MONOLOVER: WHAT IS A DIE-CUT MONO?

tisdag 29 maj 2012

WHAT IS A DIE-CUT MONO?

At the end of -68 Decca UK had stopped preparing separate monos and stereos for new recordings and instead relied on compatible mixes. There was a shrinking demand for mono, but still enough to make the issues lucrative. To save the cost of printing two different covers they made a common one with a die-cut hole top right on the back cover and separating the issues with different inner sleeves - blue stereo and red mono. This was used for most labels distributed by by UK Decca record group (one exception being RCA). I don't know exactly wich was first, but "From Genesis To Revelation" LK/SKL 4990 from january -69 is very early. Last one on Decca was Tom Jones "I Who Have Nothing", and on Deram TYA:s "Cricklewood Green" (see my previous posts on those two). The sleeves were also used for all re-issues between early -69 and late -70. A few exemples of die-cut monos below...