Black Triangle, Black Face, Blue Face, Target - what else?

The Rocket Record Company CD's

Here are a couple of scans from "The Rocket Record Company" label which released some of Elton John's CD's. The left one is a design I recently found and have never seen before. It is from the "Too Low For Zero" CD and must be an early pressing which must have come out right after the target CD.

The right one is the "famous" "Rocket Train Label Design" referred to here and there. I know that "Too Low For Zero" is also available in that design. I have no idea which version is more rare.

I like this thread. Good idea.

Roland

 

So these so called 'Targets' are really just Polygram pressed WEA recordings, dating from when Polygram had the only European pressing plant. When did WEA switch to their own plant at Alsdorf, then?

I think I've only ever seen one such Target CD, many years ago of an Atlantic title (can't remember which) as a demo in an electric store that has long since closed.



I've not seen that Vertigo label design before. I've the odd Vertigo CD of that vintage, but I think the label is orange & grey.

 

Yeah, this should have been the "vertigo" design.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the target design was actually designed by PolyGram as a presser for WEA. It seems consistent with all the other neat PolyGram labels (Atomic, Vertigos, orange label and light blue label). No idea though.

 

Polygram did appear to use three different inks with their labels, whilst the other pressing plants active during the early days were restricted to just one or two inks per disk.

 

How about Bear Family labels? They have a great retro quality to them as well, not just the design, but the printing itself has a thickness to it.

 

No, there are some Japanese pressed targets too. I have 3, Quarterflash - S/T (black background, clear target outlined in black) , Rickie Lee Jones - The Magazine (clear background, red target and text), and Talking Heads - Little Creatures (yellow background, blue target). These pressings all have clear hubs, not the typical aluminum coating to the hole that the W. German cds at the time had.

 

It should be noted that Casablanca used the same design. Some early Casablanca discs also had a very cool silver, yellow, and black swirl design. I don't have scans of any of them up on my computer, but maybe someone else can post one.

 

Am I still desperate to avoid doing work? You bet I am. Here's a complement to the Vertigo "blue nautilus" design that Keith posted earlier. This is the slightly later "red swirl" label design. As usual, apologies for the crap picture. Hope the educational benefit outweighs the aesthetic displeasure.

Geoff

 

What would the Virgin label with the lady on it be called??

Virgin records used to have a picture that had 2 women with some type of lizard and a snake on it, pretty wild picture.

I just got a miniLP CD of Tangerine Dreams Phaedra from Japan that has a small version of this on the CD...

What would be that nickname, beside the "Virgin with the wild picture"???

 

It's Roger Dean's (of Yes album covers fame) original logo for the Virgin label. It used to appear on the windows of their first record stores in the UK, and on the labels of their records, both in color and black & white. This is it:

http://www.rogerdean.com/logos/images/06-VirginLogo_jpg.jpg

 

Not sure if this is thread crapping , but what would be the recommended/suggested Targets/first presses we should get? I mean those which are definitely sonically better?

Regards,
Helio

PS. Any thread on the subject?

 

You can find some threads floating around on individual titles if you search for threads with "target" in the title. Here's a longish one about the general issue

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=72560

Geoff

 

Here's an old German RCA disc:

 

And another old German design:

 

Here's an old Rhino disc:

 

Here's an old Abkco Stones disc with the London logo (this was also on the inserts):

 

And lastly, a couple of different Mellencamp designs:

 

There is a Rush - Moving Pictures with this label (800 048-2) which points me to thinking there are a few others with the 800 prefix that had this label but i've never seen any. I have a few of the Vertigo Blues (well, 4 to be exact) which would have been around the same time.

 

I've got a couple of these - Midnight Express soundtrack and Donna Summer - Walk Away. Very similar to the Casablanca one - will post one up if I get the chance.
Will have to check my Peter Gabriel 4 on Charisma/Phonogram to see which label that is.