Pink Floyd | The Dark Side Of The Moon – 1st original A2, B2 UK pressing with promotional booklet given to members of the press on February 27, 1973.
Complete with Original Posters, Stickers, Black Inner Sleeve and a 12-page promotional booklet within pictures of the band performing live.
Release Date: March 24, 1973.
Matrix: SHVL 804 A-2 G 1 / SHVL 804 B-2 G.
Recorded: June 1972 – January 1973 at Abbey Road Studios
Timings: Side 1: 118:30 / Side 2: 22:48
Side 1: Speak To Me <1:30> / Breathe <2:43> / On the Run <3:36> / Time ( includes “Breathe (Reprise)” ) <7:01> / The Great Gig in the Sky <4:36>
Side 2: Money <6:22> / Us and Them <7:46> / Any Colour You Like <3:25> / Brain Damage <3:48> / Eclipse <2:03>
Front Cover: Very dark blue with prism.
Inside Cover: Black with heartbeat and lyrics. “Printed and made by Garrod and Lofthouse Ltd.” in blue text in lower left corner.
The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis (Storm Thogerson) and George Hardie, and bore Hardie’s iconic dispersive prism on the cover. The Cover design was aimed to represent three elements; the band’s stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Richard Wright’s request for a “simple and bold” design. A spectrum of light moves through to the gatefold sleeve — an idea that Waters came up with. Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover.
The light band emanating from the prism on the album cover has six colours, missing indigo compared to the traditional division of the spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The concept was continued with two posters and a sheet of pyramid-themed stickers. One poster bore pictures of the band in concert, overlaid with scattered letters to form PINK FLOYD, and the other an infrared photograph of the Great Pyramids of Giza, created by Powell and Thorgerson.
Back Cover: Inverted prism. In the upper right corner, it says: ” SHVL 804, (IE 064-05249), stereo.”
Inner Sleeve: Die-cut black polylined inner sleeve with patent numbers and “Made in Great Britain” in silver at the bottom.
Pressings that use A-2 / B-2 lacquers have minor sound quality issues, particularly during the song, Money. Some copies also have a skip pressed into the grooves during the song Money. Such issues were corrected with the A-3 / B-3 cuttings, with the exception of the peak level distortion during the clocks at the beginning of the song Time (the MFSL UHQR LP is the only vinyl pressing without such distortion).
Copies of the Dark Side of the Moon LP with solid blue triangle labels without any stamper or mother numbers in the matrix are not U.K. releases. All U.K. EMI releases will have some sort of stamping code in the matrix.
Original stereo issue with a very dark blue cover, and a solid light blue triangle (prism) on the label with “The Gramophone Co., Ltd.” text on the edge of the label.
Labels: Black Harvest label with solid light blue triangle (prism).
Text around the top edge of the label starts at 10 o’clock and says: The Gramophone Co. Ltd. All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved.
Text around the bottom edge of the label starts at 8 o’clock and says: Made in Gt. Britain Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting, and copying of this record prohibited.
Stickers: Issued with two stickers, one yellow and one brown.
Yellow graphics sticker: A yellow/sky blue/green self-adhesive sticker with Dark Side of the Moon graphics. Matte. There is no catalog number on the sticker.
The backing paper is tan with 45 degree angled diagonal stripes of dark brown from the top to bottom, and “FasPrint Permanent,” and “Crack Back Patented.” on the paper.
Brown graphics sticker: A brown/dark blue/yellow/green self-adhesive sticker with Dark Side of the Moon graphics. Matte. There is no catalog number on the sticker.
The backing paper is tan with 45 degree angled diagonal stripes of dark brown from the top to bottom, and “FasPrint Permanent,” and “Crack Back Patented.” on the paper.
Group Poster: A six-pane group shot poster in landscape style with “SHVL 804” in the bottom right corner. Matte or glossy.
Pyramid Poster: Blue pyramid. Matte or glossy. There is no catalog number on the poster.
Promotional Booklet:
On February 27, 1973, the Dark Side of the Moon album was presented to the public for the first time at a press presentation that took place at The London Planetarium. Members of the press who attended this presentation were given a copy of the LP (matrix: SHVL 804 A-2 G 1 / SHVL 804 B-2 G 1) with a 12-page promotional booklet. This booklet contained a picture of the album, song listing and credits, pictures of pyramids, a brief history of the band, a discography, and a picture of the band performing live.
[…] Peter Watts on the right. Father of the celebrated actress, Naomi Watts. Peter Watts is heard on The Dark Side of the Moon, to which he contributed the repeated laughter during “Brain Damage“. Watts was also […]
There was the mournful-looking cow on the front of Atom Heart Mother, the burning businessman on the sleeve of Wish You Were Here, the giant pig flying over Battersea Power Station and the prism spreading a spectrum of colour across The Dark Side Of The Moon.