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SOUTH AFRICA

Vertigo in South Africa released quite some of the British albums, often with covers imported from Britain. Most of these are not different enough to warrant inclusion here. South African releases are not always easy to determine. Mostly the country of origin is not mentioned on cover or label. They lay-out of the label is quite characteristic, however (see scan below) while most releases have the ''VO'' prefix from good old times transferred to the new catalogue number. Matrix numbers are machine-stamped. There were some singles too, but none of the ones we have seen was any different to its British counterpart.

unknown cat. nr.
JUICY LUCY - ''same''

Even the South-Africans deemed the original cover too risqué and used a design similar to the Dutch Fontana release.

VO 6360 001
FAIRFIELD PARLOUR - FROM HOME TO HOME (1970)

A strange combination of both catalogue numbering systems was initially used in South Africa, assigning VO 6360 001 to the Fairfield Parlour album

The most striking different release is the following:

VO 6360 011
BLACK SABBATH - PARANOID (1970)


Different South-African cover for 6360 011, with the VO prefix still surviving. The musical contents are identical to the UK issue. Interestingly, the (also different) backcover shows the ''Jim Bear'' credit, that was only used in the UK during a short spell.

VO 6360 013
CLEAR BLUE SKY - PLAY IT LOUD (1971)

As in Germany the original title still adorned the label of the South African release of the Clear Blue Sky album. This was deleted in Britain.

There is also a release of Gravy Train A ballad of a peaceful man, 6360 051, on a blue and silver swirl label. South African people seem to tend to the opinion that this is a reissue from the late seventies (if this is so, then why that record?). It has a single cover, identical to the outside of the British gatefold. This seems doubly strange as there was a 1971 release of that record in South Africa already, as seen below on the left:

Of 6360 050, Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality the label was not inverted as in the UK, but ''normal'' black lettering on a white field. The copy I have seen was housed in an imported UK sleeve.

We have also seen a copy of 6360 093, Magna Carta Lord of the ages, on South African swirl. This was not released like that in the UK. Please refer to the Italy page for details.

Well, why not, an 8-track cartridge from South Africa? Sure, here it is:

Of course there were singles from South Africa too. They had no picture sleeve, as far as we are aware. The label looked like this:

The label has the usual design, but the ''British'' catalogue number is replaced by another and features only in brackets beneath it.

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