Gwar Hell-o LP question
 

I was browsing the Gwar 'Hell-o' vinyl LP on Ebay and noticed that there appears to be a black vinyl with a blue label and a black vinyl with a red label. I'm pretty sure that there was only one pressing of this back in 1988 by Shimmy Disc where they also did a limited 500 copies of a red vinyl. So what the heck is the difference between the red and blue labels on the black vinyl? I tried to do a little research about this, but couldn't find any info. If anybody knows whether there is any significance to this I'd really like to know. Thanks!

Hmmm. Well, it could just be like with the Red one, it depends what side of the record you are looking at.

The limited Red one has a Blue label on one side, and a white label on the other

as you can see here:
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=3413358

So this could just be the case, it is the same record, but it has a different colored label on Side A and Side B.

Wait, I guess not. I see one side is blue and the other is white.

But I do not see a Red Label one listed when I look it up. Link me to that one. I just see the blue label.

The only one I saw with a red label was on Ebay today and I bought it. I can't find any other versions online with a red label. I have a picture of the one I bought, but I don't know how to include it with this post. It only shows one side though.

Well I just emailed Mr. Kramer himself so hopefully he can shed some light on this.

I got my answer:

hey Matt,
in the early days, the blue label was for the first pressing. the red label was for the second pressing. i recall doing two pressings. the first was 1000 units and the second was 500. so with the additional 500 in red vinyl, there was a total pressing of 2000, but the great majority of the second pressing went directly to the band. 350, i think. i think 200 of the first pressing went to the band, too. that's usually how it worked in the early days. i'd give the band product to sell on the road and keep the proceeds, instead of a sales royalties. most bands were anxious to do it this way, since a royalty may have been $1 for each until sold, while they'd make like 5x that amount (in CASH) if i gave them product to sell on the road instead, which was of course tax-free.

it was a long time ago, but i'm pretty sure that only 100 of that second pressing went out to our main distributor, Important Records, and the remaining 50 were kept in the warehouse and used for mail-order only. that's what i can recall.

love, K

Thanks Bastardofyoung for your efforts!

That makes sense. Well, now you know!