Identifying releases from the UK

Throughout the world (and indeed throughout Europe), different countries have their own way of marking their records, CDs etc. There are often ways to determine the country of manufacture / distribution of vinyl releases. This section focuses on ways to identify where these releases comes from. When it comes to CD, cassette and vinyl LPs, the country of manufacture is usually printed on the sleeve. Many CD singles, CD albums, cassettes and vinyl LPs which are produced for the UK market are manufactured in Germany. CD singles which are UK made tend to have "Mastered By Nimbus" or "Disctronics" or "Mayking Records" etched round the centre of the CD but no country of manufacture printed on the main part of the disc.

Vinyl Singles: Releases in the UK usually have "Manufactured in the UK" or "Made in UK" printed on the disc and "Distributed by WEA records Ltd. A Warner Communications Co." on the sleeve or just "WEA International Inc." on the sleeves of some of the more recent releases. Most of the UK release picture discs have "Printed and made in England" on them. Records from the UK tend to have white paper labels with black text, small grey WB-logos and colour WB-logos. Sometimes the UK releases feature silver plastic labels painted on the discs or in some cases blue plastic labels. These may be found in addition to the usual white labels for a release. Sometimes limited edition releases produced for the UK may contain vinyl made in Germany. Most UK 7" releases have small holes in the centre, whereas some of the foreign releases have larger holes (often referred to as jukebox-holes).

In the following we suggest ways to figure out the country of origin for various vinyl releases. In the discography, the country of manufacture is listed unless the release has been manufactured in one country for distribution in another. In this instance, we list the country of distribution and note the country of manufature.

Identifying vinyl releases from abroad

Argentina: Releases have "Industria Argentina" printed on the middle of the discs.

Bolivia: Releases may have "Grabado Y Manufacturado Por Discolandia Duari y Cia. Ltda. - Cas 422 La Paz - Bolivia" printed on the sleeve.

Australia: At the bottom of the reverse of the picture sleeve it reads "Marketed by WEA Record & Tape Distributions Pty. Limited. A Warner Communications Company". The catalogue number of the record is usually printed in the upper right corner of the back of the picture sleeve and reads 7-(+ 5 additional figures) on 7"-releases or 0-(+ 5 additional figures) on 12"-releases. The labels are more often than not regular white WB-labels. Variations do exist including multicoloured Reprise labels and the renowned Australian / New Zealand "Steamboat"-label. As a rule 7"-singles have regular sized holes and unique to the Australian and New Zealand releases are the circular indentations. The 12"-singles have catalogue numbers as follows : 0- (+5 additional figures). The sleeves are often identical to the U.S. editions and are very often printed there as well.

Brazil: Releases have "Fabricado e distribuido por BMG Ariola Discos LTDA ...Rio de Janeiro" on the record and "Fabricado e distribuido por BMG Ariola Discos LTDA...Sao Paulo" on the sleeves.

Canada: The print on the sleeve reads: "Manufactured by/ Fabriqué par WEA music of Canada, LTD." and print on the record "Manufactured (/ Fabriqué par) and Distributed by (/ Distribué par) WEA music of Canada" and "Warner Bros. Records Inc. for the U.S.". The labels on the records tend to be the regular white paper labels similar to that of UK releases. The catalogue numbers of albums are of the form 92 555011 as opposed to the German version 925-501-1. Often the albums have an ER-logo plus "Printed in Canada" printed on the spine of the picture sleeve.

France: In very small print on the reverse of the sleeve, they have "Glory: Imprime en France" and on the label "Distribué par WEA Music...Made In France". The labels on records tend to be the regular white paper labels, but the records have jukebox-holes in the centre.

Hungary: Hungarian manufactured records have "manufactured in Hungary" printed on the sleeve and "Made in Hungary" on the disc.

Germany: On the reverse of the record sleeve it reads "Manufactured in Germany by Record Service GmbH, Alsdorf Pressé en Allemagne par Record Service GmbH Alsdorf" and "Made In Germany by WEA Musik GMBH" on the record label. Generally they also have "R/S Alsdorf" etched into the record around the label. More recent releases have "Made In Germany by Warner Music Manufacturing Europe" on the disc and sleeve. The early releases tend to have cream-coloured labels with light grey horizontal stripes and a colour WB-logo. The later releases tend to have white labels like the UK releases. Another give-away are the circled letters printed after the catalogue numbers on German releases. A circled N is used on 7", a circled D on 12" and a circled G on LP.

Israel: Records are made and distributed in Israel. All records have small Hebrew printing on the back of the sleeve, while some have much larger additional Hebrew writing on the front. Concerning catalogue numbers Israeli copies distinguish themselves through the use of the letters BAN before the actual number is written (e.g. Hunting High And Low album: BAN 9253009).

Italy: "Made and Distributed in Italy by Wea Italiana S.p.A. Milano" is printed on the back of the sleeve and "Made In Italy" on the record label.

Japan: Japanese releases are usually quite easy to distinguish with Japanese text often printed across the picture sleeve. The 7"-releases usually come in blue and white "Warner-Pioneer Corporation" record sleeves made up by "WB", "Pioneer", "Atlantic", "Reprise", "Elekra" and "Asylum" logos. Slipped in front of this sleeve is a picture sheet taking the place of the picture sleeve. The labels tend to be like the German releases and have "Made by Warner - Pioneer Corporation, Japan" and "Under License From Warner Bros. Records Inc. USA" on them, while the back of the insert has "Warner - Pioneer Corporation Tokyo, Japan". The 12" vinyl's (and also some of the 5" CD singles) usually come in a picture sleeve with an `obi strip' (coloured printed paper strip which is inserted down the spine of the release, between the cellophane and the actual sleeve). The 12"-releases generally have titles, catalogue numbers and prices (in Yen) printed on the bottom edges of the spined sleeves.

Mexico: On the centre of the record it reads "Cubierto El Dereho De Ejecucion Publica En Mexico".

New Zealand: The print on the sleeve reads "Marketed by WEA Records Limited P.O. Box 2915, Auckland, New Zealand". The New Zealand copies have the same indentation as the Australian 7"-singles, but they do not necessarily give any indication as to where the record has actually been manufactured. Regular white WB-labels and multicolour Reprise-labels exist.

Norway: Records manufactured for the Norwegian market are very difficult to distinguish as most of the records are made in Germany or Holland even when the release is unique to Norway. The records tend to have labels as the German releases and small holes. The Norwegian only CD-releases by Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Savoy are easier to distinguish. Most CDs are printed by Bel Produksjon AS, the largest CD producer in Norway. Promos like Morten's "Tilbake Til Livet" and Savoy's "Underground" have Bel Produksjon A/s printed on the back of the actual discs.

Peru: Releases from Peru usually have "Manufacturado por el El Virrey Industrias Musicales S.A. Industria Peruana" printed on them.

Philippines: Releases have a stamp on the middle of the record which reads "PARI Phillipine Association of Record Industry Inc Member Approved" or "Manufactured in the Philippines" printed in the middle of the record.

Portugal: On the reverse of the sleeve it reads "Manufactured & distributed in Portugal by EMI Valentim de Carvalho Musica LDA" and on the record label it reads "Fabricado E Distribuido Em Portugal".

Spain: "Edita: Wea Records, S.A.C/. ...Madrid" is printed on the back of the sleeve and "Editado en Espana por WEA Records S.A. Madrid - Barcelona" and "Fabricado en Espana por Discos CBS, S.A." is printed on the label. A circled S is often printed after the catalogue number on Spanish 7" releases.

USA: Records have "Warner Bros. Records Inc. for the U.S. & WEA International Inc. for the World outside of the U.S. Made in the USA" printed on the sleeve and "Warner Bros. Records Inc. for the U.S." on the label which is similar to that of the UK releases. Some of the 7"-releases come in standard Warner company-sleeves. These are white with the information written in red letters. Generally labels feature one red WB-logo in addition to cream-coloured WB-logos. At the bottom there is an address for Warner in California plus Printed in the USA. The `reverse' of the sleeve is identical. Apart from the text which can be used to distinguish US releases, in addition the 12"-releases generally have the titles, catalogue numbers prices (in $) and "Printed In USA" in black letters on the bottom edge of their spined sleeves.