Folder 110
Colombia
EMI label, made in Colombia by Discos CBS. A dated matrix: COL 11981 IX-25-84.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
Run-out photographed, both sides, across a dozen frames. No single frame holds the whole string, and it is assembled from three that overlap: COL and the start of a following number in one, X-25-84 in another with the leading I outside the frame, and a bare A on the third. Read together they give COL 11981 IX-25-84 - the Roman-numeral month making it 25 September 1984, four days after the Japanese release date. 11981 is the weakest link in that chain: the digits after COL begin 11 and the rest is not separately legible, so the full number is carried by the catalogue number printed on both labels rather than read from the deadwax twice over.
Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout
As Discogs records them for release 2256731. Green: in my collection (1 of 1). Red: missing.
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout | COL 11981 IX-25-84 — this copy |
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 13 of them
Label, side A: POWERSLAVE / IRON MAIDEN, the large white EMI logo on an orange ground
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Label, side A: ESTEREO, A, 33⅓, 11981
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Label, side A, English tracklist: 1. ACES HIGH - Harris · 2. 2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT - Smith - Dickinson · 3. LOSFER WORDS (BIG 'ORRA) - Harris · 4. FLASH OF THE BLADE - Dickinson · 5. THE DUELLISTS - Harris
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Label, side A: FABRICADO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS … and CBS S.A. MARCAS REGISTRADAS with a boxed CBS logo
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Label, side A: PROHIBIDA SU REPRODUCCION, ALQUILER, EJECUCION PUBLICA Y/O RADIOTELEDIFUSION.
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Label, side B: ESTEREO, B, 33⅓, 11981, ℗ 1984 ORIGINAL SOUND RECORDINGS MADE BY EMI RECORDS LTD., and 1. BACK IN THE VILLAGE · 2. POWERSLAVE · 3. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
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Rear cover: HECHO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS CBS S.A. · MARCAS REGISTRADAS · TAMBIEN DISPONIBLE EN CASSETTE, with a boxed CBS logo
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Rear cover: ℗ 1984 Original Sound Recordings made by EMI Records Ltd. · © 1984 Iron Maiden (Holdings) Ltd.
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Front cover: the title in gold lettering, with a small EMI logo and ESTEREO printed at one corner, and a $630 price sticker
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Sleeve corners: squared, not rounded
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Run-out, etched: COL followed by a number beginning 11
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Run-out, etched: X-25-84, the leading I outside the frame
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Run-out, etched: A - the side letter
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The photographs
IMG_2015.jpg1 of 26READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Outer sleeve - single, standard artwork, squared corners, worn at one corner. The title is printed in gold.
- Labels - orange, with the large white EMI logo, black print, and CBS's own trademark line and logo below it. The tracklist is in English, unlike the Argentine copy in folder 109.
- Vinyl - black.
- Price sticker -
$630, applied to the front cover.
What distinguishes this pressing
- Two record companies on one label. The design is EMI's - the big white
EMIon orange - but the fine print readsCBS S.A. MARCAS REGISTRADASandFABRICADO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS [CBS S.A.], with CBS's boxed logo. The rear sleeve says the same:HECHO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS CBS S.A.EMI licensed the record; CBS made it. It is also the one field that keeps this copy short of Confirmed: the surviving Discogs entry credits a German printer instead. COL 11981 IX-25-84in the run-out - a dated matrix, which is unusual on this shelf and is the strongest single thing this copy carries.- Squared sleeve corners, which is what rules out the one other Colombian entry sharing this catalogue number and this manufacturer - it is defined as the copy with rounded corners.
- Black vinyl and gold title lettering, which is what rules out the two limited editions: one is grey/black marbled with “unique white lettering ‘Powerslave’ title”, the other blue.
- English tracklist. The Colombian pressing keeps the original titles where the Argentine one translates all eight.
Eight tracks, two sides, and the recording credits
Side A
- A1Aces High
- A22 Minutes To Midnight
- A3Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
- A4Flash Of The Blade
- A5The Duellists
Side B
- B1Back In The Village
- B2Powerslave
- B3Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Bruce Dickinson - vocals · Dave Murray - lead and rhythm guitar · Adrian Smith - lead and rhythm guitar · Steve Harris - bass · Nicko McBrain - drums.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Martin Birch, assisted by Bruce Buchhalter and Frank Gibson. Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau; mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York. Sleeve illustration by Derek Riggs; sleeve and design concept by Derek Riggs, Iron Maiden and Rod Smallwood. Photography by Moshe Brakha. Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
Personnel and studio credits are sourced from Discogs release 1846534, the UK original, and apply to the recording rather than to this pressing. The producer, publisher and copyright lines are independently corroborated by this copy's own label, quoted above.
Condition, from the photographs
A photograph cannot grade a record - this is a description of what is visible, not a grade.
- Sleeve: general handling wear with some edge and corner softening; no splits or seam separation visible in these shots.
- Vinyl: light surface marks and handling sheen catch the light. No visible deep scratches, warping or edge damage in these photographs. The labels are clean and unmarked.
Nothing on this page comes from playing the record. No Goldmine grade is claimed for it, or any other. I have no record of where this copy came from.
What is settled, and what is not
Probable. Colombia and catalogue 11981 are certain from both labels and the rear sleeve. Four Colombian entries share that number and three fall away:
How the other candidates were ruled out
| Candidate | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 2256731 | The survivor. Its only recorded matrix is COL 11981 IX-25-84, which is what this run-out assembles to, and its one physical note is “This cover has squared corners”, which these are. |
| 31324230 | Ruled out on the sleeve: it is defined as the version that “has rounded and not squared corners”, and these are square. Discogs files it under the label CBS, which is a better description of who made this record than 2256731's EMI - but a label field is a metadata string, not a manufacturing credit, and that entry records no companies at all. One metadata string does not outweigh a photographed corner. |
| 13403427 | Ruled out twice: “Limited grey/black marbled vinyl” against black, and “unique white lettering ‘Powerslave’ title” against gold. |
| 15246154 | Ruled out on the vinyl: “Blue media color”. |
Probable rather than Confirmed, and the reason is one line on the surviving entry's page. It credits 4P Nicolaus GmbH, Köln as the printer and carries Printed in Germany by 4P Nicolaus GmbH, Köln. in its notes - the same sentence, word for word, that the European entries 959121 and 8177039 carry. This sleeve says HECHO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS CBS S.A. in two places.
That is not quite the flat contradiction it looks like, and the difference matters enough to state: hecho por is made by, and Discogs' Printed By is a distinct role from Manufactured By - the two are separate credits and conflating them is a known way to get this wrong. A record pressed in Colombia with a jacket printed in Germany is a real thing that happens. But the line is printed on the jacket, which makes it the jacket's own account of where it was made, and that account and the entry's printer credit cannot both be the whole story.
So: one candidate, matching on country, catalogue number, a full and distinctive matrix and the corner shape, with one photographed field unresolved against it. Confirmed on this shelf requires every field the photographs can check to agree with one candidate. One does not, so this is Probable, and the copy is filed against 2256731 rather than left unattached - it is that release or an uncatalogued sibling of it, not any of the other three.
A fifth Colombian entry, 20765599, is in neither table and is worth saying so about: its catalogue number is 21981, not 11981. One digit, and this project has been wrong about exactly that before - so both labels were read twice, and both print 11981.
Standing caveat: this method cannot exclude a pressing absent from Discogs.
What would lift this to Confirmed, and it needs no access to the record: 2256731's own photographs on Discogs. Its rear cover either carries the HECHO EN COLOMBIA POR DISCOS CBS S.A. block this copy has - in which case that entry's printer credit is simply inherited from the European entries and wrong, and the field agrees after all - or it carries a German printer's line, in which case this copy is a sibling that entry does not describe and the honest next step is a correction or a merge on Discogs rather than a grade here.