Ramones – the scandinavian pressings part 1

Marky, Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey – and a Volvo PV.

When I started collecting records back in the early 80's I was always looking for the US pressings of the albums. I did not give much for local scandinavian releases, you could find them everywhere.
But Sweden and Norway is a small market and today it's often easier to find a decent copy of the first US press compared with the version pressed in Norway or Sweden.
Another problem is to identify the scandinavian releases. The Ramones records pressed here have almost never any country of manufacture marked on the labels or on the sleeves. This is how you know it is a scandinavian issue:
1. The labels are always marked with n©b, the scandinavian rights society.
2. The sleeves are marked with TEAM TRYKK, a printing plant in Oslo, Norway, or SIB-TRYCK, a printer outside Stockholm in Sweden.
3. The matrix number often ends with 710 which stands for Norway. You can also se the printing year in the matrix number.
4. There is no sign of Warner on the records between 1978 and 1981. The Warner logo and "Distributed by Warner" is deleted from the sleeves (except Road To Ruin).
All albums up until Animal Boy was released in Scandinavia, some of them have a first press on Philips and a second press on Sire. In addition to the albums, two singles was released in Norway. You find everything about them here and here. Most of the records was made in Norway and the first scandinavian release was Leave Home followed by the split LP with Tom Petty. Read more about that one here.

This is the complete list of the scandinavian albums in chronological order. Part 1: 1970–1979

Album: Leave Home

Number: Philips 6370 809

Year: 1977

Country: Norway.

Matrix number, A-side: 6370 809  A 9 P 77 710  B-side: 370 809  A 9 P 77 710
Notes: No barcode, no printed inner sleeve. Sleeve marked with TEAM TRYKK. Re-released in Norway 1978 under Sire as SR 6031.

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Album: Rocket To Russia

Number: Philips 6370 816

Year: 1978

Country: Norway.

Matrix number, A-side: 6370 816  A 4 P 78 710  B-side: 6370 816  B 4 P 78 710
Notes: No barcode, no printed inner sleeve. Sleeve marked with TEAM TRYKK. Re-released in Norway later the same year under Sire as SR 6042.

This is the second press with Sire labels.

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Album: Road To Ruin

Number: Sire SRK 6063

Year: 1978

Country: Norway.

Matrix number, A-side: SRK 6063 A 8 P 78 710  B-side: SRK 6063 B 8 P 78 710
Notes: No barcode, has printed inner sleeve with lyrics marked with the number 6135. Sleeve has the TEAM TRYKK logo. This is the only album that still has the original Warner marking left.

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Album: Ramones

Number: Sire SR 6020

Year: 1978

Country: Norway.

Matrix number, A-side: SR 6020 A 9 P 78 FE 710  B-side: SR 6020 B9 P 78 FE 710
Notes: No barcode, no TEAM TRYKK logo. But it has a printed inner sleeve with lyrics marked with the number 6141 which indicates that this one was released after Road To Ruin. Before 1978 the dutch pressing of the debut album was sold in Scandinavia.

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Album: It's Alive

Number: Sire RAM LIVE

Year: 1979

Country: Norway.

Matrix number: RAM LIVE 1 4 P 79 FE 710 //  RAM LIVE 2 4 P 79 FE 710 // RAM LIVE 3 4 P 79 FE 710 // RAM LIVE 4 4 P 79 FE 710
Notes: No barcode, sleeve marked with TEAM TRYKK. Same sleeve-design as the other european versions.