The Poolie Bunker

Thinking about vinyl triggered off a memory about messages scratched in the run out grooves. Some of them funny, some of them obscure.

I have a Joy Division LP with 'The chicken won't stop' and footprints etched in, which apparently is a reference to the suicide of Ian Curtis.

I've got loads with 'Another Porky's Prime Cut' on them, which I think means they all came from the same pressing plant.

A bloke called George Peckham was the top cutter for the metal masters for years, from the 70s right through to the 90s so if he put it on them it went on every copy made even if they were pressed in lots of different plants. A couple of other messages are his as well but I can't remember what they were.

I remember Ian Dury's records were always inscribed in this way.

'There ain't half been some clever b'staads' has 'Haven't There!' inscribed on the run out.

Some run out grooves even played as part of the track. Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned was an example, also the 12" single of Just What I needed by The Cars.

Oh and Cat on the Wall by Squeeze...

The smiths too, none spring to mind however....

Some Smiths ones I remember I particularly remember:


The Impotance of Being Ernest

Romantic and Square is Hip and Aware

Cook Bernard Matthews

Talent Borrows, Genius Steals

And on 'Shoplifters of the Worls' was engraved ' Alf Ramsey's Revenge' a reference to Bobby Moore in Mexico I think.