David Bowie LP Don't Touch That Dial * on MARC*
$
79
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Description
FOR SERIOUS BOWIE FANS.
THIS IS AN EXTREMELY RARE RECORD ONLY 2000 EVER PRESSED ON THE MARC LABEL
I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT IT WOULD VERY UNLIKELY IF YOU RAN ACROSS THIS RECORD EVER AGAIN
Label: MARC ?– DB 76072 Format: Vinyl, LP, Unofficial Release
Country: Japan Released: 1976 Genre: Rock Style: Classic Rock
Tracklist
A1 Station To Station A2 Suffragette City A3 Fame A4 Word On A Wing A5 Stay A6 I'm Waiting For The Man B1 Queen Bitch B2 Life On Mars? B3 Introduction B4 Changes B5 TVC 15 B6 Diamond DogsNotes
"The Return of the Thin White Duke!Recorded live at London's Wembley Empire Pool on May 7, 1976"
Black, white and red cover, catalogue number ( and title/artist) on spine
Dark blue labels with black print details :
For members only
Not for sale
DB-76072
Side A / Side B
This is the original Japanese release that the British Phonographic Institute copied for Operation Moonbeam - catching bootleggers. See David Bowie - The Wembley Wizard Touches The Dial for BPI version.
Single production run of 2,000. Japanese law at the time allowed the production and sale of any LPs by non-JASRAC artists, so long as the recording had been made before 1978. Thus, this original Marc release was perfectly legal under Japanese law.
The first 'B' in the matrix is preceded by what appears to be a small staircase. Both the staircase and the 'B' are encircled.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
- Matrix / Runout (stamped): B DB 76072A 111+ Y II II
- Matrix / Runout (stamped): B DB 76072B 111 +
This album is the precursor to the Wembley Wizard....
It originally was released in Japan by a Japanese label, Marc, as "Don't Touch That Dial", with a single production run of 2,000. Japanese law at the time allowed the production and sale of any LPs by non-JASRAC artists, so long as the recording had been made before 1978. Thus, the original Marc release was perfectly legal under Japanese law.
A small number - less than a hundred - of the Marc LPs were obtained by a Dutch distributor, Unique Records, who then sold them outside of Japan.
BPI's press officer, Richard Robinson, then convinced David Bowie's label at the time, RCA, that tens of thousands of copies of "Don't Touch That Dial" had been pressed in the USA and were being sold all around Europe.
"Operation Moonbeam" thus began. BPI's main investigator, Bill Hood, became involved with several British bootleg sellers, and was convinced he could track down the source for all British bootlegs. So he copied "Don't Touch That Dial" into a new pressing plate, and had printed up 2,500 copies as "The Wembley Wizard Touches That Dial". He then attempted to trace the distribution and sale of this BPI-issued bootleg LP, with less than 250 copies being recovered.
The only real influence it had was that Rough Trade Records, which was in the process of changing from a record distributor into a record producer, was caught distributing bootleg LPs, and was fined £10,000 by the BPI. (Rough Trade was also the main source for punk bootlegs in the US; coincidentally, the availability of punk bootleg vinyl in the US following Operation Moonbeam dropped significantly.) Otherwise, little came from the sting. It was seen as an utter failure by BPI and the British press, Bill Hood resigned in disgrace, and more than 2000 copies of the BPI-pressed bootleg LP remained in distribution.
Today, outside of Japan, the BPI LP is much easier to find than the original Marc LP. It remains famous, however, as the first bootleg produced, distributed, and sold by the recording industry associations which have as a main goal to eliminate the production, distribution, and sales of bootleg releases.
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