CROW 'CONFECTION'/'RAVINE' 1991 OZ PUNK-BLUES 7" on PHANTOM UNIQUE PS 2 ONLY

	A$		46
	$		29

Back in 1980, my business partner Dare and I decided to create a label, as a spin-off from our indie record store...we both had girlfriends who were lead singers in bands, and our recently separated Radio Birdman mates had formed bands, along with other friends who'd done the same...and we loved them all, but no major label was gonna touch them...so Phantom Records the label, was born...and lasted until the late '90's. Now that whole deal's not something I'm specifically crowing about here...more just so you undertsand why I own an item like this...and in fact, KNOW the details of its existence.

So anyway, this record below is something I've held onto since it first came into my hands back then:

ARTIST:   CROW

TRACKS:  1. "CONFECTION"

2. "RAVINE" 

FORMAT:           …vinyl 7” single… 
LABEL:              PHANTOM    .
CATALOGUE #:   PH-46     .
PRESSED IN:       Australia   .

DATE OF RELEASE:     AUGUST 1991   .

What makes this unique, is the cover. 

As we (the band and I - Dare had gone by this stage) were mooting cover designs, they came up with two options which we considered at first. One had a unique plain white cover with only the band name in the top right corner (and identical back cover to the one eventually released), but with a blue and white inner sleeve featuring a picture of a sinister, somewhat-menacing hessian mask lying in the gutter on one side, and a pair of discarded old boots on the other...with no writing at all on this inner sleeve. We made ONE (only) proto-type of this.

The other option was to use the inner sleeve described above as the (outer) cover, with band name on front in black, and relevant recording info and label details on the back, also in black. This one had no inner sleeve. We made TWO (only) proto-types of this cover. The item on auction here now is one of THIS.

The very first pressing run was on blue vinyl, but I added 3 lonely coverless 45s (on black vinyl) to these 3 sleeves and held onto all of them in my own collection for all these years. So, naturally, the vinyl is included.

A couple of weeks after all this initial activity, the band came to me with a completely different design for the front cover (still utilising a picture of the hessian mask, albeit a different one...with no gutter evident)...and that's what we eventually used. There was NO inner sleeve, and the gutter pix of mask and boots were never used.

I've included a pic of the cover we eventually released as a reminder/comparison...but don't be confused, this auction is for just this one absurdly rare and unique blue-picture-covered 45.

If you end up owning this, I'd suggest printing part of this ramble out to keep with it.

...The record itself?...it was their truly monstrous first 45..."Confection" is a swaggering, lumbering BEAST - all guitars and menace in the same way the Birthday Party were fully confronting and threatening, and this has the bonus of a bucketload of melody to propel it into the subconscious, where it will lurk until teased into joyous recall by repeated spins...which you WILL hypnotically fall to. You may end up being thankful it's only 3-minutes-20 long.

CONDITION:

COVER/VINYL: ( M- / MINT )...I never played the record nor took the cover out of its protective plastic sleeve in all this time, so it has the appearance, naturally, of being pretty much untouched...

LABELS: (Side One: MINT / Side Two: MINT )...

CLICK ON SEE OTHER ITEMS ABOVE FOR SIMILAR GOODIES

Thanks for considering this...Cheers, Jules.

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