ZIGGY NO1

Do you own the first UK issue of Ziggy Stardust? Perhaps you do - but if so, it has gone undocumented until now, as Colin McIntyre reveals

June will witness much ado to celebrate the 40th anniversary of David Bowie’s groundbreaking album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, released on Tuesday June 6 1972. Many fans will pull out the LP to play it one more time, look at the strange images of four young men on the inner sleeve, and be whisked away to another world at maximum volume, as the album demands you do. We expect many of our readers will take pride in the fact they own a first UK pressing of the album – the issue that has all the music, before the master tape became damaged, with the loud mix of Starman.

What many won’t realise is that their “first pressing” may not be a first pressing. It’s commonly accepted that a first UK Ziggy pressing can be identified easily – it has glossy orange RCA labels, and there is no mention anywhere on the sleeve, inner sleeve or labels of MainMan. There are in fact two issues that contain only Titanic credits, both with glossy labels. First though, some background.

In September 1971 David Bowie was sitting next to Mick Ronson on a window ledge, and grinning because he’d just signed a contract with RCA in New York. David cut a deal with the US head office rather than the UK, which affected the way in which his albums were released throughout the world.

His first RCA release …

by Colin McIntyre
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