Over 170 rare items from the likes of Adele and the Sex Pistols are up for grabs next week, as part of the White Label Auction held to raise money for the BRIT Trust.
LPs going under the hammer also include rare pressings from Wet Leg, Muse, Paul Weller, Anne Marie, Charli XCX, Roxy Music, The Who and albums from The Cure, including ‘Disintegration’, ‘Seventeen Seconds’ and ‘Pornography’.
All funds will be directed to the BRIT Trust, which has donated around £28 million since 1989 to help develop new talent in UK music. First started in 2019, The White Label Auction has so far raised £60,000 for the charity.
Items available from other artists includes those from Eric Clapton, Robbie Williams, John Martyn, T-Rex, The Human League, Mark Knopfler, Spice Girls, Tom Speight, Coldplay, Muse and Royal Blood. An extensive list, by all accounts.
Test pressing of Adele’s ’30’. Credit: Press.
Johnny Chandler, A&R director at UMC, Universal Music UK, who devised the concept of the White Label Auction, has said: “Interest in the auction has grown markedly over the past two successful editions, and this year we have even more rare test pressings to tempt bidders, including for the first time 7” singles, which we hope will help us set a new record for the amount we raise in aid of the BRIT Trust.”
“Huge thanks must go to all the artists and artist management teams, the record labels and colleagues who’ve dug deep again this year and donated so generously with highly collectible recordings drawn from all eras and genres of music.”
Dan Hampson, auction manager at Omega Auctions, who are holding the auction, added that “the sale comes along at a perfect time for us” due to the “sustained rise in prices paid for both vinyl and music memorabilia” – indeed, 2022 is an increasingly promising year for vinyl sales, despite having to contend with supply issues.
“The fact that the items come directly from the label, the scarcity of the white labels and also that some of the records are signed has meant that we’ve seen some fantastic prices achieved in 2019 and in 2021 and we certainly expect to see the total raised for charity to be a record this year.”
Test pressing of Sex Pistol’s ‘God Save The Queen’. Credit: Press
And if that’s not enough for you avid collectors out there, John Peel’s estate recently announced it’s also putting up rare items from the DJ’s archive up for auction.
Elsewhere, the Sex Pistols, whose single ‘God Save the Queen’ is part of the White Label Auction, have also released a commemorative coin to mark the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations, adding to a re-releasing of the anti-royalist track. How times change, eh?
