Lot's of stuff on the Net about 4 Men reissues. The only one I recall off the
top of my head is Dusty in Memphis, which was close to unlistenable. I later
replaced it with, I think, the Chad/Analogue Productions re-do. I'm not
against reissues, but I think you could find a UK pink rim for not a lot of
money. I haven't researched the deadwax for Fairport on Island but
because Island did not do its own pressings, there are sonic differences.
(Look up info on the '1 U', '2 U " vs the 'A' 'B' codes as it relates to
Island pressings - i think the difference is EMI v. Polydor but not sure how it
applies to the FC stuff). I have pink labels and pink rims of many of the
early Island releases. The early pressings sound more organic, but are
often noisier. The surfaces on the pink rims are quieter, but the records
aren't quite as vivid. That said, if you are willing to do the digging, you can
sometimes find pink rims with essentially the same deadwax info (and thus,
using the same metal parts/mastering) as the earlier pink label.
I have several records, including an early 'Free' record where the rim and
the earlier pink label have the same matrix info.
The rims are typically far cheaper than an early pink label and my suspicion
is, will sound much better than some newer reissue with questionable
source provenance.
