"Communiqué" original UK pressing

A strange(r) thing with the album „Communiqué” by Dire Straits. Released 9 months after the debut, the critics did not like it very much and up to this day fans would place it last in rankings such as Dire Straits albums from best to worst, but in Germany, Spain and Sweden it climbed to the top of the best albums lists. Especially in Germany, „Communiqué” achieved great success. For the first time in the history of the OFFIZIELLE DEUTSCHE CHARTS. TOP 100 ALBUM-CHARTS this very album immediately jumped to number 1 in the week of its release. Interestingly, at the same time, the debut album „Dire Straits” was in third place (followed by the wonderful Supertramp’s „Breakfast in America”).

Whatever is your opinion about this album, Mark Knopfler’s guitar finesse is first-rate, and songs like „Once Upon a Time in the West,” „Lady Writer,” and „Where Do You Think You’re Going?” are simply outstanding. In fact, both of Dire Straits’ first albums could have easily been released as one double album, and not only would it have been perfectly fine, but it was certainly a huge hit. In my collection, I have the original first British pressing, which was released under catalog number 9102 031.

Cover

Contrary to what Wikipedia says, the cover of „Communiqué” was designed by Geoff Halpin, the creator of around 60 album covers released in the 1970s.

Album Sleeve

As usual with Dire Straits, the album was housed in a cardboard sleeve, in this case featuring large photos of the band. It’s precisely for this kind of beauty that I love vinyl editions.

Labels

„Communiqué” is one of two Dire Straits albums whose original releases were issued on so-called space labels, which were soon withdrawn by Vertigo. My copy has a variant of the labels without the „Made in England” marking.

Matrix / Runout

My record has the following masters:

Side 1: 9102031 1Y//4▽E USA 1 4 16
Side 2: 9102 031 2Y//15▽E 420 124

This is a transitional variant, as Discogs distinguishes records pressed from masters with the USA marking from those without, and I’ve never encountered any discs with the USA marking on only one side. It appears to me that side 1 was pressed from a very early master, as the master for the first side, 1Y//4, is very common on first-edition records released in UK stores.