mercoledì 24 marzo 2010

"GROOVE BABY GROOVE" 7" EP (1982)

This was the first record released by The Stargazers in January 1982, recorded at CBS in London.
They were signed to CBS then, a so-called "major label".
These kind of record labels usually provide radio stations and newspapers with promotional releases of records by their artists.
Upon promotion, "Groove Baby Groove" charted at n° 56 in UK the same year.

The artwork (sleeve/labels) was conceived by Ricky Lee Brawn, then made it real by a CBS artist. Ricky's concepts were applied also to the 12" version of the single.

The first ever promotional video of The Stargazers was shot for this song.
Filmed at The Royalty Ballroom in Southgate, it was directed by Julien Temple: this was also the director of The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle, the famous punk-movie in which The Sex Pistols appeared.



I found different releases of this EP: although it has the same picture sleeve, something is different in terms of quality of the paper used and labels on the disc.
The sleeve shown above is the UK release: Ricky told me that he pushed the label to realize a lanofoil-type cardboard sleeve, like those usually released in the '50s, and he personally designed the labels for the vinyl record.


All these efforts made The Stargazers' records look brilliantly in style (and put them in a cult status in the following years).





Also, there is an alternative release for UK: after CBS finished the original red "starry" labels, the EP was released as you can see below.
Labels are etched on the disc.






FOREIGN RELEASES:


AUSTRALIA saw the release of the EP with a paper, colour printed sleeve.
The labels on the 7" are slightly different to UK, but in the same colour.
Note that the rear sleeve hasn't any catalogue reference on top right corner.
Catalogue number: EX 12017.









In HOLLAND this four tracker has been released with paper sleeve, as Australian one.
But the labels on the record were the classic Epic ones, with the common large hole for 7".
We'll meet these labels again.
Catalogue number is the same as UK.













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