It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a decent Beatle and Beatle-related auction held in our own hometown by a small auction house, but one happened about a week ago and it turned up quite a rare Paul McCartney/Fireman double LP from 1993, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest.

We’ve had the CD version of this for a long time, but the vinyl has always been elusive. The problem is that you hardly ever see it for sale, and when it does come up it’s usually very pricey.

The standard edition is in a bright red/green cover with clear vinyl. But there’s an even rarer, limited edition in a white cover. And this is why we were very interested when a copy came up for grabs at a local auction place here in Sydney, Australia.

We made a single bid – and got it!

This rarer 2LP vinyl edition comes in a very plain white outer sleeve:

The album title wraps around the cover onto the rear, where there’s a limited edition number stamped in black in the centre (ours is No.263).

Apart from that, there’s no other info on the outside, except on the spine there is the catalogue number FIRE 1:

Inside there are two clear vinyl records. Both come in plain white, non-poly-lined paper sleeves:

And here are the labels in close-up. These too are different to the standard release:

So, this has been something of a grail find and Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest on vinyl can at last take its rightful place in the collection.

At the same auction we nabbed a selection of Dark Horse Records singles. These were Australian pressings from some of the more obscure bands that were signed to the label in the 1970s. More on that next time.