I've got both of those Bobcat 12" releases - let me know if you need me to check to confirm anything.Morse wrote: Thu 03 Sep 2026, 7:45 pmdaveid wrote: Thu 03 Sep 2026, 12:14 amMorse wrote: Sat 29 Aug 2026, 9:40 pm
Anyone who owns a copy of the Italian Paninaro 12" can check, too, but if you look at the wax runout on either side it should have "2015626-A 3-11-86 I" and "2015626-F 3-11-86 I" pressed into it. Both lacquers (for my copy at least - I've only ever had one!) were prepared on 3 November 1986, and “I” identifies the first lacquer/cut. EMI Italiana normally used things such as A and B as side/master identifiers rather so you don't interpret F as meaning the sixth pressing, sixth lacquer or such like. The "I" is the part that appears to identify the first lacquer generation.
Anyway, that means we can effectively rule out the often repeated September 1986 date for the release of the Paninaro Italian 12-inch edition. The physical master from which the record was cut didn't exist until 3 November 1986.
To corroborate this, around that time the Italian EMI 12-inch of Duran Duran's Notorious has a catalogue number of 14 2015686 which is only six catalogue increments after Paninaro's (which is 14 2015626). That 12" has an EMI Italiana A-side matrix dated 6-11-86, just three days after Paninaro.
This is excellent DIY research - we can definitely narrow it down to November 1986. Now for an even harder one - the original version of One more chance.
Well, you’re in luck as I own the very first Pet Shop Boys release anywhere which was out on Bobcat. I’ve checked the actual dead wax on my copy and the West End Girls side is etched 4Z9-05019-4. That version contains:
One More Chance, Kordak mix, approximately 3:26
West End Girls, Bobby Orlando version, approximately 7:50
The timings printed on the label are wrong, mind you, which is another known feature of this pressing. There is also another Bobcat configuration using the same catalogue number, (with {-3}/{-5} on the wax runout), which replaces West End Girls with the Bobby O remix of One More Chance. So the -3/-4 pressing appears to be the configuration containing the earliest West End Girls material.
The chronology gets interesting here. The original West End Girls was definitely released in the UK through Epic as A4292 / TA4292 on 9 April 1984. Rhino Records support that. The Quietus also describes the 9 April 1984 release and explains that Epic licensed it on the same 9 April 1984 date for the UK. Rhino has subsequently stated that West End Girls was first released on Bobcat Records in the US on 9 April 1984.
So, unless someone can identify an earlier PSB release on Bobcat, we know 4Z9 05019 is the first ever Pet Shop Boys Bobcat catalogue release.
What I don’t think we can yet prove outright is that the specific 4Z9 05019 first pressing itself was issued on 9 April 1984 on Bobcat. That date is firmly established for the original West End Girls release, particularly the UK Epic issue, but I haven’t yet found a contemporary US Bobcat/CBS release sheet, Billboard listing or Cash Box entry which ties 4Z9 05019 specifically to 9 April 1984.
So as things stand my conclusion would be that 4Z9 05019 is the first Pet Shop Boys release on Bobcat Records, and my copy is the -3/-4 version containing the original Bobby Orlando West End Girls and it came out before One More Chance did in its own right. However, the exact US release date of the Bobcat pressing still needs documentary evidence before we can safely call it 9 April 1984m- although it’s by far the most likely given the evidence.
I found them by pure blind luck in the 80's at a department store in Warwick (yes where PSB played the castle) - known more for vacuum cleaners and clothing than records, but they had a treasure trove in their music department and probably had no idea.
