Contract Pressings

HMV/EMI (New Zealand)
EMI (Australia)’s pressing plants served an extensive catalogue that went well beyond the company’s own artists. Until June 1981, EMI also held Australian manufacturing and distribution rights to British Decca, bringing major sellers from two rival British record companies into the same local production operation. Records by The Beatles, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, and The Hollies competed for pressing time with Decca releases by The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and other leading artists. This gave EMI (Australia) a formidable catalogue, but also a substantial workload as new releases and continuing demand for older titles competed for available capacity.

A major new release could monopolise pressing capacity, compromising the manufacture of back-catalogue records that continued to sell in worthwhile quantities. The pressure therefore extended well beyond Beatles records alone. Contracting production to another manufacturer was a practical way to keep stock flowing, and a standard record-industry practice.

Its most prolific source of outside Beatles production was His Master’s Voice (New Zealand), renamed EMI (New Zealand) on 1 May 1972. Between 1966 and 1987, the company’s Lower Hutt pressing plant regularly supplemented Australian vinyl supplies.

The arrangement suited both operations. While EMI (Australia) sometimes struggled to meet demand, the New Zealand factory had more manufacturing capacity than its domestic market could sustain. In an interview for this website, Peter Jamieson recalled encouraging the pursuit of outside pressing work during his time as Managing Director of EMI New Zealand:

"When I was in NZ I encouraged them [EMI NZ] to seek business wherever they could for pressing because we had to keep the factory busy."

That search for business extended beyond Australia. Peter recalled using his UK contacts to arrange for New Zealand-manufactured records to be shipped to the UK for European distributors as parallel exports. This brought him into trouble within EMI, but illustrated the pressure to find work for the plant: “The factory was just too big for the NZ market itself”.

Against that background, Australian contract work offered a practical match between spare capacity on one side of the Tasman and excess demand on the other. For Beatles records, this became particularly important during two periods.

The first came in the late 1960s. Following the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, EMI (Australia) committed much of its available pressing capacity to meeting demand for the album. The arrival of The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request in early 1968 placed further pressure on the plant.

From late 1967 into 1969, HMV (New Zealand) pressed a substantial number of titles for EMI (Australia), including The Beatles’ back catalogue and almost every “best of” compilation then in print—roughly 30 titles, and potentially more. By mid-1969, EMI (Australia) had regained control of its production requirements, and relatively little New Zealand assistance appears to have been needed during the 1970s.

The second major period followed John Lennon’s death in December 1980. The resulting surge in demand for Lennon and Beatles records was so intense that EMI (Australia)’s computer system temporarily broke down under the strain. Even its recently upgraded, fully automated pressing plant could not produce records quickly enough.

From early 1981, EMI (New Zealand) pressed almost the entire Beatles album catalogue, together with many related titles, for the Australian market. Demand had settled by mid-1981, allowing EMI (Australia) to once again meet its requirements internally.

These records were pressed at Lower Hutt using New Zealand stampers and locally printed label stock. The exception was Greatest Hits Volume 1, for which EMI (Australia) supplied mothers. Labels generally followed New Zealand typesetting conventions but carried the appropriate Australian catalogue numbers in place of their New Zealand equivalents.

During the early 1980s, the label typesetting was adjusted to more closely resemble that used by EMI (Australia). At around the same time, Australian matrix numbers replaced the New Zealand matrix numbers printed on the labels, even though the discs continued to be manufactured using New Zealand stampers.

Once pressed, the records were placed in New Zealand-made inner sleeves, packed and shipped to EMI (Australia). They were then inserted into Australian-made outer sleeves and distributed for sale. With familiar Australian covers on the shelves, buyers could easily remain unaware that the records inside had been manufactured overseas.

Contract pressings from the 1960s specifically state that they were manufactured for EMI (Australia), whereas those produced during the 1980s generally state only that they were made in New Zealand. The earlier pressings are considerably rarer than their 1980s counterparts.

Festival Records and the Australian Record Company
EMI (Australia) also sought assistance from other Australian manufacturers. During the 1960s, the enormous popularity of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones placed its presses under heavy strain, even before the company’s many other local and international artists were taken into account.

When demand exceeded available pressing capacity, some work was contracted to Festival Records and the Australian Record Company, commonly known as ARC. Notable Beatles examples include Festival pressings of ‘I Feel Fine’/‘She’s A Woman’ and ARC pressings of ‘Lady Madonna’/‘The Inner Light’, illustrated on their respective singles pages.

CBS Records and Astor Records
By December 1980, only five major record companies in Australia still operated their own pressing plants: Astor Records, CBS Records Australia, EMI (Australia), Festival Records and 7 Records. The latter became Powderworks in September 1981 following a management buy-out led by Ken Harding. RCA Australia had abruptly closed its plant in November 1980, transferring approximately 90 per cent of its pressing requirements to EMI (Australia).

This additional workload was compounded by the surge in Beatles and Lennon sales described above. Although most of the extra demand was met by EMI (New Zealand), EMI (Australia) also contracted work to CBS Records in Sydney and Astor Records in Melbourne.

During the first half of 1981, these companies pressed a range of Beatles LPs: Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Rarities (UK) and The Beatles Ballads. CBS also pressed copies of A Collection of Beatles Oldies.

CBS pressings can be identified by the plant’s distinctive 70 mm diameter pressing ring. This is considerably larger than the ring found on standard EMI (Australia) pressings, which averages approximately 33 mm. Astor pressings feature a 38 mm diameter ring with a distinctive 3 mm-wide indentation. Examples of CBS Records and Astor Records pressings, showing their respective pressing ring characteristics, appear below.

The number of copies manufactured for each title remains unknown, but the domestic arrangement appears to have been brief, ending by mid-1981. Astor closed its pressing plant that December, while New Zealand production for the Australian market continued into 1982.

These records were manufactured to keep stock in the shops, not to create collectible variations. Today, their distinctive features reveal how EMI (Australia) drew upon other factories to keep Beatles records available when its own presses could not keep pace.