Folder 90
Taiwan
The Chinese obi sash - the discriminator, by the row's own description. 22390996 exists as a row precisely because of it: the disc and inlay are the EU issue, and the sash is what makes it a Taiwanese release.
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 — 5 of them
Front with sash, sealed: the album's standard artwork, a teal printed sash down the left edge reading 鐵娘子合唱團 / 生生不息 with the EMI 百代 device, and a round black sticker reading SPECIAL MEDIA CD FEATURES · FULL LENGTH · EXCLUSIVE BIOGRAPHIES · PHOTO GALLERIES · WEB LINKS AND MUCH MORE
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Back: the eight titles, Produced, Engineered And Mixed By Martin Birch, 7243 4 96864 0 3 and the barcode 7 24349 68640 3 - the EU remaster's own back panel
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Sash rear panel: a long Chinese-language introduction to the album, naming Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Can I Play With Madness, The Evil That Men Do, Rime of the Ancient Mariner and POWERSLAVE
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Sash foot at native resolution: TEL:(02)27680756 FAX:(02)27606803, EMI TAIWAN, 版權所有・翻印必究, the red EMI 百代 device, and an applied barcode label 7 24349 68640 3
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Sash front detail: the Chinese blurb opening on New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Madness
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The photographs
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The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Sash - a printed teal paper band wrapped around the jewel case, carrying Chinese text on both faces. The equivalent of a Japanese obi and equally easy to lose.
- Sealed - the wrap holds the sash against the case; neither has been removed.
- Condition - wrap creased and clouded in places; the sash's print is sharp and its fine print legible at native resolution.
- No disc photograph, and none possible without breaking the seal. The row records the disc as EU-made; that is not corroborated here from the object.
What distinguishes this pressing
- The Chinese obi sash - the discriminator, by the row's own description. 22390996 exists as a row precisely because of it: the disc and inlay are the EU issue, and the sash is what makes it a Taiwanese release.
- Read the row's own fields with care. 22390996 is dated
1988-04-11and its format is a bareCDwith no descriptors - yet its catalogue numbers include7 24349 68640 3, the 1998 remaster's barcode, and its note describes an imported EU disc. The row contradicts itself on the date; the object does not.1998andenhancedin this entry are read off the object - the round sticker advertising the enhanced content and the 1998 remaster's back panel - not taken from Discogs. EMI TAIWANwith a Taipei telephone and fax number - establishes the country from the object rather than from the row.版權所有・翻印必究- the standard Chinese copyright assertion, printed on the sash. Territory-wide; corroboration only.- Barcode
7 24349 68640 3- the 1998 remaster's barcode worldwide, applied here as a separate white label on the sash. Match axis, not identity. - Not corroborated:
Made in the EU. The row records it; this copy's disc is sealed in and its back inlay carries no manufacturing statement that could confirm it.
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 wrapper, because the wrapper is the release. Only one Taiwanese CD row exists under this master, and a single surviving candidate is never proof - but this one is not identified by elimination. It is identified by a positive description that matches: Made in the EU, imported by EMI records and packed with blue OBI strip with introduction in Chinese text.
The object is exactly that. A standard EU 1998 enhanced remaster, unaltered, inside a printed Chinese sash carrying EMI Taiwan's own Taipei contact block. Country comes off the sash, not off an inference.
The one thing not checked is the row's Made in the EU claim about the disc, which would need the seal broken.
Standing caveat: a Taiwanese issue absent from Discogs cannot be excluded - and locally-sashed imports are exactly the kind of release that goes uncatalogued.