Stumbled across a nice old copy of Sgt Pepper, and a copy of With the Beatles yesterday at a garage sale. They are both Australian pressings. The Sgt Pepper is mono on nice heavy vinyl in the gatefold cover, with the cut-out insert, and it’s on the black and yellow Parlophone label:
That, according to Jaesen Jones’ fantastic reference book “An Overview of Australian Beatles Records“, would make this pressing from around 1969. The weird thing though is the inner bag. It’s one I’ve certainly never seen before and I wonder if it’s an official variation on the original, or just a random bag that a previous owner has adopted for the purpose. It looks like this:
It looks aged and very much like it comes from the same vintage as the LP. The colours are very similar to the famous “psychedelic” original inner sleeve too. As you can see they are shades of pink, red and white – but in regimented stripes. Does anyone know anything about this one? Ever seen it included in a Sgt Pepper before? This is what the usual bag looks like:
At the same garage sale I also got a really nice copy of With the Beatles – with an original Australia-only cover:
These are difficult to find in reasonable condition as they suffered ring-wear badly. With an orange Parlophone label this means this particular copy comes from around 1969:
It would have been amongst the first to use the orange Parlophone label, but amongst the last of the Beatles LPs to have the old-fashioned flipback cover construction:
And it would have been the last to have a black and white “STEREO” sticker on the top left-hand side as these were phased out in 1969:
So, two nice additions to the collection. If anyone can help with information on the unusual Sgt Pepper inner sleeve above let us know by posting a comment below or you can email me.
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Lucky garage sale! I have checked my copies of SP and havn’t that style of inner sleeve, perhaps a ring in?? Then again maybe something mega rare!! Cheers.
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Hi John, Thanks. I guess that’s what I want to find out. I’m kind of thinking its just an inner sleeve from some other LP, but there may be someone out there who knows something! Regards.
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Hi,
yours is a genuine Sgt. Pepper Inner Sleeve. It came with the 1st German Odeon Export Pressing of this LP for Switzerland with the catalog number SMO 81045. In Germany the Hör Zu Pressing “SHZE 401” is far more common.
I don’t know if this inner was also included in the Hör Zu variant. By the way, “Hör Zu” is a German TV magazine which issued several Beatles LPs in the 60s and 70s by contracting with Odeon (“Die Zentrale Tanzschaffe” – German equivalent for Please please me, Help, Revolver, Pepper, MMT and Wonderwall fron G. Harrison).
However, I don’t know if Australian pepper pressings also had this striped inner or if it’s a swap…
Greetings from Germany
Björn
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Thanks for this Bjorn. You are correct in saying this inner sleeve was from the German Hor Zu pressing. I’ve had a couple of other readers contact me with the same information, including Peter in Australia. A quick search on Google turned up this photo as evidence: http://www.popsike.com/Beatles-SGT-PEPPERS-LONELY-HEARTS-CLUB-BAND-ORIGINAL1967-GERMAN-HOR-ZU-LP-BAG/130587638536.html
And, I have found this site which gives all the info on the Hor Zu releases: http://yokono.co.uk/collection/beatles/germany/lp/ger_lp_horzu_st1.html
It’s still a mystery as to how this sleeve ended up in an original Australian pressing. As Peter says: “When EMI Australia imported the Sgt Pepper album covers and all the inserts from the UK because local printers could not handle the task, some record sleeves like the striped one you have could have also come in from who knows where to meet local demand.
Your striped sleeve may have been substituted for the normal red/pink and white one, created by a Dutch duo called “The Fool”, because those may have run out locally.” Could be…….
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Hi, Jae here – I touch on this on page 34 of the latest edition of the book. At least one batch of German-made “pinstriped” inner sleeves made their way to Australia in 1968/9 (I do have a more accurate date range, but I’ve filed my notes away now!). I haven’t been able to determine whether they came as part of a batch of UK outer sleeves, or were in addition to, or shipped separately from either the UK or Germany. I have my theories, but no hard proof.
They’re certainly not common; perhaps on par with NZ contracts of the era. Thinking about it, the variation prolly should be added to the Rarity Guide (rating of 9)…
BTW, your WTB is circa late 1969.
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Hi Jaesen, Thanks so much for responding with this info. I must admit I looked up “Sgt Pepper” in your book but missed this bit of key information on page 34. Makes sense now. For those wondering about which book we are referring to see: https://beatlesblogger.com/2012/09/20/an-overview-of-australian-beatles-records-revised-and-expanded/
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I have owned my copy of Sgt Pepper since new (1969ish) and it has the pinstripe design Inner Sleeve ,I Often wondered why ,now maybe I have the Answer,possibly,maybe,perhaps a German imported sleeve when the stocks were running Low, I have only ever seen one gatefold sleeve with The patents pending mark on it,so how rare are they?
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Mine has one to
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Hi, late to the game but I have a stereo copy with the silver/ black Parlophone label. It too has the striped sleeve. The YEX637-1 matrix suggests 1967 but the stripped liner sounds more like 1969. It all gets a bit confusing really
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If anyone is reading this in 2022 (as i have just come across it now) just like to confirm that the candy strip inner sleeve is absolutely a 1967 Australian copy as i have the exact in front of me purchased in October 1967 at David Jones Bankstown Square took this record to my cousins 21st birthday in December 1967 where my two other brothers belted out ‘ with a little help from my friends ‘ over the speakers with a plugged in mic remember it, like it was yesterday. Hope this has helped.
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Hi John, Thanks for this info! It is really helpful, and so good to have someone who actually purchased the exact LP in the year it was first released – confirming that these inner sleeves were in fact part of the way many Australian buyers received their records. As you can see in the comments above, this inner sleeve variation was most probably because Australia was sent a batch of German-made “pinstriped” versions due to the high demand for the more common red, pink and white one created by the Dutch duo called “The Fool”. Great to have the proof that you purchased yours in Sydney in 1967 at the David Jones department store. Wow, must have been a blast to have played it loud at your cousin’s 21st back then!
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David Jones had sound proof music booths back then (from what I could remember four maybe five separate booths where you could ask to have the latest releases played. You could ask the shop assistant to put on any record you wanted to hear basically try before you buy and these booths had amazing sound brings back great memories. Sgt Peppers cost me $5.25 in 1966 Australia had gone over to decimal currency.That album and its sound production is astounding, conceptually it is magnificent on so many levels that words cannot do it justice.The five Beatles (George Martin being the fifth) had in Sgt Peppers created the most iconoclastic record of the entire decade IMO. I am smiling now writing this remembering that album and the profound affect it had on all of us as teenagers. And yeah my cousin Terry’s 21st came alive once this was belting out even the parents loved it.
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