How many copies were pressed of the Wembley Wizard Touches The Dial lp by the BPI in 1979. At what price was it sold initially? How much do you value it nowadays?

Member Neilmccormick40 posted here 2000 copies were pressed, 1750 of which were confiscated. He paid £7.50 at the time.

As to the current price:
See this Popsike search. Around GBP 35-50 I would say.

Just found this:

This bootleg has a very interesting history.

It originally was released in Japan by a Japanese label, Marc, as "Don't Touch That Dial", with a single production run of 2,000. Japanese law at the time allowed the production and sale of any LPs by non-JASRAC artists, so long as the recording had been made before 1978. Thus, the original Marc release was perfectly legal under Japanese law.

A small number - less than a hundred - of the Marc LPs were obtained by a Dutch distributor, Unique Records, who then sold them outside of Japan.

BPI's press officer, Richard Robinson, then convinced David Bowie's label at the time, RCA, that tens of thousands of copies of "Don't Touch That Dial" had been pressed in the USA and were being sold all around Europe.

"Operation Moonbeam" thus began. BPI's main investigator, Bill Hood, became involved with several British bootleg sellers, and was convinced he could track down the source for all British bootlegs. So he copied "Don't Touch That Dial" into a new pressing plate, and had printed up 2,500 copies as "The Wembley Wizard Touches That Dial". He then attempted to trace the distribution and sale of this BPI-issued bootleg LP, with less than 250 copies being recovered.

The only real influence it had was that Rough Trade Records, which was in the process of changing from a record distributor into a record producer, was caught distributing bootleg LPs, and was fined £10,000 by the BPI. (Rough Trade was also the main source for punk bootlegs in the US; coincidentally, the availability of punk bootleg vinyl in the US following Operation Moonbeam dropped significantly.) Otherwise, little came from the sting. It was seen as an utter failure by BPI and the British press, Bill Hood resigned in disgrace, and more than 2000 copies of the BPI-pressed bootleg LP remained in distribution.

Today, outside of Japan, the BPI LP is much easier to find than the original Marc LP. It remains famous, however, as the first bootleg produced, distributed, and sold by the recording industry associations which have as a main goal to eliminate the production, distribution, and sales of bootleg releases.

Jean Henri, if you copy info, it's good practice to name the source.

You are right Ruud. Here is the source of the above posted info:

http://musicbrainz.org/release/d70eb141 ... 883df1bbe8

What sleeve came along with the following vinyl pressing of The Wembley Wizard Touches The Dial:

The lp has a white label with the title misspelled as The Wembly Wizard Touches The Dial and the song titles printed in black. The label and the run out groove mention No WWIA and No WWIB.

Did this release have the original B/W insert with the 1974 pic.or the white sleeve with the green sticker including the title printed on it or else?

Is it the original UK pressing or a (foreign) re-pressing?

May be of interest to anyone who doesn't own an original. An exact facsimile of the original BPI bootleg, right down to the wraparound cover, missing 'Stay' listing and scratched matrix annotation (along with venue and spelling mistakes) Appropriately limited to 250 copies.

At only €40 a pop, an ideal purchase to fill that gap. (FYI I'm not the source, or seller)




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