Re: Station to Station colour cover - genuine vs counterfeit
January 29 2007, 12:21 PM
Great find, Maarten. I was going to make a page discussing the STS colour sleeve, but I wouldn't have had access to these photographs, so it's great that someone has made this reference guide.
There's one thing that caught my eye, though. At the pic on the link below, you can clearly see ring wear on the sleeve, where the impression of the vinyl inside has been pressed to leave an impression on the sleeve.
As far as I've been able to find out, the original STS colour sleeves weren't glued together and therefore, didn't have any vinyl inside them.
Re: Station to Station colour cover - genuine vs counterfeit
January 29 2007, 12:35 PM
That was brilliant, great find, and so good to see a real copy of the colour sleeve. Well it confirms that mine is a counterfeit, but I always knew that. Such a difference in the colouration, the real one is so much richer.
It's funny, I always thought they did a admirable job until I saw the original. I wonder what the colouring of the Ryko vinyl edition is like. I've never seen one in real life.
Colour can vary massively just based on the ink drying at different temperatures alone! Years ago I worked on a couple of Sade albums and what a faff it was to get the colour consistently the way she wanted it!
John has asked me the post the following update here:
"This page started out as "a comparison of the RCA UK full colour Station To Station album sleeve with a counterfeit of the RCA USA full colour Station To Station sleeve". That site generated considerable and most enlightened debate on a number of message boards dedicated to the collecting of Bowie discs, etc.
Based on those discussions I have learnt that it was inappropriate to call the "genuine item" a record sleeve. It is a 24" x 12" mock-up. It was not glued. It was produced in the UK. If I may be so bold to quote one of the respondents. "It was never issued in a color sleeve. There's only USA proofs and a UK mock-up ( i.e. 24" x 12" card). There were no completed glued up sleeves made." So it seems to me that I am fortunate enough to possess a 24" x 12" UK mock-up. I purchased this mock-up in Manchester from a record dealer and Bowie collector during the mid 1980's. It came with a test pressing of the album. I purchased the counterfeit copy from the same gentleman during the late 1980's.
