Known test pressings of the black vinyl have white labels and test
pressings of the blue vinyl have white labels or strawberry labels. In January 2005 a blue vinyl copy was sold
on Ebay which had a sticker on the back cover stating "Factory sample - not for
sale". This copy however had ordinary Bronze labels. The problem with test pressings with ordinary labels are
that they look exactley the same as stock copies. So even if they were test pressings there is no way for you to
check if they really are.
I have no information about any special promo versions of the UK BRON 523 edition which is a bit odd since
Bronze usually
distributed promo editions of their releases. I have seen copies with golden promo stamps on the sleeve of the
Overkill album.
A copy was sold on Ebay in August 2006 described as "promo copy with
green blank labels, no text". Probably a test pressing used for promotion. This copy was described as
"an item that used to belong to a roadie of the band" and was originally housed in a plain white card sleeve,
but a standard picture cover was added later for identification purposes. I am pretty sure this copy actually
was sold by the con artist bluepyevinnie (see here
for more information) but at the time I did not document who sold it or who bought it.
The reason I think it was bluepyevinnie is because a year later he sold a fake green label copy to me. He claimed
that copies with green labels came direct from the pressing plant, not through the record company.
Already in June 2007 bluepyevinnie sold a test pressing of Bomber with white labels on Ebay. Probably a fake too
but I canīt be 100 % sure of course. This had plain white labels and was housed
in a plain white inner sheet but bluepyevinnie had added a standard stock sleeve. That is what he claimed. I was
bidding on it but lost. Later he offered me a second chance because he said he had one more copy. How likely is
that?
The Bronze EMI releases were pressed by Hayes pressing plant for EMI at Middlesex near London.
