JOY DIVISION, Unknown Pleasures TOWN HOUSE A2 matrix UK LP

$

80

Joy Division?– Unknown Pleasures Label: Factory ?– FACT 10 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Repress Country: UK Released: 1983 Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: New Wave Tracklist Outside A1 Disorder 3:36 A2 Day Of The Lords 4:43 A3 Candidate 3:00 A4 Insight 4:00 A5 New Dawn Fades 4:47 Inside B1 She’s Lost Control 3:40 B2 Shadowplay 3:50 B3 Wilderness 2:35 B4 Interzone 2:10 B5 I Remember Nothing 6:00 Companies etc Mastered At– The Town House Published By– Fractured Music Recorded At– Strawberry Studios Printed By– Garrod & Lofthouse Lacquer Cut At– Gedmal Galvanic Ltd. Credits Design [Sleeve Designed By]– Joy Division, Peter Saville (2) Engineer– Chris Nagle Producer– Martin Hannett Words By, Music By– Joy Division Notes Repress in textured Garrod & Lofthouse sleeve. Published by Fractured Music. Recorded at Strawberry Studios, Stockport. FACT 10 A Factory Records Product.

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The copy we are offering for sale is the TOWN HOUSE A2/B2 repress (actually on better quality, less noisy vinyl than the first pressing for some reason). It does NOT have Porky in the run-out grooves, and is most likely pressed from newly cut plates, but nothing is for certain in record pressing land.
Joy Division forums have debated the 'true' first pressing issue for years, 'black' or 'translucent red'? Many Joy Division fans bought Unknown Pleasures on the day of release, and have A / B or A1 / B1 'Porky' matrix numbers that are on black vinyl. So this was/is assumed for years to be the 'first' pressing, but, as with everything to do with records, the story isn't that simple. One tale goes that Factory Records had 5,000 copies pressed that were from 'not-approved' mothers, so a new pressing run of 5,000 copies was made from 'approved' mothers. We have heard both, and they appear to sound identical except for the fact that one batch was on the infamous 'translucent red' vinyl and one on 'black' vinyl. Nobody knows for certain if this was intentional or not. The new, black vinyls, were undoubtedly the ones first shipped to record stores when it was released, which accounts for why so many 'first week of purchase' fans have black vinyl, and thus would explain why the black vinyl was, until more recently, always considered the 'first' pressing.

Unknown Pleasures received good reviews and started selling well for an indie album and more copies were needed at retail. It seems that the next batch of seemingly otherwise perfectly good LPs which might have been sat in a warehouse someplace, the 'translucent red' pressings, were dispatched to stores. This particular colour difference did not seem to be noticed at the time by many, we cannot recall collectors talking about it as they do nowadays. Most people just bought a record, took it home, and played it. Who held it up to the light to see if it was an unusual colour? Not many, that's for sure. There then followed further pressings at various pressing plants down the years as the record continued to sell. In one sense, the 'translucent red' copies are (probably, bear in mind this has not been confirmed to our knowledge by anyone in a position to do so for sure), therefore, the 'true' first pressings, but the first purchasers of the album mostly experienced black vinyl copies, and would not have known that there might have been an earlier type of vinyl pressed. As we say, to the best of our knowledge, none of this has ever been confirmed or denied by anyone connected with Factory Records or the pressing plants involved. Perhaps the cutting master George Peckham (Porky) knows which colour vinyl he first mastered to, but probably not...once he'd done this record he was probably already onto the next job...

What makes this story even more interesting, is that the next pressing, the A2/B2 that we are selling, which was pressed at Town House, also appeared on a slightly non-black vinyl (although far harder to notice, in regular light it doesn't look as charcoal 'black' as a regular jet-black disc, and then when held to a very bright white light there is a hint of reddish-brown/maroon about the vinyl. The second pressing of ‘The Return of the Durutti Column’ TOWN HOUSE A2/B2 repress, has this similar looking vinyl. As we say, this can only be noticed by being held to a very bright white light, the vinyl otherwise looks black, but not the regular jet-black, in day-light. Whether this was intentional, or just the vinyl mix used by Town House at the time, is not clear. We have only ever noticed this on Town House pressings of this period for Factory releases, and it is only really noticeable if you compare it to a standard regular black vinyl LP at the same time - then the difference becomes apparent.

UK SECOND PRESSING IN ORIGINAL TEXTURED CARD 'GARROD & LOFTHOUSE' SLEEVE WITH THE ORIGINAL ROUNDED-CORNERS MATT WHITE INNER THAT HAS NO 'GARROD & LOFTHOUSE' CREDIT. OUR GUESS IS THAT THERE WERE MORE FIRST ISSUE SLEEVES PRINTED THAN VINYL, AND SO THESE FIRST ISSUE SLEEVES WERE USED FOR SECOND AND SOME LATER PRESSINGS.

MATRIX NUMBERS IN RUN-OFF GROOVES: SIDE A: FACT 10 A2 TOWNHOUSE GG / SIDE B: FACT 10 B2 TOWNHOUSE GG.

SLEEVE: A LITTLE SHORT OF EXCELLENT MINUS BUT VASTLY SUPERIOR TO VERY GOOD+. A REALLY DECENT EXAMPLE WITH ONLY THE FOLLOWING MINOR DEFECTS: HINTS OF RING WEAR, A FEW VERY LIGHT SCUFFS AND A ONE SMALL PRINT SPOT ON THE FRONT. MINOR EDGE AND CORNER WEAR, MINOR SPINE BUMP. DEFINATELY ONE OF THE BEST CONDITION ORIGINAL SLEEVES THAT WE HAVE SEEN FOR SOME TIME. THE WHITE INNER IS VERY GOOD+ WITH NO DAMAGE BUT SOME SPOTTING FROM FINGER GREASE AS IS COMMON FOR THE INK USED ON THIS PRINTING.

DISC: VERY GOOD+. NO SCRATCHES AND BARELY ANY SPINDLE WEAR. SOME LIGHT HAIRLINES AND SIGNS OF PLAY. CLEAN LABELS BOTH SIDES BUT THE WHITE LABEL SIDE HAS A SMALL BLACK AREA WHERE THE PAPER HASN'T TAKEN DURING PRESSING. THERE IS A SMALL WHITE BLOB HALFWAY THROUGH THE TRACK 'SHADOWPLAY' THAT CLICKED A FEW REVOLUTIONS, OTHERWISE A SPLENDID PLAYING COPY WITH SUPERB AUDIO. NO SKIPS OR JUMPS. OVERALL, A VERY TIDY COPY WITH A FEW MINOR DEFECTS.

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     Paypal requires sellers to prove signature delivery confirmation for any international shipment in the event of a non-receipt claim.
     The only shipping option from the USA with signed-for delivery is Registered Air Mail, which costs considerably more than regular air mail.
     If you DO NOT use Paypal, we can ship by regular air mail, which costs $24.99 to all international destinations.