Blog - Latest Madonna Collectables, Music & Memorabilia to Surface

Friday the 14th October saw UK Sainsbury's launch a special pre-Christmas promotion of vinyl LPs across 177 of their biggest stores. This was a promo designed to promote the addition of vinyl to the Music and Games area at their Large and Medium stores only.

Some stores already sold vinyl but it was rolled out to incorporate all 177 larger stores. This is designed to promote vinyl sales up to Christmas and New Year when it will apparently be rolled back in all but the very largest stores. Other artists had coloured vinyl pressings including Frankie Goes To Hollywood (white), Michael Buble (silver vinyl), Curtis Mayfield (orange), Jethro Tull (green), The Sun Records (orange). But there are no plans for any more to added and all these will no doubt also be discontinued by Sainsbury's shortly.

As part of the promotion Madonna's True Blue album and Like A Prayer were pressed in coloured vinyl and promoted as "Only Available At Sainsbury's" and "Limited edition blue vinyl" and "Limited edition red vinyl". True Blue naturally came in blue vinyl while Like A Prayer came in Red! This is the first time any official Madonna pressing has come in red vinyl; True Blue however did come with a fold out poster which made it equally collectable. Both albums come with reproduction inner 'dust jackets' which appear almost identical to the originals.

Each Madonna LP came with super cool orange and white rectangular hype sticker promoting them and came factory sealed. These were proported as being limited to 1000 pressings of each but I would suggest that the real figure was most likely double that at about 2000, which is still very few compared to the RSD Like A Virgin’s 11,000 !

Within 19 days of conception, on Tuesday 1st November these were classed as DISCONTINUED and are NO LONGER FOR SALE in Sainsbury's and certainly set to become the most sought after LTD for a decade.

Both pressings came in the same standard sleeves as the black vinyl E.U. manufactured counterparts but had a special Sainsbury's barcoded sticker stuck over the printed barcode on the reverse of the sleeves. This gave both pressings a unique catalogue number only used for this LTD. The sleeves otherwise carried the normal catalogue number on the spine and reverse.

True Blue Blue Vinyl and Like A Prayer Red Vinyl EU-SOLD Pressings

Approximately two months after the UK release, further supplies of both True Blue blue vinyl LP and the Like A Prayer Red vinyl reissue LPs were made available for sale outside of the UK. These were sold in Australia, France, Germany, etc. These did not carry any form of sticker denoting the colour of the vinyl and infact the only way to distinguish sealed copies as coloured vinyl was by the catalogue number sticker on the rear sleeve. FNAC in France did however add a generic FNAC Exclusive sticker to the pressings sold by them. However, initially FNAC sold the same Sainsbury's editions complete with the generic Sainsbury's hype sticker to which they aded their own generic sticker; the pressings with both sets of stickers were only available for a short time and will be the hardest to acquire!

In 2012 and after Madonna had left Warner Bros for Universal, seven of Madonna’s LP’s were repressed and made available for sale once more. As with all Madonna vinyl from 2006 onwards, the newer reissues were manufactured in the EU, in Germany, at the CINRAM record plant which is used by Warner Brothers for pressing their vinyl. (Universal Music however now use the Optimal plant for their pressings and this included the 2016 Rebel Heart LP). The reissues appear identical to the original LP although they all now carry EU manufacture rather than German, and have new catalogue numbers making them very easy to distinguish from the originals.

As far as I am aware Something To Remember (8122-79639-6) was the first LP to be reissued 2012. This was issued on "180 GRAM VINYL" as it’s large gold and white sticker states along with: "THE FANTASTIC 1995 COMPILATION OF MADONNA BALLADS". Unlike the other 2012 EU reissue LPs this was released on Rhino Vinyl which is a subsidiarily of Warner Bros.

Madonna LP followed along with Like A Virgin which came with the rear sleeve the correct way up (which could also be the wrong way up depending how you look at it!) up rather than upside down as was always the case for the German made original sold throughout Europe including the UK. True Blue, Like A Prayer and Erotica were also repressed and none of these five E.U. Made LPs came with any kind of hype sticker sadly.

If you look at the catalogue number (and barcode) of Madonna reissue LP, it ends in "60" and all other subsequent reissues that followed used a similar catalogue number system ending in "59" (LAV) down to "54" (BTS). Of the two-digit numbers at the end of the catalogue "55" has not yet been used and none from "53" downwards which leads me to believe that others will follow and use these spaces.

Bedtime Stories (8122 79735-4) reissue LP was pressed in 2016 was also issued on "180 GRAM VINYL" and comes with square hype sticker on front sleeve: "Includes SECRET TAKE A BOW BEDTIME STORY". The sticker looks similar to the USA version but is different and also includes the E.U. catalogue number.

Interestingly in a Madonna-Geek way, the barcode catalogue numbers for all seven EU LP reissues match the seven 2016 USA reissue LP barcodes! Although the USA pressings have a unique USA-only smaller number displayed on the hype stickers.

I am not aware of an EU made Music reissue LP or Ray Of Light, although i have seen both albums sold as NEW quite recently but I am not sure whether these are old-new stock from 2000 and 2003 (ROL 180g reissue) or brand new? (If you know the answer please let me know.)

Madonna EU 2012 LP Reissues Discography:
• Something To Remember (8122-79639-6)
• Madonna (8122 79736-0)
• Like a Virgin (8122 79735-9)
• True Blue (8122-79735-8)
• Like A Prayer (8122-79735-7)
• Erotica (8122-79735-6)

Madonna EU 2016 LP Reissues Discography:
• Bedtime Stories (0 8122 79735-4 4)
• True Blue Blue vinyl with poster (0 08122 79423-04) UK Sainsbury's
• True Blue Blue vinyl with poster (0 08122 79423-04) Eu & Australia
• Like A Prayer Red vinyl (0 08122 79422-98) UK Sainsburys
• Like A Prayer Red vinyl (0 08122 79422-98) Eu & Australia

Madonna EU 2017 LP Reissues Discography:
• Ray Of Light Blue Vinyl (0 081227 932329) UK Sainsbury's
• Ray Of Light Blue Vinyl (0 081227 932329) Eu & Australia
• Like A Virgin Clear Vinyl (0 081227 932312) UK Sainsbury's
• Like A Virgin Clear Vinyl (0 081227 932312) Eu & Australia

Sainsbury Limited Edition Madonna LPs

In the UK on Friday 14th October 2016 Sainsbury's issued their own pressings for True Blue and Like A Prayer LPs and both were promoted as: "Only Available at Siansbury's" as the special orange and white hype sticker stated, along with: "Limited Edition blue vinyl" for True Blue, whilst Like A Prayer boasted: "Limited Edition red vinyl". These were proported as limited to 1000 pressings but I am not aware of the actual numbers manufactured although it is certainly quite low compared to the Record Store Day vinyl!

Both pressings appear to have been made using the standard packaging otherwise used to house the black vinyl editions and this is evident by the additional 'Sainsbury's-only' catalogue number sticker which is stuck over the printed barcode on the rear of the sleeve covering the normal catalogue numbers although the spine does clearly display them still. I am not sure whether the standard black vinyl True Blue LP comes with poster and if not then the this makes the blue vinyl version even more special.

These both clearly display EU manufacture so would have been made at the usual CINRAM pressing plant in the Germany.

Brief History of Madonna E.U. Made LP Vinyl

The first "EU" manufactured Madonna vinyl LP was made for Confessions On A Dance Floor double LP (pink vinyl) in 2006 and while being pressed in Germany at the CINRAM pressing plant it carried only EU manufacture rather than the usual Made In Germany which was the first time German manufacture had been replaced with EU. CINRAM was the pressing plant favoured by Warner Brothers and where all future (Warner Bros.) LPs and the reissued LP's would be made.

EU-made album vinyl then continued with the super rare Celebration 4x LP followed in 2010. MDNA album in 2012 was the first EU made LP on Universal and now also scarce. This was also manufactured in Germany but at the Optimal pressing plant which is favoured by Universal; this was also the case for the fabulous Rebel Heart LP (0602547211699) which followed some three years later in 2015. In 2012 Warner Bros. reissued six past Madonna LPs, followed by Bedtime Stories LP in 2016, along with the Record Store Day pink vinyl 12" of Like A Virgin.

Confessions On A Dancefloor LP is still readily available on (pink) vinyl and I would expect it is still being pressed, which is certainly not the case for Celebration which is almost impossible to find and has never undergone any kind of reissue with a mint sealed pressing selliing for around £200-£300 right now! MDNA sells for about half of Celebration and has also never been repressed. These two were never pressed in large quantities initially, because of poor vinyl sales, and as a result pressings became super collectable because of their rarity.

Interestingly the EU Rebel Heart LP rear sleeve has always been pressed with incorrect 2015 date which reads: “20015”.

Rebel Heart LP and the RSD Like A Virgin came with a USA counterpart which carried distinctive USA-only catalogue numbers and were obviously manufacture there also so easily distinguishable from the EU made pressings. This is also the case for all 2012 and 2016 LP reissues made in the EU that were also pressed and released in the USA.

NO Music or Ray Of Light EU Reissue Yet!

Neither Music LP or Ray Of Light have yet to have an EU reissue. Music does seem to be readily available factory sealed but at closer inspection it is a German made original pressing. I know for a fact that there is no Music pressing on the Warners database so it may be that those being sold still are from original stocks??

Ray Of Light is interesting in that while there has yet to have been an EU reissue and the last reissue was in 2003, Sainsbury's did indeed commission 3000 Blue Vinyl copies of the LP. These are technically repressing of the 2003 double LP 180g reissue and include German manufacture and original catalogue numbers. The barcode sticker is the only way it's identified as a reissue, other than obviously blue vinyl. It may be that a general reissue will follow for Ray Of Light and Music on black vinyl but as of now this has not happened.

Feel free to let me know if I have missed anything important

I think I can honestly say that Monday 19th was a mad crazy day for me and many other collectors of Madonna music and memorabilia. It started like a normal day and I ventured to Costa to have a latte and work on my laptop, but ended with me barely sleeping with excitement of such a beautiful addition to the my Madonna collection.

Madonna graced the cover of a very special UK publication called LOVE magazine, titled "Madonna By Mert Alas" and was issue 16.5. This was no regular edition of LOVE magazine but a very special and very limited edition featuring Madonna photoshoot as well as a photoshoot by her son Rocco. All pictures were photographed by photography Mert Alas. This was the first photoshoot that Rocco has done and something that certainly excited as many people as it shocked. The superb and totally unique cover featured Madonna sucking her thumb while lying down (in bed).

This on it's own was special but the fact that the magazine came sealed in a myler/foil bag that itself was also printed with the same 'sucking thumb' image taken from the cover of the LOVE magazine inside it, made this publication an instant collectors item. This outer 'foil' packaging is absolutely stunning and manufactured to such a high standard with the back of the foil packing looking as flawless as the front. Even the side edges of the foil outer packaging were beautifully 'pinched' together to form a tight seal which was then sealed right along the botton. I guess it has been done to protect 'minors' and anyone easily offended from the contents inside. inevitably, this instantly added massive appeal to collectors of Madonna..

The magazine, partly funded by Marc Jacobs, was only produced to coincide with London Fashion Week, which ran thought that week, and was never intended for sale outside of the event, or commercially, other than a few select fashion houses in London and a couple globally including Paris in France, Italy and Los Angeles in the USA. Although very limited quantities were shipping outside the UK, and infant only a very limited number of magazines were produced which lead to this becoming the most sought after magazine since the SEX book!

The foil outer packaging didn't even carry a barcode or ISBN number because it was never intended for general sale. initial stocks of the magazine ran out with 48 hours, when more copies of the magazine were bought into circulation from the initial stock that had been held back just in case. By late Thursday these had all ran out and prices steeply rose.