Albert Grove wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:12 pm
Was this New Zealand issue (and other foreign issues of the Beatles VI LP) mastered by EMI or by Capitol?
Discogs says "All pressings of this LP in New Zealand featured the title Beatles *IV* on the label.The blue label above is the original pressing.
The UK EXPORT stampers were used for all pressings."
but also
"Beatles VI is the seventh Capitol Records studio album released in the United States and Canada. It was the ninth album released into that market in less than one and a half years. The LP was released June 14, 1965 in both mono and stereo versions.
It was also released in New Zealand in stereo in time for Christmas 1966. The title on the record label erroneously reads Beatles IV."
But reading Stev Hoffman's forum (
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... vi.232967/ ), it says:
"It was standard EMI UK practice to offer its catalogue to its worldwide subsidiaries, and as CPCS titles were part of the UK catalogue, they were offered like any other record. I am aware of telexes from EMI UK to EMI Australia to this effect.
Contrary to popular belief, EMI subsidiaries were under no strict obligation to release everything thrown at them; they had a choice.
In this instance HMV (NZ) chose to release "Beatles VI" presumably because of the new "Bad Boy" track. It's quite logical to assume that they chose to press from UK supplied mothers as a) importing physical copies from the other side of the world would be quite costly and b) cutting locally from tapes would be inefficient unless HMV anticipated high sales, and given only the one new track, it would be surprising if they did.
The same thing occured, just more obviously, four years later when many countries (including NZ and Australia) issued the "Hey Jude!" LP, again from EMI UK supplied "export" mothers.
@Tom: Yes, the UK export was cut from US tapes. But to my ears there's an EQ tweak to the UK tape that makes it sound a smidge clearer/better balanced."