Folder 30
Europe
GEMA/STEMRA printed plainly on the side B label - neither overprinted with BIEM/GEMA nor blanked to a black bar. Discogs describes those two states as what distinguishes the later repressings, so this is a discriminator carried by the record, not the sleeve.
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 read 7902581-A-01 and 7902581-B-01. Every candidate in this family shares that string, so it confirms the family and cannot separate the copies.
Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout
As Discogs records them for release 368980. Green: in my collection (0 of 4). Red: missing.
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 1) | 7902581-A-01 "VERY DIRECT METAL" Sterling 1 |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 1) | 7902581-B-01 "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT BOLLOCKS" Sterling 2 |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 2) | 7902581-A-01 "VERY DIRECT METAL" Sterling 1 |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 2) | 7902581-B-01 "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT BOLLOCKS" Sterling 1 |
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 12 of them
Label: 064-79 0258 1, GEMA/STEMRA, LC 0542, DMM
IMG_0878, IMG_0882
Label: track times printed - 9:52, 5:04, 4:26, 4:40
IMG_0878
Label rim, German: ALLE URHEBER- UND LEISTUNGSSCHUTZRECHTE VORBEHALTEN. KEIN VERLEIH! KEINE UNERLAUBTE VERVIELFÄLTIGUNG…
IMG_0878, IMG_0882
Rear sleeve: ⊚ 064 and boxed 7 90258 1
IMG_0869
Rear sleeve: France: PM 264
IMG_0869
Rear sleeve: boxed 7 90258 4 and 7 90258 2, and DMM is a trademark of TELDEC
IMG_0869, IMG_0870
Run-out, side A, etched: 7902581-A-01
IMG_0884
Run-out, side B, etched: 7902581-B-01
IMG_0885, IMG_0886
Front sleeve: a MONSTERS OF ROCK hype sticker
IMG_0868
Loose MONSTERS OF ROCK sticker included
IMG_0874
Insert: Eddie poster
IMG_0872
Insert: blue double-sided lyric and credit sheet
IMG_0873
The photographs
IMG_0868.jpg1 of 19READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Outer sleeve - standard artwork, carrying a Monsters of Rock hype sticker on the front.
- Inserts - an Eddie poster, a blue printed lyric sheet, and a separate loose Monsters of Rock sticker.
- Labels - the eye/Eddie artwork with printed track times, German rim text, GEMA/STEMRA and a DMM mark.
- Vinyl - black.
What distinguishes this pressing
GEMA/STEMRAprinted plainly on the side B label - neither overprinted withBIEM/GEMAnor blanked to a black bar. Discogs describes those two states as what distinguishes the later repressings, so this is a discriminator carried by the record, not the sleeve.064on the rear sleeve. Three candidates' Discogs entries state038on the back cover in so many words; this one reads064.France: PM 264. The two later repressings carryPM 211.- **A Monsters of Rock hype sticker and a loose sticker**, tour-cycle ephemera that rarely survives with the sleeve.
- The first European DMM copy in this collection with its rear-sleeve code photographed - see the note in
data4.pyabout folders 6 and 9.
Eight tracks, two sides, and the recording credits
Side A
- A1Moonchild
- A2Infinite Dreams
- A3Can I Play With Madness
- A4The Evil That Men Do
Side B
- B1Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
- B2The Prophecy
- B3The Clairvoyant
- B4Only The Good Die Young
Bruce Dickinson - vocals · Dave Murray - lead and rhythm guitar · Adrian Smith - lead and rhythm guitar, synth · Steve Harris - bass, string synth · Nicko McBrain - drums.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Martin Birch. Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York. Recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich. Sleeve illustration, concept and design by Derek Riggs (with Rod Smallwood). Inner-sleeve photograph by Ross Halfin. Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
Personnel and studio credits are sourced from Discogs release 576952, 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
Confirmed. Europe, 064 7 90258 1 and the DMM/GEMA-STEMRA family are all certain. This collection holds three further copies of this release - folders 6, 9 and 34. Folders 6 and 9 were graded Narrowed (4) for a long time on the grounds that their rear-sleeve codes had never been photographed; the photographs were in their folders all along, and both now read 064, the same as this copy. So the shelf holds release 368980 four times over. This copy's codes were:
Two of the four are excluded by the record itself, which matters because a sleeve does not prove what is inside it:
How the other candidates were ruled out
| Candidate | Side B label | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 11104240 | GEMA/STEMRA overprinted with BIEM/GEMA | This copy's side B label reads GEMA/STEMRA plainly. |
| 25979638 | rights society blanked to a black bar | Same: the mark is present and unaltered. |
The remaining two are separated by the sleeve:
| Candidate | Rear code | Price code | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 368980 | - | PM 264 | Matches. The original European issue, dated April 1988. Its entry does not state a back-cover code, but the entries that exclude it do. |
| 4025140 | 038 | - | Discogs states “038 code on back cover and 064 code on label”. This copy's back cover reads 064. |
A fifth entry, 18637525, shares PM 264. It is excluded twice: Discogs caches its format as Promo, White Label, while this copy's labels are the fully printed eye/Eddie design, and it is stamped “Unverk. Musterplatte” on the front and back of the cover, which neither face of this sleeve carries - they carry a Monsters of Rock hype sticker instead. The white-label exclusion comes from the record, the stamp from the sleeve.
So three of the four surviving candidates are excluded by the disc and only 4025140 rests on the sleeve. Note also what the 064 test does and does not prove: it works because the other entries state 038 explicitly, not because Discogs records 064 as a back-cover code for 368980 - it does not.
Standing caveat: this method cannot exclude a pressing absent from Discogs.