"Making Movies" original UK press

„Making Movies” is the third album by Dire Straits, released on October 17, 1980, by Vertigo. Warner Bros. Records released it in the US and Mercury Records in Canada. The album featured the single „Romeo and Juliet,” which reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. The album itself reached number 4 on the UK Albums Chart, staying there for a staggering 252 weeks!

Cover

The cover of this album is very distinctive and somewhat resembles a movie poster. To recognize which edition you’re holding, remove the disc from its sleeve and carefully examine the labels.

Labels

Because the album was so heavily produced, there are several different label variants for the first pressing. The one above is quite distinctive, as all the track titles are enclosed in quotation marks (the photos above are from my copy). There are at least four other label versions, which I’ve included below via Discogs: The variant 2 label on the left has the album title and track titles in quotation marks, and there’s a typo in the word CAROUSAL (it should be CAROUSEL). Additionally, the page number is slightly further left on the blue line. The variant 3 label on the right has the page numbers in Roman numerals, all titles without quotation marks, and a much larger space on the right between „33 1/3 Stereo” and „Made in England.” In the next variant (4 – on the left), the quotation marks return, the page number is shifted to the right (located above the number 5 of the album’s catalog number), and the track listing is missing the introductory track, „Intro: CAROUSEL WALTZ.” The label for variant 5 (on the right) is slightly more yellow, devoid of the quotation marks, and very similar to variant 3, but the page numbers are now in Arabic.

Matrix / Runout

First pressing records typically have the following matrix numbers:

6359034 1Y // 1 ▽ E 420 1 21 (side 1) and 6359034 1Y // 1 ▽ E 420 1 24 (side 2)
6359034 1Y // 1 ▽ E 420 1 21 (side 1) and 6359034 1Y // 2 ▽ E 420 1 24 (side 2)
6359034 1Y // 2 ▽ E 420 1 5 1 (side 1) and 6359034 2Y // 2 ▽ E 420 1 1 9 (side 2)
6359034 1Y // 2 ▽ E 420 1 4 5 (page 1) and 6359034 2Y // 3 ▽ E 420 1 2 4 (page 2)

Several other variants are possible, and the combination of numbers after E 420 can be very diverse.