Grain Of Sand/ Bleach

12" (red) / test pressing / Mushroom/ Waterfront / DAMP-114 / made in Australia (Festival) / 1991

The red vinyl, white label test pressing contains an etching for the 1991 limited edition 12" of The Saints' Grain Of Sand on one side and side B of Bleach on the other side. The record came in a standard Australian D-shaped plastic inner sleeve and a plain die-cut cardboard sleeve with no handwritten text on neither. Both labels are blank, but upon close inspection they are revealed to be reverse pressed labels of an unknown release.

The lacquers were cut at Festival Studios by Rick O'Neil, as identified by the "®" in the matrix codes [1] and explicitly spelled out in the matrix code on the etching side.

The record came from the collection of Mark, the production manager at Festival Records, who was a fan of The Saints. He said that it was done primarily to test O'Neil's The Saints etching. At first he did not know that it had side B of Bleach. [2] Bleach was then most likely just a random stamper used as two stampers are required for pressing.

If it is the case that it was not related to an official production of Bleach, it can be argued whether or not this should be considered an official Nirvana test pressing. It was made with the actual stamper and in the plant that pressed the album, and it had a purpose even if not related to Nirvana. It was not made just for fun. It is up to each collector to decide whether it is desirable or not.

This record had long been rumoured to exist, but first surfaced publicly in December 2020 when it was sold on eBay by an Australian record store manager. In August 2000 a collector got information from the same record store manager about two or possibly three of these records, one each on red, black, and white vinyl then thought to have been done by pressing plant employees for fun [3]. Conflicting information was given about whether the white or the black record was the other confirmed copy to exist.

The retail release of the 1991 Grain Of Sand 12" on Mushroom Records can be seen on Vicious Sloth Collectables.

Tracklist

Side A
  • Etching only
Side B
  • Negative Creep - 
  • Scoff - 
  • Swap Meet - 
  • Mr. Moustache - 
  • Sifting

Matrix

Side A
MX 79410 ®2A -Double cut and etched by Rick O'Neil Sydney Australia 10/91-
Side B
DMX 71212 ®2C

Copy 1, The Saints etched side
1. Copy 1, The Saints etched side

Copy 1, Nirvana side
2. Copy 1, Nirvana side

Copy 1, The Saints label
3. Copy 1, The Saints label

Copy 1, Nirvana label
4. Copy 1, Nirvana label

Copy 1, matrix codes on side A (partial) and side B
5. Copy 1, matrix codes on side A (partial) and side B

References