Various Artists- Seeds 1: Pop

I scored this record on eBay for 25 cents awhile back and it has since been heavy rotation around the Weird Wax Compound.  Its a sampler of great UK pop/ new wave/ post-punk from the early to mid 1980's.  I hadn't heard of most of the bands on the album when I bid on it but there was one band on there that was worth taking a 25 cent chance on, The Television Personalities.  Great band.

The album itself was released on Cherry Red Records.  This copy is a test pressing version.  There were only 25 made.  For those of you who aren't sure what a test pressing is, it is a copy that is made early on in the vinyl production process.  It is then sent back to the label/ artist for a listen to see if everything is okay.  Once the test pressings have been given the green light, full production continues and the album is released.  Most test pressings have blank or pressing plant labels instead of the label that appears on the actual release.  Many do not even have the sleeve. This one simply had a fold over version of the sleeve.  No seams.  Normally, there are not more than about 10-25 test pressings made.  With some records as few as 4 are pressed.

Although The Television Personalities were the only band I was familiar with it this sampler album is packed with cool songs.  I really dig the tracks by The Suede Crocodiles, Protex, The Sinatras and Marine Girls.  As an interesting side note, Marine Girls features Tracey Thorn who went on to score some major hits with the band, Everything But The Girl.  All in all, its a pretty cool compilation LP.  And getting a test pressing copy of it for a quarter is just an extra bonus. 

Stats...
Artist: Various Artists
Title: Seeds 1: Pop
Label: Cherry Red
Matrix: BRED 74- Test Pressing
Year: 1987
Size: 12"
Speed: 33.3