Folder 77
UK
The absence of the GTS monogram on the shell rail - the discriminator, and the reason this is not 34636660. Absence is weaker evidence than presence, which is why it was photographed screw to screw on both faces rather than sampled.
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 front and spine: boxed XDR over TCEMD 1006 / STEREO, IRON MAIDEN over SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON, a Dolby device and an EMI logo
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Inlay rear panel: the eight titles, barcode 0 77779 02584 8, 79 0258 4, and Printed in England / Manufactured in England
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Inlay inner panel: the band photograph over the personnel list
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Lyric U-card, colour side: the eight titles with credits over the wise-man illustration and the full production block
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Lyric U-card, black-and-white side: the printed lyrics across the fold
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Lyric U-card, technical panel: the XDR mastering and duplicating notes ending EMI Records Ltd, Hayes, Middlesex, England and Made and printed in the UK
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Shell, side 1: clear plastic printed in white - TC-EMD 1006, ℗ 1988 Original sound recordings made by EMI Records Ltd, an EMI logo, See Inlay Card For Details, a DOLBY SYSTEM device and a large 1
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Shell, side 1, bottom rail at native resolution across the full width: the cavity code C3 13 and nothing else moulded into the rail - no monogram
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Shell, side 2: the same printing, a large 2, and the rail carrying C3-6 with no monogram
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The photographs
IMG_1562.jpg1 of 14READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Shell - clear plastic with white on-body print, no paper label; the bottom rail is a plain flat bridge, visibly a different moulding from folder 72's ribbed one.
- Inlay - the standard artwork J-card plus the separate ten-page lyric U-card, colour on one side and black-and-white on the other.
- Condition - card sound with light spine wear; shell clean, both cavity codes legible.
What distinguishes this pressing
- The absence of the
GTSmonogram on the shell rail - the discriminator, and the reason this is not 34636660. Absence is weaker evidence than presence, which is why it was photographed screw to screw on both faces rather than sampled. - Folder 72 as the positive control - the same UK issue, on the same shelf, photographed the same way, with the monogram plainly there beside
B-5. The comparison is what makes the absence readable. - Cavity codes
C3 13andC3-6- read off the object. Not recorded by any row, so they corroborate nothing; they are recorded here because they occupy the position the monogram occupies on folder 72. - The ten-page lyric U-card - excludes 35539744 and its five-panel card. Shared with 34636660, so it narrows to two and stops.
- Barcode and
Printed in England/Manufactured in England- identical across all three UK rows. Country, not identity.
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 on what is not there, with the counter-example in hand. The card narrows three UK rows to two: 34636660 and 2393944 both record the ten-page lyric U-card, 35539744 records a five-panel one, and this copy has the ten-page card.
Between the two survivors Discogs records exactly one difference - 34636660's shell carries moulded G.T.S. (Fabrications) Limited logos. This shell does not. That claim was tested rather than assumed: both rails were cropped at native resolution across their full width, screw to screw, and both carry only a cavity code (C3 13, C3-6).
An absence read from a photograph is normally a weak argument, because a mark can simply be out of frame or out of focus. It is strong here because folder 72 is the control: the same issue, the same shelf, the same framing, monogram plainly present beside B-5. And the two shells are visibly different mouldings - folder 72's rail is stepped and ribbed, this one is a flat bridge.
The one thing not checked: 2393944's note also calls its shell clear, blue tinted. These frames were shot on a dark surface and clear plastic takes its colour from what is behind it, so no tint judgement is made here either way.
Standing caveat: a UK pressing absent from Discogs cannot be excluded.