Folder 50
Australia
Manufactured and distributed by the EMI Music Group Australasia. - the strongest line on the item, read at native resolution, but it names a regional company spanning Australia and New Zealand, not a country of manufacture. It corroborates the territory; it does not establish Australia the way an explicit 'Made in' line would. Both candidates are Australia on Discogs, so nothing turns on the distinction here - but the dossier should not claim more than the line says.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 9 of them
Inlay spine: cassette device, TC-EMC.790258, STEREO
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Inlay reverse, printed text block, final line: Manufactured and distributed by the EMI Music Group Australasia. - the only country statement anywhere on the item, and a direct one
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Inlay reverse, same block: EMI Records Ltd, above the standard unequal-sides/Dolby paragraph
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Inlay rear panel: barcode 0 77779 02584 8, XDR QUALITY SYSTEM, a boxed DOLBY SYSTEM device and the EMI logo
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Inlay rear panel, foot: a two-line rights notice reading (P) 1988 Original Sound Recordings made by EMI Records Ltd / (C) 1988 Iron Maiden (Holdings) Ltd. - the print is soft at this size but the year reads as 1988, and the same line is sharp on folders 51 and 54
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Shell, side 1: SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON — IRON MAIDEN, Side 1, TC-EMC-790258 (hyphen here, where the spine prints a full stop), All Rights Reserved, XDR QUALITY SYSTEM, DOLBY SYSTEM, DOLBY H.X PRO, EMI
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Shell, side 2: the same block with Side 2
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Inlay inner panels: band photograph with personnel, the Derek Riggs artwork panel, and the full tracklist with production credits
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Inlay inner: Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Martin 'Disappearing Armchair' Birch, Recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany, Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York
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The photographs
IMG_1287.jpg1 of 8READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Shell - clear plastic, printed in blue, five-screw, with the catalogue number on both faces. This is the one physical feature that leans the identification, since 12427466 records it and 8860442 does not.
- Inlay - glossy colour J-card, printed on the reverse with the full thanks list and the XDR/Dolby/EMI text block.
- Case - standard clear library case.
- Condition - the card is creased along both folds and lightly rubbed at the spine; no tears, all panels present.
What distinguishes this pressing
Manufactured and distributed by the EMI Music Group Australasia.- the strongest line on the item, read at native resolution, but it names a regional company spanning Australia and New Zealand, not a country of manufacture. It corroborates the territory; it does not establish Australia the way an explicit 'Made in' line would. Both candidates are Australia on Discogs, so nothing turns on the distinction here - but the dossier should not claim more than the line says.- Catalogue number
TC-EMC.790258(spine) /TC-EMC-790258(shell) - matches two rows and no others. It is the axis the match was made on, so it cannot also serve as the discriminator between them. - Clear shell, blue print - matches 12427466's recorded shell note. Leans, but does not decide: 8860442 records no shell colour.
- Barcode
0 77779 02584 8- carried by both candidates, and barcodes are shared across pressings of one commercial release in any case. Corroborates the release, never the pressing.
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.
- Case/inlay: general handling wear with some edge and corner softening; no cracks or splits visible in these shots.
- Shell: light surface marks and handling wear are visible. No visible warping, tape spillage or shell damage in these photographs.
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
Settled by the owner on 2026-09-18 -- the closing paragraph of this section says so, and the grade above follows it. What comes first is the photographic case exactly as it stood before that, present tense and all: where it says this copy stops at Narrowed, it means the photographs stop there, which is still true and is why the candidates are still listed.
Two Australian entries fit, and the object does not choose between them. The inlay names its own manufacturer - Manufactured and distributed by the EMI Music Group Australasia. Note what that does and does not say: EMI Music Group Australasia is a regional company covering Australia and New Zealand, so the line corroborates the territory but does not state a country of manufacture. Australia is both candidates' Discogs attribution, not something read off this copy - unlike folder 51 (MADE IN ITALY BY EMI ITALIANA SpA) or folder 54 (Made in Canada), where the object does say it outright.
What does not resolve is the choice between Discogs 12427466 and 8860442. Both are Australia, both EMI, both carry TC-EMC. 790258 and the same barcode. The one asymmetry is that 12427466 records Clear Cassette Shell with Blue text, which this copy is, while 8860442 records the Australasia manufacturing line, which this copy also carries. Each candidate's note describes this object; neither excludes it.
It stops at Narrowed (2) rather than being promoted on the shell colour because 8860442 is silent on its shell, and silence is not a difference - a submitter who never described the shell leaves no evidence either way. Compare folder 52, where both Italian candidates describe their shells and describe them differently: that is a real comparison, and it confirms. This is not.
What would decide it: whether 8860442 is also a clear/blue shell, and whether anything distinguishes the original issue from the reissue descriptor 8860442 carries. The copy is dated 1988 by its own (P)/(C) line, but both candidates sit in 1988, so the year separates nothing.
Standing caveat: this method cannot exclude a pressing absent from Discogs.
Pinned by the owner, 2026-09-18. Everything above is what the photographs support on their own, and it is left standing unedited. On top of it the owner, holding the cassette and reading the candidate release pages against it, identifies this copy as Discogs 12427466, and the folder is graded on that. It is an owner's judgement, not a new detail in the frames: withdraw it and the case reverts to the narrowing above.