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Tracklisting & More Information
1. Speak To Me
2. Breath In The Air (sic)
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. The Great Gig In The Sky
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse
Without doubt, the rarest pressing of The Dark Side of the Moon, widely regarded to be the rarest Pink Floyd record never issued. It's difficult to piece together the precise details surrounding its origin, and opinion is divided about when and why it was manufactured, but there is no doubt about its authenticity and extreme rarity.
Some believe this to be a promotional record but our experience tells us differently. For a start, if it was a promo-only format then it would be highly likely to carry a 'PRP' catalogue number prefix, as do the majority of other Toshiba-EMI promo discs from this period, and the absence of any promotional wording or logos, both on the sleeve and the record label, certainly does not support the promo theory. It's not a white label and there are simply no visual markers anywhere to indicate promotional status.
The alternative view, and the one to which we subscribe, is that it was created sometime in late 1977 or 1978 for Toshiba-EMI's (TOEMI) mail-order only record club. Record clubs were a popular marketing tool in Japan at this time, in much the same way that German, Swiss and Austrian record and book club editions were popular in Europe during the late 1960s. Japan's most successful clubs during the 1970s were the Sony Family Club and HMV Victor Family Club, and it is widely known that Toshiba-EMI were distributing home-grown artist repertoire thorough their 'Toemi' club brand. Popular opinion suggests that Toemi wanted to release some international artist repertoire through their club and they suggested exclusive club edition releases by some of the major international EMI superstars of the day, such as Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, The Band and Pink Floyd, to name just a few.
Club editions were never distributed with obi-strips; the primary purpose of an obi is to highlight in Japanese the relevant artist and title information, along with any other pertinent promotion such as tour news, or the inclusion of a poster inside the record sleeve. This was not customary on a record club edition as all correspondence would necessarily have been in Japanese, with little or no need to supply additional translation on the record itself. None of the Sony or Victor club editions ever came with an obi either. It's not missing, it simply never had one.
The unique sleeve artwork depicts a live stage scene from their 1977 Animals Tour, which gives a good timeline basis for the belief that this was scheduled for a late 1977 or early 1978 release. Indeed DSOTM was reissued across much of Europe in 1978 - it's not proof but is at least good circumstantial evidence! The famous tan and red EMI label design also supports this date range. Further evidence in support of its record club origin is that there is very little on the sleeve or label that's printed in English. The song titles, band name and album title of course, but very little else. The back cover is virtually all Japanese script. The lyric insert is similarly basic, albeit with English lyrics.
Japanese record club editions are pretty scarce in any circumstance. They were never available to buy in shops, so unless you were signed up at the time of club distribution you had to rely on dealers and used record stores to stand any chance of obtaining a copy. Hard enough to do even if you live in Japan and virtually impossible if you live in Europe or the USA. Then factor in an additional ingredient; this edition was WITHDRAWN before it ever had a chance to be distributed! Floyd artwork is sacrosanct. The iconic prism design that adorned every other pressing of DSOTM is legendary in its own right. At the time this live sleeve probably seemed like a nice image to use but permission was not sought nor granted from the appropriate authority and its withdrawal and subsequent destruction was ordered before any copies were released.
So far that's about as much as we've been able to determine, using resources in the UK and Japan, with a large dose of experience thrown in. If you are able to shed any more light on this extraordinary edition of DSOTM please feel free to contact us with details.
LP RECORD
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