Hi all.

I am very excited with what I discovered yesterday. And I hope this can be exciting for some of you too. So please write your opinion. I would like to know if after reading this, you checked your records and you also discovered something that you had no idea. Or if you already knew it, please tell me as well.

All starts with a link that Paul Harris shared with us here weeks ago in a previous blog entry. Lost in between many comments, Paul pasted this link:

https://www.townsendmusic.blog/.../could-there-be-a...

Please have a look. It is a very interesting entry about hidden/secret translucent vinyl items done in UK. In that link some photos are showed and some artists mentioned. Check the link!

So I thought, maybe there is any glowing records among all Oldfield vinyls in my collection? I have to admit that to check all my vinyl lps or vinyl maxis would be a pain cos I have them ordered by title, not by country.

So I tried my 7’’ vinyl singles cos it is the only thing I have ordered by country. So I checked, one by one, my more of 90 oldfield UK vinyl singles. And you know what!? I discovered one title with a red/purple translucent effect!!

I have a total of 8 different copies of the UK 7’’ vinyl single Portsmouth catalogue number VS163. Two of them are red/purple translucent: the ones with double virgin logo design!!

Many of you are collectors too. Can I please ask you to go and check your copies of the Portsmouth UK 7’’ vinyl singles and try yourself? You just need to put them in front of a good light on a dark room. Or even easier, use your mobile torch as I am showing in one of the photos to see very clearly the effect!

And I am going to tell you more. It only happens when in the matrix number on the A side you can read the following (or very similar) two “handwritten” things:

VS163A-4OMB

HOVIS-TT

If instead of those “handwritten” things, what you see in the matrix are “machine typed” things like:

VS163 A1

Then your record will NOT be red/purple translucent.

Please try yourself. And remember, as much as I realized yesterday checking my copies, only the ones with HOVIS-TT in the matrix will be translucent.

If you have this UK single, can I please ask you to check, write a comment, add a photo, … showing the translucent effect of your own copy? As I said, it happens only in my copies with double virgin logo on label. If you have a Portsmouth translucent vinyl with a different label design, please share the information too please.

Anyone knows more about this effect? What do you think? Did you know? Is this a surprise to you as it was for me? Maybe it is a cheaper vinyl to produce? Cheaper or not I guess that something extra was done in the record factory as for this effect to appear!?

Don’t know what you think but I am collecting Oldfield records for more than 30 years and I just discovered this yesterday on a single that I probably bought more than 20 years ago! I think this is so nice and I am happy that Mike Oldfield was also included in the list of artists where this hidden/secret thing was applied!

Please comment / discuss / show photos of your own translucent Portsmouths as I am sure many of you own one!