Folder 87
Canada
The RCMP slipcase - the discriminator, and the only thing that distinguishes 7542700 from 666789 by that row's own admission. It is present, printed, and credited to Derek Riggs on the object.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
No photograph of the inner mirror ring exists in this folder, so no matrix or SID code was read.
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 6 of them
Slipcase front, sealed: a red card sleeve with Eddie in RCMP uniform holding a Canadian flag, IRON MAIDEN over Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and the album's standard artwork reproduced as a small inset panel
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Slipcase back: the eight titles, the album artwork inset again, and the barcode 7 24349 68640 3
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Slipcase back, foot at native resolution: the enhanced CD device with its for use on PC or Macintosh featuring full length videos, band and tour history, biographies, exclusive photo galleries, internet web links and much more. blurb, Made in Canada. www.emimusic.ca. 72434 96864, and the EMI and EMI MUSIC CANADA logos
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Slipcase back, right edge, printed vertically: COVER ILLUSTRATION OF MOUNTIE EDDIE BY DEREK RIGGS
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Slipcase back, licence block: EMI is a registered trademark of EMI Group Place. Used under License. Digitally remastered ℗ 1998 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd. © 1998 Iron Maiden (Holdings) Ltd. Manufactured and distributed by EMI Music Canada, 3109 American Drive, Mississauga, Ontario L4V 1B2.
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The jewel case inside, seen through the open end of the slipcase: a spine reading …OF A SEVENTH SON and 7243 4 96864 0 3
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The photographs
IMG_1671.jpg1 of 6READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Slipcase - a printed red card sleeve, open at both ends, over a standard jewel case. The RCMP artwork is on the slipcase only; the jewel case inside carries the album's own cover.
- Sealed - the original shrink-wrap is intact over slipcase and jewel case together. Nothing inside has been examined.
- Condition - the wrap is creased and slightly clouded; the card beneath is bright with sharp corners.
- No disc photograph, and none possible without breaking the seal. No matrix ring, mastering SID or mould SID was read for this copy.
What distinguishes this pressing
- The RCMP slipcase - the discriminator, and the only thing that distinguishes 7542700 from 666789 by that row's own admission. It is present, printed, and credited to Derek Riggs on the object.
- The seal - worth recording as evidence rather than only as condition. The slipcases were withdrawn within days of going on sale, so a loose slipcase and a loose disc could have been married later; an unbroken wrap around both rules that out.
Made in Canadaand the Mississauga address - establishes country from the object. Shared with the other two Canadian rows, so corroboration rather than a discriminator.- Barcode
7 24349 68640 3- carried by all three Canadian rows and by a great many others across this master. It is the match axis, not evidence of identity. - Not readable here: the matrix and SID codes. They are what separate 21056242 (EMI MFG / EMI Swindon) from 666789 (Cinram) - and they are irrelevant to this copy, because the slipcase already selects a row neither of those two is.
Eight tracks, and the recording credits
Tracks 1-4
- 1Moonchild
- 2Infinite Dreams
- 3Can I Play With Madness
- 4The Evil That Men Do
Tracks 5-8
- 5Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
- 6The Prophecy
- 7The Clairvoyant
- 8Only 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. Where this copy's own packaging carries the producer, publisher or copyright lines, they are quoted in the evidence above.
Condition, from the photographs
A photograph cannot grade a record - this is a description of what is visible, not a grade.
- Outer wrap: the original shrink-wrap is intact and unbroken. It is creased and in places clouded, which is what the photographs show through.
- Packaging: no splits, cracks or corner damage visible through the wrap.
- Disc: not visible. The copy has not been opened, so nothing is recorded here about the disc's surface, its matrix ring or its SID codes.
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 the packaging, which for once is the whole story. The catalogue number and barcode return three Canadian rows for the 1998 enhanced remaster. Two are the ordinary jewel-case issue and are separated from each other only by which plant cut the glass master - unreadable here, and beside the point.
The third, 7542700, is the version EMI Canada shipped inside a red card slipcase showing Eddie as a Mountie. Discogs' note says the slipcases were pulled from sale within days because the RCMP uniform is protected and nobody had asked. That makes the slipcase both the identifying feature and the reason the release is scarce.
This copy has it, and has never been opened. The seal matters: it means the slipcase and the disc it is identified by have stayed together since 1998, which a loose slipcase could not demonstrate.
Standing caveat: a Canadian pressing absent from Discogs cannot be excluded - though a second, uncatalogued slipcase variant of a release that was on sale for days is an unlikely thing to have to worry about.