many a year just going to any gig going. When I wrote my Fanzine in 1991-92, I went around the local counties interviewing bands and seeing concerts. Then when I joined a band and did gigs around the country, I inevitably saw a lot of other bands also doing the same thing. Then on top of that, going out nearly every weekend and then several times a week, meant seeing a lots of bands that just happened to be on.

Unfortunately, I would say in my humble opinion, that the vast majority of bands I saw were somewhere between OK and terrible. On the rare occasion that there was something that had potential or promise, they were never seen again. For me the early nineties were a turning point in music, where popularity started to mean more than originality in music. Even in the marginalised gothic culture that I was heavily into, anyone who thought the big goth four were just ok (Mission, Sisters, Nephilim, Rosetta Stone) and preferred more of the diversity of the culture, were even marginalised within a marginalised culture. Where goth music had sprouted out from the roots of punk, by the early '90's it had drifted heavily into standard stadium rock and the diversity was drastically diminishing. Every band on the scene was trying to either emulate the big four or emulate each other emulating the big four. The only hope at the time was from outside the UK.

So in my older years, I got more picky about what music I went to see. In the yesteryear, before the internet and a million young bands, the only way of finding new music was either taking a chance and buying it or going to copious gigs in the hope of stumbling across something worthwhile. Of course today, anyone can spend an eternity looking for new music on the interweb. There was an interesting statement in this months record collector magazine about how the easy access to music has cheapened it for many of today's youth, to the point that the majority just don't see the worth in music and have very little attention span for it.

In the past fews years I have seen some of the best gigs of my life. I've already gone on before (at great length you may think...sorry) about how good Dead Can Dance are live, or even better a Lisa Gerrard gig. But this week I went to a gig that really blew me away. Peter Murphy is currently doing a world tour, playing only Bauhaus music. I saw the first leg of the UK part of the tour this weekend and I have to say it was one of the best gigs I have ever seen. I came out it thinking about how privileged I am to be able to listen and witness the kind of music I am exposed to at the moment. I was too young to have seen Bauhaus when they were a live act, so be able to just grab a snippet of that experience before either I or the creators of this music pass away has been a rare honour indeed and one that I would encourage anyone to see before the tour is over.



What also struck me about the gig and has also been the elements that I found the most fascinating about goth music when I first got into it, were the strong combinations of drums and bass. Bauhaus' music was built on this combination, with everything else being an additional flavouring on the top. Today the bass guitar seems a forgotten instrument, unfortunately. My love of Joy Division and The Cure also had this same element, where the bass accompanied by some skilful and diverse drumming patterns, makes the music so powerful and strong, that the additional of a guitar or keyboard becomes almost an afterthought. The rhythms punched out at the Peter Murphy gig from the songs Dark Entries, Stigmata Martyr, In the Flat Field and Kick In The Eye were so powerful and strong it kicked the audience into a frenzy. These songs are over 30 years old now and still there is nothing like it around. I couldn't help but think how the younger generation are missing out on such music as there was practically no-one under 35 years old at the gig.


So just in case you are under 35 years old and starting out in a band, for goodness sake, give this stuff a listen, the world needs more music like this.


Then send me a copy of it please.
If you have the chance, go and see Peter Murphy on his tour. http://www.petermurphy.info/pmlive.html


The one surprise song from the set was a cover of Dead Can Dance's Severance, which wasn't done that well, but then I would think that Dead Can Dance wouldn't do a Bauhaus song very well either.


Just a quick message to TinyPie that I have seen your comment. There seems to be yet another version of the Bauhaus single Dark Entries which TinyPie has found, so that would bring the tally up to eight versions, will this end I ask myself while pulling the remainder of my hair out! I will get this added soon. Thanks again to you all for reading, let me know if you have seen Peter Murphy on this tour and let me know your thoughts

Whoa, woe and wow

Arse...in fact double arse with a couple of damns and a flippin 'eck thrown in as well. You see, I know how to swear.

Ok its been too long by far since I last posted. Its been a difficult month. I have been struggling to find items just lately that aren't stupidly overpriced. There has been a respite in the last week or so though, so collecting has been back on again. But in the meantime the number of items newly discovered has shot my want list up so far that I have a want list larger than 8 months ago. Very frustrating!

The over enthusiastic alternative language is down to an amendment I have had to do to the what was 7 versions of the Bauhaus single Dark Entries. I was buying a version going cheap on ebay that I thought I could sell on. First of all I was hit by the poor state of the record when it arrived, it looked as though someone had eaten their dinner on it, but then on closer inspection realised that it was none of the 7 versions I had compiled for my blog last year.

I thought I had the seven versions pinned down, but this poor condition extra has hit me with another matrices. I have added the extra details onto the original blog entry here :

http://4adfirstdecade.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/bauhaus-dark-entries-7-heavenly.html

I had a version with matrices with W-3 and W-4 on them, but this has a W-2 and a W1KD and some very small little stamps on as well. I do wonder if the W's are Warner matrices as highlighted with the text on the back of the third version listed.

Good news though, some wonderful person from Colombia called Daniel has won the Cocteau Twins vinyl album of Garlands that I was giving away and it has been shipped out, congratulations Daniel.

Dead Can Dance are releasing a new live triple vinyl album soon that's already sold out before its release date, I wonder how many traders have bought these up just to sell for extortionate prices?

http://www.deadcandance.com/

I must also apologise for taking so long to write on my blog this time. There are no excuses except that as I have mentioned before, I am prone to fits and starts and having stupid ideas that I get very excited about, then lose interest quickly and leave things unfinished. This years typically stupendous idea was to write my memoirs, as much for personal reasons, as in do it while I still have a memory intact, but also because I seemed to have had an interesting and strangely varied life. Well in typical fashion, doing this has taken on a life of its own, and what was meant to be perhaps a 10,000 word short and satisfying story has currently worked up to a 125,000 novel that still about 2/3rds of the way through. I'm determined to get it finished, although I have no idea what I'm going to do with it when I have. So this has been taking time away from concentrating on my blog. But I promise to get the sodding thing finished and out of the way so that I properly concentrate back on collecting 4AD the first decade once more.

Dead Can Dance Resurrected

Well done to Slow Pulse Girl at  Nightmares On Wax  for winning the Clan of Xymox Blind Hearts 12" promo. Hopefully another competition will come up again soon, as collection duplication is a constant and ongoing issue.

The piece I did on the Bauhaus singles of Dark Entries was kind of the way I wanted to go with this blog. I wanted it to become a good source to find definitive listings of a release. Yet even at the stage I am at, I am struggling to complete a release with all of it's variations. I suppose it comes back to the question again, how far do you go? The Dark Entries collection of 7 versions that I listed does not include any test pressings, if any test pressings exist at all anymore.

I starting to think that maybe I should just bite the bullet and stick my neck out with a few releases and say "this is every version that exists". I'm just wary of making out I'm an arse that thinks he knows it all, when in fact we are all on a journey that constantly changes and cheats (sometimes).

Maybe I will start and add more now that the collection is starting to take a decent form. I'm currently at 596 items collected that doesn't include posters, postcards and oddities. I still have roughly 900 items left to collect that I know of (again not including non music formats). So I still have one hell of a way to go.

To add to this, I'm not exactly shutting myself off to other music in the process. Dead Can Dance have their new album out called Anastasis, which I just couldn't help but buy, and of course not just in one format either. The album came as:

"Exclusive Limited Edition Box Set (Edition of 2000); boxed in custom made deluxe hardbound book, embossed with band logo and album title, and featuring 8 specially designed pages of album art and lyric sheets. Autographed 6" x 8" lithograph artwork print; USB drive contains the full album in high fidelity 24bit digital audio and album artwork." 

I'm a sucker for it. I had to have it and, of course, I couldn't let the chance of having the double clear vinyl version pass me by either. So I spent £55 on both of them and then had to fork out over £18 extra to get them delivered. The price for a second hand copy of the limited edition CD has rocketed from its new price. This always happens generally when a limited stock runs out. Some of the stock gets bought by traders who bet on making a quick from the flurry of interest the new album has created. Demand is up but supply has dried out, perfect for a quick price hike. I suppose you can't blame a trader wanting to make a living and a trader's prices only reflect (mostly) the price the customer is prepared to pay. 

The Dead Can Dance Anastasis limited edition has already sold twice on discogs for over £130 and  there are 5 for sale at the moment for between £120 and £220. It's very likely that the price will fall as initial excitement wanes. 

The album itself is wonderful. It seems as though Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard are collaborating more as they did in the eighties. In later albums of Dead Can Dance the music was more separated by the two artists and less collaborated. But now they do seem to be working together more as the style of the album is of both artists. I also think that it is probably the most accessible of all the Dead Can Dance albums, an album that would be a good introduction to Dead Can Dance if you have never listened to them before.

It has whetted my appetite to see them live in October. The only issue I could have with this album is that the mastering seems rushed. I waited to give the album a listen until the vinyl was delivered. The sound quality of Vinyl far surpasses the sound quality of CD's or downloads, so I wanted to listen to it at its best. Unfortunately the sound was a little flat. At first I thought it was the vinyl mastering, as these days vinyl records are made from a digital recording, which is actually defeating the object of having it on vinyl. But the CD version is also a little flat, but perhaps not as obvious. It's such a pity as the music is just awesome. 

You never know, if the unmixed tracks have been kept a better mastering may be done in future. But don't let it put you off, to the average ear the mastering quality probably won't even be noticed. What's more important is that the music on Anastasis is incredible, give it a listen

http://www.deadcandance.com/main/

It's all Greek to me...

A number of things this last couple of weeks. I found a guy on ebay selling a load of 4ad stuff. Not just a handful, but a boat load of stuff. I was curious, so asked him why he was selling what was obviously a collection. It turns out he had bought the whole lot as a collection from someone else to fill just one or two gaps in his own collection, then was selling the rest on. This has been a nightmare. A whole collection being sold off one release at a time, with at times, only 4 minutes between each item finishing on ebay. I wish a had a couple of thousand pounds spare, but I don’t. So I have had to watch many fantastic items disappear from view without even a close sniff at getting them.

Bidding has to be tempered I think. It’s too easy to get caught up in the frenzy and pay out a ridiculous price for something because at the time you feel desperate not to lose out. But it is surprising how many things come around again. From this lot of auctions a Colourbox release went for over £100. It’s hard to quantify paying anything over £20 for a colourbox release, they come up so often and so cheaply.

In the last couple of weeks this humble blog passed 10,000 views since its inception. Well.... what can I say? Ah, ah, bloody ‘ell, no way, I can’t believe it....or comments along those lines. I’m lost for words for you wonderful readers, thank you so much for your company. I hope I can keep you entertained for a few years to come.

There has been an interesting new addition to the collection. Staying with the Bauhaus theme, it’s the album “Burning from the Inside”. After the first album with 4AD and a couple of singles, Bauhaus moved to the parent label, Beggars Banquet. This is what 4AD was kind of set up for, find talent, sign it, promote it and if it takes off, pass to the parent label. This only happened with Bauhaus, why other 4AD artist didn’t follow the original plan I don’t know.

So the next handful of albums were under Beggars Banquet. But a few strange anomalies appeared from Greece. Rumour has it that the distributors in Greece didn’t have any Beggars Banquet labels but did have 4AD ones, so used them. But the labels are quite unique for 4AD, so I’m not sure of this explanation. Whatever the reason, the record label on the Greek album has 4AD labels.

It would seem the Greek Mask album also has 4AD labels, but I haven’t acquired that one yet. The Greek Ziggy Stardust single also has 4AD labels

These make for lovely little collection pieces.

Moving on... after the last blog entry about the seven versions of the Bauhaus’ Dark Entries I had managed to piece together, and of course after all the praise I generally give Discogs, this week the seven entries I had carefully tried to list in Discogs have been hacked down to six entries. This is in accordance with the Discogs rules that states that only separately defined releases are to be listed and that this does not include matrix variations. This has become very annoying, as it becomes difficult to track matrix variations within Discogs. The only way to get this changed is to argue a lot in a forum about it...humph

Well if anyone has a Discogs account, have a read of my argument and enter into the discussion if you wish
http://www.discogs.com/help/forums/topic/344093
I shall be back soon. I’ve fluffed up yet again and bought a duplicate item, triple Doh..., so I may be giving away a Xymox promo 12”.
If you wish, have a look for me on Facebook and Twitter
Jonny Halfhead

Bauhaus Dark Entries - 7 Heavenly Versions

First I thought there were four, then I found out there were five, yet so far I have found seven. Seven different variations of the AXIS / 4AD release of Bauhaus’ Dark Entries. Years ago I used to think the song was called “Dog Entries”, doh.. then years later I swore that a single by Florence and The Machine I heard was called “Dark Days Are Over” only to find that it’s actually “Dog Days Are Over”. Damn it! I now call it “Dark days for Rover” (Rover being a popular dogs name the UK)

Ah, slightly off subject there. The Bauhaus single “Dark Entries”. I get the feeling that 4AD were shocked and unprepared for the popularity of Bauhaus and the demand for this single as it has been re-printed so many times.

Version 1

The first release was under the AXIS logo and, of course, the label had to change it’s name to 4AD. Then later Bauhaus moved to Beggars Banquet.The single was also released in the Netherlands. So I can see immediately why there would be at least four versions.But so far I have found seven versions, all slightly different

At last I can share with you what I have discovered and acquired so far (I am so geeky aren’t I?)

The first is the obvious release on AXIS. As shown previously, the 4AD label was going to be originally called AXIS until they discovered another label with the same name. The first four releases where actually done under the name of AXIS, which included the Bauhaus Dark Entries single.

So the first release of Dark Entries was AXIS 3

Axis
Axis 3 on Rear sleeve
Red Axis labels
AXIS 3 A-1 // MADE IN FRANCE

This release is quite distinct as the disc label is obvious. The sleeve is different from the other releases as it only has an AXIS logo on the back, as below

Version 2

The next obvious version is the single released in the netherlands under the Beggars Banquet label

This has the text “venus asleep by paul delvaux” in the bottom left under the picture and also has a Beggars Banquet logo on the bottom right. This is the only sleeve with the beggars banquet logo on the front

The disc label is also very distinctive, with blue Beggars Banquet labels

Beggars Banquet
Beggars Banquet 144 760 Netherlands
Beggars Banquet logo on front
Blue Beggars Banquet labels
144 760

Version 3

The next version has the 4AD traditional blue square labels

4AD

Axis 3 and 4AD square on Rear sleeve
Blue square 4AD labels with AD3 Axis Records
AXIS 3 A-1 // MADE IN FRANCE

The rear sleeve has both the AXIS logo and the Square 4AD logo

There is also a piece of text below these logo’s reading 1980 4AD records Distributed by WEA.....etc. You can see this on the picture above

Version 4

Another 4AD labelled version has the Wrestlers picture on the label, used later than 1980 by 4AD so this must be a re-release, I think it’s safe to assume.

Again the labels are quite distinctive, so to make it easy to define which version is which

4AD
4ad Eye logo with AD 3 on Rear sleeve
“Wrestlers” picture label on one side and 4AD eye logo with AD3
MPO AD 3 A1 JA TAPE ONE

....and as before there is another slight sleeve change on the rear of the sleeve

Version 5

The next three versions shown here are all marked as BEG 37 which is a BEGGARS BANQUET catalogue number. The first follows the pattern of progression of some of the earlier versions above

4AD
Axis 3, 4AD square and BEG 37 on Rear sleeve
Blue Square 4AD labels with BEG 37
L-1 W-4 BEG 37 A-1 AXIS AD3 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE

This is the same blue 4AD pattern shown before, but this time with BEG 37 instead of AD3. The rear sleeve also shows a progression, with Axis, 4AD square logo AND BEG 37 showing. The text above the picture now reads (Copyright) 1980 4AD Records

Version 6

The next version is again quite different. The sleeve, however, is the same as the one above, with all three logos. Axis, 4AD square and BEG37. But the disc label is very distinct, with a red Beggars Banquet label

Beggars Banquet

Axis 3, 4AD square and BEG 37 on rear sleeve
Red Beggars Banquet labels BEG 37 K18179
Side 1 - W-2 AD-3 BEG 37A AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE
Side 2 - W-2 AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE AD 3B BEG 37 B

Version 7

Finally, the last version I have found has no picture sleeve. I don’t know if it was issued without one or not. I do know that some versions of records get released, the sleeves are produced separately and records and sleeves can be mixed and matched, overlapping releases at times. So there isn’t a hard and fast rule of sleeve with vinyl. I can only show what I have discovered..

4AD
No sleeve
Blue Square 4AD labels with BEG 37
side 1 - W-3 AD-3 BEG 37A AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE
side 2 - AD 3B BEG 37B W-4 AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE

The main difference are the matrices, which are similar to the red labelled Beggars Banquet release but with higher numbers, which may suggest they were around the same time. It would be great to know what order they were produced. The square 4AD labels were typical from 4AD of 1980, while the picture label of 1981-1983. The red Beggars Banquet labels typical of 1979-1980 (especially with the K number as well).

According to this Bauhaus fan site
http://waste.org/bauhaus/chronology.html
the single was released by Axis, then while waiting for the name change to 4AD, was issued by Beggars Banquet. Then the rest would be reprints and re-issues

As a bonus, take a look at this. A Dark Entries postcard. As is usual it’s hard to know if it is genuinely of the period, but if it is, this is another lovely extra to the Bauhaus Dark Entries releases

17th March 2013 - A new amendment. Much to my annoyance I have found another version and hope that this is the last. 

Version 8

4AD
Same sleeve as version 3
Blue Square 4AD labels with BEG 37
side 1 - W-2 AD-3 BEG 37A AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE
side 2 - AD 3B W-1KD BEG 37B AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE

There are also two very small stamps on the run out, one with the letters LX and another with letters so small that its nearly impossible to make them out, but they look like RLACE.

Is this the last version? Who knows and watch this space...

The Full AXIS Collection

After acquiring the first AXIS record a few months ago I realised that I had all 4 first releases. This realisation didn’t last very long and somehow I got side tracked. I’ve just figured it out again and got very excited (I’m easy to please!).

The first releases of 4AD weren’t actually under the name of 4AD. Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent were given a budget from the independent label Beggars Banquet and told to start a new label. Ivo and Peter started calling this new label AXIS. The first four releases were made under this label name until they realised there was another record label already called AXIS. The record label they may have been in trouble with could be the Axis label from Australia, a budget label that seemed to mostly deal with EMI re-issues.

Realising that they couldn’t keep the label name AXIS, Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent changed the label name to 4AD.

But four releases had already been produced with the label name as AXIS.

AXIS 1 – The Fast Set – Junction One

AXIS 2 – Bearz – She’s My Girl

AXIS 3 – Bauhaus – Dark Entries

AXIS 4 – Shox – No Turning Back

The first release with the catalogue number AXIS 1 was by a band called The Fast Set and their 7” single Junction One. This was written by David Knight and could be the same person who was involved with Shock Headed Peters and also Danielle Dax later in the decade.

This single seems to sell around the £35 mark, but can sell for over £50. It’s difficult to find this in good condition as the sleeve was made from very thin paper.

The second release was by a band called Bearz with a 7” single called She’s My Girl.

This single on average fetches around £17, but rarely goes for above £19, although that doesn’t stop traders trying. It looks as though it was also released in Italy on the WEA label, with a promo version released as well. Both of these I am yet to confirm

The third release was a lot more successful. The band was Bauhaus and the single called Dark Entries. This wasn’t Bauhaus’ first single as they had released a single before with the label Small Wonder. The success of this single was so great a further 5 versions of this single were subsequently released. I will have a look at all 6 versions soon.

This is a great release to try and get hold of, as traders don’t always know which version is worth more than another, and versions of Dark Entries turn up all the time and are quite common. This version, however, can easily be worth £18 and can fetch up to £35. But some traders will also try their luck, this trader is asking £80!

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/B%C3%A5uh%C3%A5us-Dark-Entries/53881342?ev=bp_rel_det

The fourth and final release from AXIS was from a band called Shox, with their 7” single No Turning Back. This release is also difficult to get in good condition as the sleeve is white, which always dates very easily with printed media. For some reason this seems to fetch a good price, around £22, and can fetch over £48. I’m not sure why this is. This single may have got re-released by Beggars Banquet, again I’m yet to confirm this

The AXIS releases have “A”XIS on side A and “B”XIS on side B

So there you go. The complete AXIS releases. Out of these the Bauhaus Dark Entries single is the most interesting as it got re-released a further 5 times. I was struggling to get all six versions, but if the last one I purchased this last week arrives, I should have all six to show you. Watch this space….