a short site about The Divine Comedy

French version

Regeneration – Rest of the world

Regeneration

 
As being an international company, EMI has distributed the album Regeneration almost all around the world (the US was a different business though). With the exception of Canada where a specific print was issued, it was often the same print everywhere, very similar to the UK CD release.

The only difference is the CD pressing plant which was not in UK, but in Netherlands. Hence, these releases have around the CD centre either EMI UDEN DCDJ001 @ 1 or EMI UDEN 5317612 @ 1, that’s to say the manufacturing place and either the UK promo catalogue number, or the album catalogue number. Apparently both prints were among the first batch of releases in France. Anyway, the other side (visible) of the disc and the printed artwork are exactly the same to the UK release; and to not bother about it EMI printed the words: “Place of manufacture as stated on label. […] Printed in the EU.” on all back covers.

So, that was the regular album that came in France through Labels (with a specific sticker though), but also in Germany through Capitol Records, or in Italy.
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In Italy, the album comes with a silver sticker, as they usually do over there. Promotion was also done with adverts in magazine and press material was also issued as part of an EMI catalogue/newsletter.
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Other countries where the album was distributed include Holland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa!

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Additionally, let’s note that in Taiwan the album came with an obi strip. It is not to be mistaken with the Japan release though. The obi strip is clearly different with green and white stripes. The lot is sealed within an EMI Taiwan blister. We ignore if this release was the European print repackaged, or if it was manufactured over there.


The cassette


A cassette version of the album was also issued for worldwide distribution, more particularly in Thailand. Little is known about it.
Since it comes within a EMI blister, it is probably genuine. The version from Thailand has a little sticker of which I cannot say what it tells. It has an EMI logo and probably a price. Strangely, it also features an IFPI logo.
The cassette comes within an EMI case, which once again seems to prove it’s genuine. The printed sleeve is exactly the same as the UK version: “printed in EU”.
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The cassette itself it different though. It’s still a transparent case, but with screws. Like the other cassettes from that era, it has a dark background on which is printed information. First, it doesn’t feature the logo “The Divine Comedy Regeneration”, but just the title on the same line. And just below the tracklisting. On the left a small Parlophone logo and a catalogue number, and on the right the side letter plus the mention ‘stereo’.


Promo CD-Rs


Promo CD-Rs of the album were issued by EMI. Those discs are different from the 2 UK promo CDs. It is unsure if those promo were also distributed within the UK; but sure enough they were distributed oversea. So, let’s threat them as worldwide releases.

A first promo was issued in late 2000, early 2001. It was before the album name was announced, hence the TBA. Copies of this one were to be found in Germany for example.

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Then, a second promo was issued. It is very similar, using the same design, but this time it has the album title on it. Copies of this one were to be found in France for example.

Both CD-Rs are from the same manufacturer, which lead the think they were burnt by the same service at EMI.