An Introduction

I first became interested in 4AD, a UK independent record label founded in 1980, towards the end of the '80's. I was falling in love with the music of Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, Pixies, Bauhaus and The Birthday Party and was surprised when the 4AD label sampler "Lonely Is An Eyesore" came out in 1987 that all these bands were from the same label.

After visiting a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition of some American's collection of art, I came to thinking of all this musical art that 4AD have released that may one day drift into obscurity unless someone shows it as art. So now I'm on a crusade, to collect the first ten years of 4AD's releases and exhibit the collection on 4AD's 50th anniversary in 2030. This is a big task which will have some interesting twists and turns along the way.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

A Good Week!

This is a good week!

Nearly finished putting all the 4AD I’ve collected so far onto Discogs. This is a good database. I’ve got to go through everything again on Discogs to make sure I verify or make accurate the data that is on there. Mostly the data is pretty good and accurate.

Yesterday I got the first 4AD release. Well, actually the first AXIS release as 4AD was called AXIS first, until they found out that another label already had the name and so changed their name to 4AD.

The first release was by a band called “The Fast Set”, the single is called “Junction One” and the catalogue number – oh yes, AXIS1.

The next thing to do apart from verify all the accuracy on Discogs, is to have a chat to a few folk that have contributed on the site to adding the releases “Dark Entries” by Bauhaus. Now, why do I say releases in the plural? So far I have five different versions of this single. Only two of these on Discogs match with what I have. There are another three on there that don’t match what I have. It will be interesting to compare and see how many separate releases there actually are.

AXIS 3 - First release Red AXIS labels
Matrices : AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE // AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE
Stamp on the centre label which says AC1365
Sleeve has Axis 3 and Label address

AD 3 - Re-release Black & white 4AD labels ("wrestlers"), picture sleeve.
Matrices : MPO AD 3 A1 JA TAPE ONE // MPO AD 3 B1 JA TAPE ONE.
Sleeve has the oval 4AD logo and the catalogue number, AD 3, on the back, plus this: # 1980 4AD # RECORDS, minus the information address.

BEG 37 / AD 3 - Blue & white 4AD labels
Matrices : W-3 (AD-3  scratched out) BEG 37A AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE // (AD 3B scratched out) BEG 37B W-4 AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE
No Picture sleeve.

BEG 37 Blue & white 4AD labels on label “# AXIS Records 1980 Beggars Banquet Andrew heath music”
Matrices : L-1 W-4 BEG 37 A-1(AXIS AD3 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE scratched out) // L-1 W-2 BEG 37 B-1 (AXIS AD 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE scratched out)
Sleeve has the AXIS 3 and square 4AD logos and BEG 37 on the back, plus this: # 1980 4AD # RECORDS

BEG 37 Red "BB" labels
Matrices: W-2 (AD-3 Scratched out) BEG 37A AXIS 3 A-1 MADE IN FRANCE  // W-2 AXIS 3 B-1 MADE IN FRANCE (AD 3B scratched out) BEG 37 B .
Sleeve has the Axis 3 and square 4AD logos and BEG 37 on the back, plus this: # 1980 4AD # RECORDS

So hopefully we will find out soon. Watch this space
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