HMV Promos.

I think it's fair to say, (for the most part) people who collect records are either not a huge fan of HMV, or are simply indifferent to it. And whilst I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan myself, they have churned out a couple of fairly cool promo records this year in support of two artists that made a pretty big impression on me, and still do today. 

First up is the 'World Peace is None of Your Business' promo 10'' by Morrissey. It's no secret that I love Morrissey, and so when this started popping up on my Instagram feed on release day, I knew I had to get one. Small side story: I rang my local (well, it's like 40 miles away) HMV to ask if they had any in stock and if they would reserve a copy 'til I could get into town a day or two later. They told me the stock, made apologies for not being allowed to reserve and assured me there would most likely be copies leftover. I got in the following day, and after a quick peruse started sweating when I saw not a single copy in the store. I went to the counter and asked what the deal was, and was informed some arsehole went into the store the previous evening at closing and bought a bunch of copies. When they tried to limit him to one copy, he got a bunch of mates to grab them too. Utter dick hole. The guy was as apologetic as you could get and said they didn't have any left. I was about to leave, when he asked if I rang in the day before; and long story short he salvaged a copy and left it in the racks behind the counter as a reserved item. I know that can get the dudes there in a little bit of trouble, so it was really cool of them to do that and super appreciated. 

B Side / Back Cover. Plain white sleeves are always cool for promos. The poly sleeve it came in was quite nice too, but the anti theft tags they put on stock in HMV ripped the plastic to the point of no return. Completely unavoidable but still annoying. 

And this is the sticker causing a fuss! People seem to be getting their knickers in a twist over pressing info. Some copies are stickered, some are not. Some copies are numbered, some are not. Some come with an orange sticker on the poly sleeve, mine did not. The numbers seem to end at 1000, so my guess is that there are somewhere between 1000 and 2000 kicking around. Either some were numbered and others were not, and 1000 is the overall number. Or 1000 were numbered, and others were sent out at random. People in the US have hand numbered copies without the sticker. UK people (me for one) have one with a US FBI warning, but no number. And fuck knows about this sticker business! All I know is that HMV was the only place for these in the UK, and that where copies ended up outside the UK was a bit random. What copies ended up where doesn't interest me too much, but it's fun watching people get really weird about it! I mean, the songs on here are all on the LP anyway. Oh to be a collector. 

Close up of the label. You really don't need to see the B-Side label as aside from the side identifier and track-listing they are pretty identical. It's odd seeing the Harvest logo, as the partnership with the label was so short. Oh well, it's Moz' world I guess. 

So that was promo number one. It was a little bit of a sweat to get, but totally worth it, I'm happy to have anything by Mozza in my collection. On to the next; a band that never hit me as hard as some kids, but I can't say they weren't important. My Dad was HUGE into this band when I was young, so I almost love it by extension. 

Oasis. Acquiesce. Single sided promotional 12''. Picked this up in Manchester (Trafford Centre HMV) a couple of weeks ago on my birthday. This is a bit of an odd one. Acquiesce is my favourite song by Oasis, without a doubt. However it wasn't a single really. It was a B-Side to 'Some Might Say' and was later released on 'The Masterplan' which was a B-Sides compilation thing. Even weirder, this is to coincide with the anniversary of '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' which although it is being released later this month, the original release of WTSMG? was in 1995. Why are they not doing a 20 year anniversary like with Definitely Maybe? Why this song in the first place, it wasn't on either album? Not that I'm complaining, I would just like some answers. I mean, there was a promo of Acquiesce kicking around in 1995, on Creation Records (which is now a massive ballache to find). The layout to the this and the old promo are nearly identical, but that's the only reasoning I can think of? 

B-Side / Back Cover. What can I say? Plain B-Side, plain white label, plain sleeve. It doesn't even look like a record at this point. 

Close up of the centre label. If you know what the Creation copies looked like, you can see the similarity is ridiculous. The main difference is the Big Brother labels, as opposed to the Creation markings. Also, this says 2014 as opposed to 1995. And although I have no clue on pressing, I can guarantee there's a few more than the 500 odd pressed in 1995. You know what, Creation were an absolute bastard for this. Make a great release, make it impossible to find if you weren't there on the day way back when. I would have been either two or three when this originally surfaced; so I wasn't exactly in the queue at the local store. This goes some way as to explain my lack of 'Songs From Northern Britain' by Teenage Fanclub or 'Loveless' by My Bloody Valentine on vinyl too. 

Finally, this is a card that was found in the sleeve. On the reverse is a barcode promotion to get £2 off the (What's the Story) re-issue in store at HMV. 

Two really smart promos, two legendary Mancunian artists. Not much more to talk about. It's been a bit of long one. Thanks for reading!