My head is going round in circles ...

It's been easy for me to avoid getting caught up in Record Store Day. Without a dedicated independent record shop in Cambridge it's not really been on my radar. Heffers, predominantly a bookshop, has maintained a small offering but for 2015 they have been joined by two vinyl-only retailers in the city - Relevant and Lost In Vinyl. I can cycle (this is Cambridge after all) to the former in under 5 minutes and so I took more interest in this year's releases than ever before.

Thankfully there wasn't too much on the list that appealed and so I wasn't tempted to join the queues that reportedly started forming outside Relevant at 4.15am. Sure, I could see some good titles on there - some that I already had (Otis Blue; L.A.M.F; Roger The Engineer; Don't Stand Me Down), some that I could see the appeal of should you be so inclined (the Creation Artifact boxed set; and the album that went on to top that week's vinyl-only chart, The Holy Bible) but there was only one title on the list of 550 exclusive products that truly caught my eye: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces, predominantly due to the fact that it came with the circular sleeve.

Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake - Record Store Day 2015

This is something I've kept half-an-eye out for a while and I wasn't going to get an original copy on the cheap. Buoyed by the fact that I'd just picked up some bargains in local charity shops (amongst them Bowie's Young Americans; Madonna's Immaculate Collection; a few Nancy Sinatra singles and a selection of new wave 7-inches such as Jilted John and Rock Lobster) I felt I could justify picking it up.

In doing so I was reminded that my brother had this, and if I recall correctly had bought it at Tower Records somewhere around 1985. Which in itself surprised me - that far after its release they were still producing the, presumably expensive, circular sleeve? Checking on Discogs I can see a 1980 reissue and expect it was that, but bear in mind this isn't something that was solely released as a tie-in to a one-day event. It was released in that sleeve as someone presumably decided it should be available again rather than just re-issuing the rather unsatisfactory square sleeve with the circular image.

On further reflection and again in the mid-80s, I bought The White Album in my local Our Price and it came with the inserts. A few years later I was on the other side of the counter in that exact same shop in my first full-time job; vinyl sales were tailing off and we had a gradually dwindling range but I can confirm that The White Album still came with the inserts as late as 1990. Maybe EMI over-printed back in 1968. I can't say the same for Sgt Pepper, and although we did still stock New Order's Blue Monday 12" it was no longer being produced with the die-cut sleeve. I don't recall Their Satanic Majesties Request being stocked but if it was I'm certain it would have been in a similar sleeve to the copy I picked up cheaply around four years ago.