Record test presses are always a lovely thing to own due to their rarity and place in music history.
Before any new vinyl record goes into production a test press is made to check that the vinyl 'stamper' - that presses down to create a record out of soft vinyl putty - is perfect. Vinyl pressing machines are very rarely (if ever) set up specifically for test presses, instead a few test presses will be tagged onto the end of an existing production run for a completely different record. For this reason test presses are often pressed in a different vinyl colour to the production copies.
The test presses of NAKED's reissue of Stars 'The Five Ghosts' were pressed in the unique colours of black and transparent orange unlike the production records which are transparent black. Only a small number of each colour were pressed (10 black and 6 transparent orange in total).
Both NAKED and Stars are committed to raising awareness of climate change and helping to bring about change. So it seemed an absolute no-brainer for us to donate 3 test presses of The Five Ghosts to the fantastic climate action group MUSIC DECLARES EMERGENCY in Canada to help them raise funds with an auction. Here's where you can place a bid
CLICK HERE TO BID FOR A BLACK TEST PRESSING
CLICK HERE TO BID FOR A TRANSPARENT ORANGE TEST PRESSING
Here's Simon to tell you more about why these test pressings are worth bidding for