Subject:	South African Apple label records
Posted by:	j9th9 on 5/5/08 4:27 PM
According to Tony Bramwell's recent book, Apple records pressed in South Africa are "rarer than hen's teeth". Does anyone know anything about Apple records released in South Africa? Titles of singles? Lps? Quantities of the same? In what years Apple records were printed in South Africa? How can a collector identify an Apple record pressed in South Africa? Thanks!
[Posted by DaveHaber on 5/5/08 8:59 PM] Don't know for sure because I don't own any, but from what I can see of the few pics on the net I could find, South African Apples look just like UK Apples except for the catalogue number, PMCJ instead of PMC for mono and PCSJ instead of PCS for stereo. I did find more about what Tony Bramwell's book, Magical Mystery Tours, said about them. He comments that Apple Records ignored the embargo on trading with South Africa that was in force at that time, due to that country's separatist politics. Bramwell writes that Ron Kass, head of Apple records at the time, went ahead and signed a deal to distribute Apple records there, anyway. Bramwell also said that Apple South Africa was allowed to put local bands on the Apple label. In Bramwell's words, "These South African Apple records are as rare as hen's teeth and very few collectors even know of their existence." Since the Beatles were very big in South Africa and the South African releases closely followed all the UK EMI releases, it's possible it was the "local bands" releases that Mr. Bramwell was referring to as being very rare.
[Posted by namralos on 5/6/08 8:59 AM] All of the regular Beatles releases in South Africa are on the Parlophone label -- even into the solo period. Dave is correct in saying that a "J" was used to indicate LP's from the country: PMCJ for mono and PCSJ for stereo. Parlophone/Apple releases continued to have the PCSJ prefix through the Apple period and beyond. Since Parlophone records were available in South Africa from the early 1960's all the way through the 80's, I don't understand the embargo quote. After all, Parlophone was clearly doing business with South Africa. Eventually, the Apple copyright came through in SA. For example, there is an Apple copy of John's Rock & Roll LP on eil right now. These copies are not rare. However, records by a South African ARTIST on Apple are indeed supposed to be SUPER-rare. I have never seen one. I think the quote about apartheid has been overblown. Perhaps it was created by someone in order to explain the rarity of local Apple records in South Africa. More likely, though, they only produced a few thousand of each. There are plenty of Beatles/Apple releases around the world that are hard to find just because so few were pressed. Case in point: I have been looking for an original copy of the White Album from Nicaragua since 1979 and haven't found one to upgrade the copy I got back then -- almost 30 years ago! Frank Daniels
[Posted by DaveHaber on 5/8/08 8:16 PM] I could only find one example of a South African Apple 45 on the net. If you look at the attached picture, unfortunately you'll see there isn't anything to identify it as being from South Africa except for the catalogue number.     View Attached Image
[Posted by j9th9 on 5/10/08 6:24 AM] Thanks for the photo, Dave! you guys are true Bhds--that's like like a Phd, but for the Beatles instead. The single I'm asking about does not have what appears to be the South African catalogue number, but has some silvery white print on it. I'll upload a photo of it for your review. Watch this space.... (But patiently; i'm slow.)