All 113 pressings

Folder 70

Poland

ZAIKS and BIEM on the shell label - the Polish rights society and the international bureau. Discogs records ZAIKS/BIEM for this row, so the two agree - but a rights society is carried by every Polish release of the period and separates nothing.

Catalogue
AR023
Label
ARA
Released
1988
Confidence
Likely
Why this grade

the shell label carries the ARA parrot device, ZAIKS and BIEM - the Polish rights society and its international counterpart - and the inlay prints ARA over AR023. That matches the one ARA row in the master, whose recorded rights society is ZAIKS/BIEM. Both matching details are territory-wide, and the master holds a dozen Polish cassettes across eight different licensees, which is the environment in which a second ARA row could easily exist without being catalogued. Probable

Reference
Discogs 12411916
Worth
No recorded Discogs sale
A photograph of pressing 70, Poland

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 — 2 of them

Inlay, laid flat: cover artwork inset above IRON MAIDEN 1988', with STEREO, ARA over AR023, and the eight titles with their writers - MOONCHILD — SMITH/DICKINSON, INFINITE DREAMS — HARRIS, and so on

IMG_1489.jpeg

Shell, side A: black shell with a cream label - the ARA parrot device in a coloured frame, IRON MAIDEN, a boxed A, ZAIKS at the foot left and BIEM at the foot right, and a painted saxophone-player vignette at the right of the label

IMG_1494.jpeg

The photographs

IMG_1489.jpg1 of 7READ FROM

The object, and what marks it out

Sleeve, labels and inserts

  • Shell - black plastic with a cream paper label on both faces, the label carrying a generic painted vignette (a saxophone player) that has nothing to do with the album: a stock label design used across the licensee's catalogue.
  • Inlay - thin paper J-card, English tracklist with writer credits, the cover reproduced as a small inset.
  • Condition - card browned and lightly foxed; label clean, the vignette unrubbed.

What distinguishes this pressing

  • ZAIKS and BIEM on the shell label - the Polish rights society and the international bureau. Discogs records ZAIKS/BIEM for this row, so the two agree - but a rights society is carried by every Polish release of the period and separates nothing.
  • Catalogue number AR023 - the match axis, on the inlay. Returns exactly one row.
  • The ARA parrot device - the licensee's mark, on the inlay and the label. Identifies the licensee, not the pressing.
  • The stock saxophone-player vignette - a licensee-wide label design rather than a release-specific one, and recorded by no Discogs row, so unusable either way.
  • Discogs classifies this row as an Unofficial Release - 12411916's format descriptors read Album, Unofficial Release. That is the ordinary status of the Polish licensee tapes of this period, and it is recorded here rather than left implied: the stock label art and the absence of any EMI credit on the object both fit it.
  • Poland is the most crowded territory in this master - a dozen cassette rows across ARA, ACOMP, RC, MG Records, Mag Magic, DVC, Atlanta and others, most of them unofficial. That is context for how easily an uncatalogued Polish pressing could exist.
Eight tracks, two sides, and the recording credits

Side A

  1. A1Moonchild
  2. A2Infinite Dreams
  3. A3Can I Play With Madness
  4. A4The Evil That Men Do

Side B

  1. B1Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
  2. B2The Prophecy
  3. B3The Clairvoyant
  4. 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

One row matches and nothing tests it. The catalogue number is printed on the inlay, the rights societies on the label agree with what Discogs records, and the ARA device names the licensee.

Every one of those is a property of the Polish ARA issue as a class. There is no plant code, no date code and no release-specific marking on any surface photographed, so nothing would distinguish this row from a second ARA submission if one appeared - and in a territory this crowded, that is not a remote possibility.

What would settle it: a code on the inner shell faces or the hubs, neither of which was photographed.